The flagship event of this year’s PGA tournament programme – the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship – will be staged at The Oxfordshire Golf Club for the first time. The Club, located just off M40 near Thame, is currently having a 50 bedroom four-star hotel built on site and will play host to the UK and Ireland’s best PGA professionals as they contest the coveted title 10 – 13 August.
The defending Glenmuir champion will be Caerphilly’s James Lee and more than 650 pros will be striving to join him in the £78,000 final, via eight regional qualifiers along the way.
The Oxfordshire will also double up for the PGA South Region qualifier with the other qualifying venues at Abridge Golf Club, (East) The Heritage, (Ireland), Hesketh (North West), Scotscraig (Scotland), Moortown (North East) Little Aston (Midlands) and Saunton’s East Course (West).
Colin Mee, managing director of Glenmuir, who are sponsoring the event for a record 18th year, said: “The Oxfordshire is a fabulous venue for the final and we’re looking forward to working closely with the PGA to make this year’s championship the best ever. With an equally impressive list of qualifying venues I’m confident the professionals will respond by taking part and creating a truly memorable championship.”
PGA chief executive Sandy Jones added: “The Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship is one of the highlights of the year for our members and it has been our policy in this event for many years now to play on genuine championship golf courses and The Oxfordshire will without doubt provide a superb test to determine the champion golfer for 2010.”
The Oxfordshire, owned by Leaderboard Golf, has the distinction of being the first UK design of the renowned architect Rees Jones who carved out a challenging and testing 7,200-long course, with more than 100 bunkers and four man-made lakes.
Its signature hole is the par five 17th, a right to left dogleg with water lurking all the way down the left hand side of the fairway.
Tim Pettifer, general manager of The Oxfordshire, is looking forward to staging the Glenmuir final which he said caps an exciting year for the club. “Leaderboard Golf is synonymous with the best names in golf and so we are delighted to add Glenmuir to that list by staging the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship,” he said. “In particular, with The Oxfordshire being chosen for August 2010, shortly after the opening of our new 50-bedroom four star hotel and spa, the timing could not be better.”
The Oxfordshire Golf Club www.theoxfordshiregolfclub.com
PGA www.pga.info
Glenmuir www.glenmuir.com