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News-Archive 2010 of the EPD Tour

Here you can find some relevant news of the current EPD Tour season. If you should require any additional information please contact press@epdtour.de.

Platzhalter

12.05.2010 09:00

RC Deutschland and hhp new EPD Tour sponsors

The application to hold the Ryder Cup 2018 in Germany is constantly picking up speed: RC Deutschland GmbH is also committing itself as a sponsor of the EPD Tour with immediate effect and thus supporting up-and-coming golf professionals in Europe. As if that is not enough though: the EPD Tour is presenting another new partner with hhp, a manufacturer of revolutionary medical massage tables.

by Matthias Lettenbichler

Munich/Germany – “The EPD Tour, as one of the four satellite tours, is an immensely important part of players’ promotion in Europe. Top sport cannot exist without sponsoring companies and sustainably supported players. This is why we are committing ourselves as a sponsor of the EPD Tour with immediate effect.” By supporting the EDP Tour Florian Bruhns, Managing Director of RC Deutschland GmbH, wants to send out a signal in terms of sustainable sport promotion in golf.

It would be of incredible importance to offer young golf professionals an attractive and permanent platform for sporting competition, especially regarding projects like the Olympics 2016 and the Ryder Cup 2018, possibly even in their own country, he said.

Bruhns knows from his own experience how important tournament practice is for young talent: as an amateur he also once belonged to the German Golf Association’s top squad.

RC Deutschland GmbH’s management will also carry the EPD Tour commitment through to the Ryder Cup application. Bruhns: “The EPD Tour sponsoring is an official component of our application” (www.rcdeutschland.de).

Playground for young talents

For Rainer Goldrian, Managing Director of both the EPD Tour and the PGA of Germany, the commitment of RC Deutschland confirms the huge importance of the EPD Tour for golf sport and especially for young talented golfers in Germany. “It is RC Deutschland GmbH’s aim that the best players in the world compete at golf’s most important team competition in Germany in 2018. It is therefore only logical that RC Deutschland GmbH also supports the tour which guarantees professional young golfers match practice and where with Martin Kaymer, a man has played in the 2006 season who could very probably be part of the 2018 Ryder Cup team.”

home health products GmbH from Karlsruhe, the second new EPD Tour partner, wants to contribute to the EPD Tour players always being able to appear at tournaments in peak physical condition: the hhp medical massage tables are being presented at all German tournaments in 2010. They will be available to the players and also to ProAm participants and to interested tournament visitors. The table alleviates and cures tense muscles, knots and backache using vibration massage and infrared deep heat, a so-called andullation therapy system.

“It is particularly important for professional sportspeople to be fit at the right time and to not start with hard tense muscles”, says Dr. Roland Stutz, Graduate Sports Scientist and co-developer of hhp’s andullation therapy system. “We are very proud to now be the official health sponsor of the EPD Tour and be able to support Europe’s professional young talent right from the start.”

The German Ski Association also uses the hhp massage tables, the German Olympic Sports Federation has already awarded it with its seal of quality (www.hhp.de).

EPD Tour players and visitors can use and test the device for the first time from 16th to 19th May at the Heidelberg Lobenfeld Classic, the German start of the 2010 EPD Tour.

28.04.2010 14:15

European-Tour-Champion tees off in Marrakesch

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After the successful start of the season in Turkey, the EPD Tour is continuing its 2010 Winter Series starting in Morocco. The players will be pursuing prize money at three further tournaments around Marrakech. Among others, two-time European Tour winner Raphaël Jacquelin from France has also registered.  

By Matthias Lettenbichler

Marrakech ― A two-part Winter Series featuring a total of 20 tournaments in four countries is the prelude to the overall season. The EPD Tour is presenting a comprehensive tournament plan and a novelty at the beginning of the 2010 season: For the first time the Winter Series encompasses seven tournaments in two countries at the start of the new season. Each tournament includes 30,000 euros in prize money. After the successful start of the season with four events in Belek (Turkey) in the past three weeks, the second part of the Winter Series is now on the agenda with three more tournaments in Morocco between 23 February and 6 March. The EPD Tour professionals will be playing around Marrakech for another 90,000 euros in prize money and also for the same amount of points for the EPD Tour Order of Merit.

The Al Maaden Classic from 23 to 25 February on the new Al Maaden Golf Course – at the resort of the same name – near Marrakech constitutes the prelude of the tournament trilogy in Morocco. The golf action features a par 72 course which the EPD Tour tournament will open. “A quite new, very openly designed golf course against the backdrop of the Atlas Mountains”, say tournament director Kariem Baraka. “Rectangular water obstacles, rectangular greens and rectangular bunkers are a special feature here. I am eager to see how the pros cope with this.” In addition to 95 members of the EPD Tour, among them also several professionals with the right to play on the 2010 Challenge Tour, 25 players from Morocco will start at the tournament.

Round 1 of the Samanah Classic is scheduled for 28 February. This tournament will also be staged over three rounds and 54 holes until 2 March. The venue is already well-known to some players on the EPD Tour. The Samanah Masters, the Grand Final of all four satellite tours, was held in the beginning of December 2009 on the Samanah Country Club’s par 72 course. Lee Corfield may have the best memory of the course: At that time, the Englishman ended the tournament in 7th place as best player of the EPD Tour; he played a 5 under par total in three rounds.

The competition is extremely strong at this 6th tournament of the 2010 Winter Series, because in addition to the established players of the EPD Tour and a succession of Challenge Tour players, the two-time European Tour champion – Frenchman Raphaël Jacquelin has also registered. Jacquelin won the Madrid Open in 2005 and the BMW Asian Open in 2007. He ended the 2009 European Tour season in 37th place on the ranking list while earning over 800,000 euros. At The Barclays Scottish Open he only had to admit defeat at the hands of Martin Kaymer. This is why the 35 year-old pro is regarded as the top favourite at the Samanah Classic, his first start on the EPD Tour.

The Amelkis Classic from 4 to 6 March ultimately marks the end of the 2010 Winter Series. The Amelkis Golf Club features a traditional course with 9 new and 18 older holes which were designed by Cabell Robinson in 1995. The Moroccan Open was held here in 2000. At that time, the Englishman Jamie Spence won the European Tour tournament with 22 under par, while Augsburg resident Thomas Gögele – in the meantime a qualified PGA professional golf instructor – finished 40th.

The 2010 Amelkis Classic will likely be held on the 9 new holes and holes 10 to 18 of the old course. These holes are tree-lined and require accurate precision especially from the

16.03.2010 12:00

Belek: Start to finish victory for Björn Pettersson

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The 33-year-old from Sala in Sweden celebrated his first tournament win on the RENAULT EPD Tour at the Sueno Pines Classic in Belek, Turkey, and relegated German Daniel Wünsche to 2nd place  

By Matthias Lettenbichler

Belek/Turkey (mat) – “It was a little bit chilly indeed“, Björn Pettersson said after climbing back to the shoreline of the lake at the 18th hole of the Sueno Golf Resort in Belek/Turkey. “But that was well worth it!” His colleagues of the RENAULT EPD Tour had given him a free flight into the water – a tradition since many years – but tournament winner Björn Pettersson, a 33 year old Swede, felt pretty refreshed but definitely very happy after the swim.

It was an impressive start to finish victory which he managed at the Sueno Pines Classic, the second tournament of the 2010 RENAULT EPD Tour: with rounds of 68, 72 and 71 strokes, a total of 5 under par, the Swede took the reins from the very beginning on the Pines Course of the Sueno Golf Hotels at Belek in Turkey.

On the first day he managed seven birdies with three bogeys on the par 72 course, and the 68 strokes were the best result of the starting round. Only the Finn Janne Martikainen played just as well. Yet while he had to note down a 79 on his scorecard on the second day, Pettersson followed up with a solid par and defended the top position on the leader board.

“I played very consistently. A better result would have been possible in the second round, but overall I am satisfied with my performance”, said the winner from Sala, a small town an hour’s drive north of Stockholm. In the final round he hit every green, compiled good birdie opportunities despite challenging flag positions, and took advantage of three of them – with two bogeys.



With 71 strokes the experienced player clinched the triumph in superior style and relegated the German Daniel Wünsche – who had won the season prelude at the Sueno Dunes Classic last week – to second place (73, 71, 70/-2). Third place (each with 1 under par) was shared by Dutchman Richard Kind (69, 73, 73) and Maximilian Glauert (74, 67, 74) from Germany; Glauert managed the best round of the tournament with the 67 on the second day.

“The tour is outstandingly organised”

“I am very happy that I can prepare myself for the season during the Winter Series of the RENAULT EPD Tour”, says Pettersson, who has been playing on the Challenge Tour for many years. “The tour is outstandingly organised.” Everything went well up until the obligatory bath in the pond on the 18th green, where his fellow players carried the winner after the victory ceremony. “That was somewhat cold, but one gladly accepts that”, says Pettersson after he swam puffing to the shoreline.

The Winter Series in Belek, which is supported by the “golf.extra” travel organisation from Heilbronn (Germany), features five players from Sweden at the start as well as professionals from 14 other nations.

Two of seven tournaments of the RENAULT EPD Tour 2010 Winter Series have been played. After his triumph in the previous week and second place at the Sueno Pines Classic, Daniel Wünsche has extended his lead in the ranking list. With 7,589 points he is 1,317 ahead of Pettersson (6,272 points).

The Montgomerie Classic, in which both frontrunners will again be featured at the start, starts this Thursday. Once again the tournament features 30,000 euros in prize money. Photos: EPD Tour

16.02.2010 18:15

7 events: 2010 Winter Series extended to Morocco

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After 4 events in Belek/Turkey the RENAULT EPD Tour offers a Series of three tournaments in Marrakech/Morocco / 2010 schedule offers 20 tournaments

by Matthias Lettenbichler

Munich / Marrakech (Morocco) – A total of 20 tournaments in four different countries, a Winter Series that includes seven events alltogether, four of them in Turkey and three in Morocco: At the start of the 2010 season the RENAULT EPD Tour presents an impressive schedule and for the first time in its history a second part of the Winter Series, three additional tournaments that take part in Marrakesh/Morocco. Every tournament of the Winter Series events offers a prize-money of 30,000 euro.

The Winter Series in Belek and its four events between January 26 and February 11 is the kick-off of the 2010 season – but all tournaments in Belek are fully booked. But after a short break of just a few days the 2nd part of the Winter Series starts on the 26th of February in Marrakesh / Morocco.

Three more tournaments offer the members of the RENAULT EPD Tour a perfect start into the 2010 season. Samanah Classic (23rd to 25th of Februar), Al Maaden Classic (28th of Februar to 2nd of March) and Amelkis Classic (4th to 6th of March) can be booked now. Travel-partner of the Winter Series is the golf.executive.travel GmbH based in Heilbronn, Germany, Poolpartner of the PGA of Germany. 


Morocco is the second host country of the RENAULT EPD Tour Winter Series. It already proved its superb quality by the end of the 2009 season, when the Samanah Masters was played at the Samanah Country Club, the Grand Final of all the four European Satellite Tours. Lee Corfield was the best player of the RENAULT EPD Tour at this event, he finished tied 7th and will be looking forward to go back to Samanah in February.