Ryder Cup Captain and 31-time European Tour event winner Colin Montgomerie will head the field at this weekend’s Sicilian Open being held at the Gary Player designed Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa. This is the first event of the 2011 European PGA season to be held on European soil and the first major tournament to be played at Donnafugata.
“This is fantastic for Donnafugata and for the growth of Italian golf. The Italians are playing so well right now and I expect that we will see the Molinari brothers and Matteo Manassero winning regularly in the coming years. ” said Gary Player.
With both Francesco (#17) and Edoardo Molinari (#25) currently residing in the world’s top 25 rankings and youngster Matteo Manassero looking more like a 10-year tour veteran than a 17-year old rookie, Italian professional golf is definitely on the rise.
While the Cadillac Championship being held at Doral in Miami, Florida has drawn many of the world’s top golfers the field for the Sicilian Open is strong. European Tour winners SSP Chowrasia (recent winner of the Avantha Masters), Nick Dougherty, Thongchai Jaidee and Jeev Milkha Singh are among the favorites and this weekend marks the return of rising Irish star Shane Lowery from a wrist injury suffered last December.
Constantino Rocca, Italy’s most successful golfer, has also joined the field. Although he spends most of his time on the European Senior Tour he felt that playing in the Sicilian Open is important for Italian Golf.
“It is very important for golf in Italy that we have another tournament as well as the BMW Italian Open. Sicily is an important region for the development of golf in our country and this tournament comes at the right time. In Sicily you can play golf 12 months a year and we need to promote the region and let people know that.” he said.
Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa features a 5-star hotel and two 18-hole golf courses and is situated amongst the beautiful beaches of Marina di Ragusa, Punta Secca and Camarina. Several nearby towns, Ragusa, Modica, Ibla, Noto and Scicli, form part of a UNESCO World Heritage site that preserves many remains of the Sicilian Baroque style in a unique atmosphere.
For more information about Donnafugata Resort and Spa please visit www.donnafugatagolfresort.com.
About Gary Player Design
Widely recognized as the world’s most successful golf course architectural firm, the Gary Player Design firm established by Marc Player in 1983 today boasts over 325 championship courses spanning the globe. With an ever-increasing number of courses stretching across five continents and encompassing more than 35 countries, the firm is renowned for its select and ecological approach to design. Using natural lakes, marshes and sand dunes Player creates a golfing experience with visual beauty and challenging tests of strategy.
Magazines such as Golf Asia, Travel & Leisure, Golf Digest, Golf Week, Golf World Worldwide Golf, and The Complete Golfer have consistently listed Gary Player courses among the top places to play. Travel & Leisure Golf named Leopard Creek in South Africa one of the top ten Best International Courses; Geneva National was referred to by Golf Week as the best course you can play in America; and Golf, Inc. named Blacksearama in Bulgaria the 2010 International Development of the Year. These awards and accolades are numerous, and for good reason. Gary Player Design doesn’t simply design the course and walk away; they also provide the consulting services that will guide a newly established project through the implementation steps necessary to ensure success. The results are premier golf courses & resorts that provide golfers with a unique style of luxury, the challenge of risk versus reward, and a truly memorable experience.
Although Player’s golfing expertise influences every project, Gary Player Design offers three tiers of golf course design service Black Knight Design™, Player Design™, and Gary Player Signature Design™. On Signature Design projects, Mr. Player is involved in every phase of design and development. With over 50 years of professional golf experience, Player, The World’s Most Traveled Athlete™ has visited and studied most of the great golf courses of the world so he understands that the design of a course takes both vision and sensitivity to the topography. His design philosophy, and also that of The Player Group, is to create challenging courses that enhance the existing resources and retain the natural beauty of the land.
Gary Player, often referred to as the Black Knight, is one of the century’s greatest golfers and one of the original inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He is one of only five golfers to ever win the Grand Slam on the PGA Tour and the only golfer to win the Grand Slam on both the regular and Champions Tour. Over the course of his career, Player participated in 438 Tour events, placed in the top 25 in 281 of them, and won 165 worldwide tournaments. Player, whose career earnings exceed $15 million, is a legend in his own time. Currently serving as The Global Ambassador to the World Golf Hall of Fame, he has been a three-time President’s Cup Captain and is ranked by Golf digest as one of the top ten all-time golf greats.
For further information on Gary Player Design, Player Real Estate or Black Knight International, visit www.garyplayerdesign.com or contact Scott Ferrell at + 1-863-477-2720.
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