Write to the editor

As someone living and working in the professional golf and events industry here in the Middle East, am I alone in being perplexed at the ambiguity and uncertainty concerning the fate of the Volvo Golf Champions tournament?

If assertions emanating from Sweden are to be believed and the ‘Tournament of Champions’ is to start the new year in style, according to Volvo golf supremo Per Ericsson: ‘with all the champions from last year participating’, why the delay?

Many of the Tour’s flagship events are already confirmed for next year, some beyond?

When the European Tour announced the first five months of its 2014 international schedule the Volvo Golf Champions was allocated a date, January 9-12, 2014. But it sits alone in splendid isolation, the only one of the 16 events announced without either a designated venue or confirmed prize fund.

Following its debut in Bahrain in 2011, Volvo beat a hasty retreat, tail between its legs, as accurately reflected in your newspaper. It was moved for the following two years to South Africa and the rumour mill is now predicting Oman as the next stopover in what has become, by accident or design, a nomadic, and seemingly, unloved event.

But if Oman - which hosts a $300,000 European Challenge Tour event next month - is indeed the destination, why, with just weeks to go, has a venue and prize fund not been announced?

It’s all the more curious in light of Volvo’s recent announcement of the date and venue for its 2014 Volvo China Open next May.

The Volvo Golf Champions appears, against most of the key performance indicators we all stand or fall by, to have already missed the bus, and, assuming the event is not to return to South Africa in January, the luxury of attracting the vacationing Ernie Els, Branden Grace, Retief Goosen and 2013 Volvo Golf Champions winner Louis Oosthuizen is likely to be lost.

And, presuming that much-vaunted ‘Playing with the Pros’ opportunity afforded to Volvo’s amateur golfers from all around the world is again to be tied to the Volvo Golf Champions, might they not be forgiven for wondering exactly where in the world their ‘sporting experience of a lifetime’, is going to happen?

If indeed Oman is to stage the 2014 edition of the Volvo Golf Champions, and if the Sultanate and the wider Gulf region, not to mention golf in the Middle East are to avoid being snubbed like Bahrain, pressure must surely be brought to bear to confirm the event and confirm it fast.

Talk is cheap, such as Ericsson’s comments that ‘no-one should doubt the respect we have for Bahrain’ but actions speak far louder than words. If the credibility of the game of golf I care so passionately about in a region I now call home are to remain intact, the time for acting, as opposed to talking, is surely long overdue.

Name & address supplied.

Editor’s note: According to the event’s website The Volvo Golf Champions will take place in January 2014 - the venue and exact dates will be announced shortly.
 
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The link is https://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/JUSTICE_FOR_ADAM/

Rebecca Jones, Bahrain.

With reference to the ‘Gadgets of the Week’ feature in the last edition of GulfWeekly, the retail price of the Bose SoundLink Mini Bluetooth Speaker was incorrect. It is in fact BD99.

Dileep S, marketing manager, Ashrafs.