Volvo Match Play Championship gathers the strongest field of its history
Scheduled next week, the 46th Volvo Match Play Championship at Finca Cortesín, Spain, has attracted the most high profile field of its history, which includes all the current four major winners.
The tournament is set to begin on May 19th and three more players confirmed of their participation in €3.4-million event. Louis Oosthuizen, Aaron Baddeley and Seung-yul Noh are the most recent players who announced their participation in the tournament.
Apart from the four major champions among the 24-man field of the event, six are the leading players in the world and participation of top three players in the World Golf Rankings is unprecedented in Spain. The event would bring no less than 14 nationalities
from across the globe to a single platform and is poised to be blend of professional skills of different regions of the world competing for the top slot.
Oosthuizen was extended an invitation by the tournament committee and with his presence, the quartet of the four major winners is completed. Oosthuizen won the 2010 Open Championship, Graeme McDowell is the defending champion of US Open, Martin Kaymer the
defending champion of PGA Championship and Charl Schwartzel, who recently won the Masters last month.
“I am very grateful to Volvo for offering me this invitation – with such an elite field I know there were any number of great candidates who were hoping they would get the call up. I hope I can make the most of the opportunity,” said Oosthuizen.
Baddeley, winner of three PGA Sanctioned tour events, said that it was an honour for him to be playing with such a high profile field. Baddeley also hoped to improve his rankings in the OWGR as he is currently ranked just outside the Top 50 and a good finish
will give his position a much wanted boost.
Noh is the youngest of the 24-man field and was more than happy to be a part of the field at Volvo Match Play event. Noh won the 2010 Maybank Malaysian Open at the age of 18 and has become a teenage sensation in his home country.
Officials from all concerning institutions were present at the ceremony, including the President Volvo Event Management, Managing Director of Finca Cortesin and Managing Director of IMG Golf.
Per Ericsson, President of the Volvo Event Management said, “We are delighted with the quality of our final field. We developed the qualification criteria with the ambition to gather a truly world class international field and with all the current Major
winners, six of the World’s top seven ranked players and 14 nationalities represented we feel we have achieved just that.”
The players will be divided into eight groups of three players each, with the first two rounds being played on Thursday and Friday followed by the semi final and final on proceeding days.
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