The last time the British Masters was held at Woburn in 2002, the championship was one of six European Tour events staged on English soil that year.
It was a green and pleasant golfing land but it slowly became as barren as the Serengeti in the height of the dry season as tournaments dwindled and the country was left with just the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. The resurrection of the £3 million British Masters, which will return to Woburn in October after dropping off the schedule in 2008, is something of a green shoot of recovery for top-level tournament golf south of the border and player power is aiding the regrowth.
Along with presenting sponsors, Sky Sports, four leading Englishmen, namely Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood, will take it in turn to host the event and help select the venue each year. Poulter will be mine host at Woburn, a place he has a long association with and the course on which he was pipped to the British Masters title by Rose 13 years ago.
"British golf has been in a good place for a number of years now with the success we have had internationally, and as players we have all been keen to get more tournaments on British soil, and in England in particular," said Poulter.
This latest announcement continues the trend of tour players doing their bit to promote and bolster the game in their native lands. Paul Lawrie, with the kind of philanthropy that would have made Andrew Carnegie look cheap, continues to plough resources into golf in the north east of Scotland through his own Foundation and his alliance with Saltire Energy has led to a new matchplay event coming on to the European Tour programme this summer at Murcar. Rory McIlroy, the world no 1, has also increased his commitment and influence on the circuit that started him on the path to global greatness by agreeing to host this year's Irish Open at Royal County Down.
"Having four of our top players and leading ambassadors - Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood - take on the role of tournament host will also help raise the profile of the British Masters on its return to our calendar, and underlines the appetite among our membership for tournament golf in Britain," added George O'Grady, the chief executive of the European Tour. "I am sure these players, and this tournament, will help inspire a new generation of fans to engage with golf and take up the game in Britain. It also further highlights the increased contribution our players are prepared to offer our events."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article