Volvo golf offers record $$

WENTWORTH: Prize money for this year’s Volvo PGA championship will total a record 3.5 million euros (US $3.86 million), making it the third richest event on European soil, the European Tour announced yesterday.

The British Open, with a prize fund of 5.478 million euros, and the Dunhill Links Championship, with a fund of 4.528 million euros, are the only tournaments in Europe which will offer more money for the players this season. The Volvo PGA championship, scheduled to take place at Wentworth Club from May 22 to 25, is the flagship event on the European Tour and will benefit this year from an increase of 327,720 euros over the 2002 prize fund. “This is another significant chapter in the tour’s special relationship with Volvo,” European Tour executive director Ken Schofield said in a statement.

“The extension of the contract with Volvo through to the 50th playing of this great championship in 2004, with a prize fund worth 3,500,000 euros for 2003, will further enhance the status of the championship as the tour’s flagship event.” Denmark’s Anders Hansen won last year’s Volvo PGA championship by five strokes, closing with a two-under-par 70 in spite of torrential showers to clinch his debut victory in the professional ranks. All four majors and the four annual World Golf Championship events appear on both the European and US Tour schedules.