The Ladies and Legends Professional Golf Tour has announced arivia.kom as the 2004 title sponsor of its tour. The sponsorship is worth an estimated R500 000.
At the announcement made last night at the Festival of Golf in Sandton, Ladies and Legends tour spokesman Richard Lyon released the seven-tournament schedule that covers three countries and runs from later this month to November. The tour pits SA`s senior professional golfers against their younger female counterparts.
Arivia.kom executive: market development Leon Deist says: "The Ladies and Legends tour meets our corporate social investment (CSI) sport development objectives, and completes our portfolio of sponsored sport initiatives for the current financial year. The tour furthers transformation in sport through the inclusion and development of previously disadvantaged players in the game. Golf - and especially women`s golf - is the fastest growing sport in the country. We intend to be part of that growth and empowerment process.
"Sport is an ideal medium to draw people together and golf in particular provides a suitable platform for networking in business. The arivia.kom CSI programme focuses on youth, equity and gender development in select initiatives which the company sponsors, and we concluded that Ladies and Legends would be a suitable sponsorship vehicle, particularly since it provides an opportunity for amateurs to play with and learn from professionals.
"One of the sportswomen who is sponsored by arivia.kom is Natou Soro, a promising black golfer hailing from the Ivory Coast and now resident in SA. We would like to see more women like Natou break the cultural barriers that exist for women in golf in this country, and have the opportunity to compete at a national level," says Deist.
The tour kicks off with the R100 000 Pro Shop Players Championship in Swaziland from 20 to 23 May, and goes through to the Tour Championship, featuring the top 30 professionals on the season-long Order of Merit, at Orkney Golf Club in November. The arivia.kom Classic will be held in August.
Among the entries for the Swazi championship are Simon Hobday, a US Senior Open champion; Caryn Louw, last year`s Order of Merit winner; Solly Sepeng; Muss Gammon; John Mashego and the Van Biljon brothers, Paul and Gert.
Lyon says: "The Ladies and Legends has grown every year since its inception in 2002, and although the 2004 season has not yet started, plans are well advanced for an even bigger tour, and international involvement, in 2005."
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