ITS OFF – OFFICIAL!

THE Volvo Golf Champions tournament will not take place at Bahrain’s Royal Golf Club in 2012, as GulfWeekly exclusively revealed in June despite club officials dismissing our front page article as ‘speculation’.

The inaugural tournament was staged in January and attracted a star-studded field that included course designer Colin Montgomerie, Open champion Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and eventual winner Paul Casey.

As reported in GulfWeekly, the organisers were later concerned about the unrest and the backlash from the international media and protest groups when the F1 was rescheduled for this season before being cancelled.

Instead of opening the European Tour in 2012, Bahrain will only be placed on a ‘roster of venues’ for future tournaments.

The decision was taken after ‘extensive and thorough consideration and discussion’ between Volvo, IMG, the European Tour, player representatives, the Government of Bahrain and the Royal Golf Club, a statement said.

In making the decision, Volvo and IMG say they ‘recognised the efforts’ being made by the Government of Bahrain to return long-term stability to the kingdom following the unrest earlier this year. However, with work still ongoing to resolve issues in Bahrain and the need to confirm the venue, the ‘difficult decision’ to postpone the event for 2012 was taken.

The inaugural Volvo Golf Champions in January was described as a resounding success which attracted many of the world’s best players.

But Volvo and IMG have now decided that the Volvo Golf Champions will rotate between a ‘very few select world-class venues’ – including The Royal Golf Club – with the other venues to be announced in the future.

GulfWeekly has already reported that the Gardener Ross Golf Club in South Africa has been provisionally booked to stage the event in 2012.

Per Ericsson, president, Volvo Event Management, Golf, who earlier this year publically stated that Bahrain would kick off next year’ s European Tour, said: “We have heeded corporate advice in making this decision. We do not feel Bahrain can host a tournament of this magnitude while the international perception of Bahrain is as it is.”

He added that it was with ‘genuine regret’ the decision was made and that ‘no one should doubt the respect we have for Bahrain’.

Shaikh Mohammed bin Essa Al Khalifa, chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board said: “Bahrain is making significant strides in resolving issues that emerged in February and March, but we respect that a decision needed to be made now regarding the venue for next year’s event.

“The Volvo Golf Champions tournament in January was an unqualified success and we look forward to welcoming the European Tour back to Bahrain in the near future. We are grateful for Volvo and IMG’s continued support.”

“Guy Kinnings, global managing director of IMG Golf, added: “While we have yet to confirm the destination for the 2012 Volvo Golf Champions it will certainly be outside the Middle East as Bahrain is intended to be the home of the Volvo Golf Champions in that region.”

The Royal Golf Club is said to be ‘unhappy’ with GulfWeekly reporting the truth and as a result its professional Chris Kelby is no longer able to write his regular column for this newspaper and pressure has been put on a young Awali Club professional not to replace him because he is currently using the course during the summer.

Susan Stevenson, RGC general manager, said: “It was fantastic for the club and Bahrain to host an international golf championship and we look forward to working with Volvo and IMG to ensure that the tournament returns to Bahrain as soon as possible.”