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Volvo’s troubled Golf Champions event, first staged in Bahrain in 2011, looks to be on the move for the third time in as many years due to security concerns in South Africa.
A return to Bahrain has not been ruled-out by organisers following the deaths of 34 striking miners at a platinum mine less than 100km from Johannesburg.
Earlier this week, GulfWeekly contacted Fancourt, where the event was staged last year, and a spokesman said: “We would like to have had the event back here, but it is not to be.”
This year’s $2.5million event, billed by organisers as the European Tour’s first ‘Tournament of Champions’ failed to attract the previous year’s high-profile stars such as Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer, while Paul Casey, who won the inaugural event at Bahrain’s Royal Golf Club in January 2011 pulled out at the last minute with a shoulder injury.
A South African source close to the event said: “Volvo and IMG have been pitching the event around South Africa, including the Johannesburg area, but given what unfolded in Bahrain two-years-ago, Jo’burg will be definitely off-limits now, and it looks likely the 2013 Volvo Golf Champions could be staged at the Selborne Country Club and Hotel in KwaZulu Natal near Durban, which is a fine golf course with a luxury boutique hotel.”
Selborne confirmed to GulfWeekly that there had been ‘an enquiry’ but that ‘nothing has been confirmed as yet’.
In recent weeks 34 workers and two policemen were killed, 78 others wounded and 259 arrested on various charges, including malicious damage to property, armed robbery, illegal gathering and possession of weapons at a platinum mine operated by mining giant Lonmin near Marikana in North West Province.
It’s the worst violence seen in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, raising the spectre of the infamous Sharpville massacre in 1960 when 60 black South Africans were killed by security forces.
Unrest erupted in Bahrain in 2011 shortly after the players, organisers and supporters of the jinxed Volvo Golf Champions event left town.
This January’s Volvo Golf Champions saw local hero Branden Grace lift the $435,000 first prize, rewards in stark contrast to the South African miners who were campaigning to have their monthly salaries raised from $300 to $1,000. Lonmin gave the 3,000-plus strikers out of a total workforce of 38,000 an ultimatum to resume normal working or face the sack.
Meanwhile, there has been some speculation in the golfing world that the Volvo Golf Champions could return to Bahrain in the event that the South African security situation should worsen, especially following the success of the IMG / Bahrain Economic Development Board’s Pro-Celebrity event starring IMG clients Casey, the Royal Golf Club course designer Colin Montgomerie and tennis star Tim Henman in April this year, which passed off at the Royal Golf Club successfully and without incident.
In August 2011, Per Ericsson, president & CEO of Volvo Event Management – Golf, said the move from Bahrain to South Africa was made due to security concerns despite earlier telling the world’s Press that the kingdom would stage the European Tour’s opener.
He said: “It is with genuine regret that we are making this announcement after such a wonderful inaugural event, but we do very much intend to go back in the very near future,” describing the move away as a ‘minor setback’ and insisting that ‘no-one should doubt the respect we have for Bahrain’.
Michele Mair, public relations manager of IMG Golf, recently told GulfWeekly: “Nothing is confirmed at this stage but we hope to return to Bahrain sometime soon.
“There will be an announcement in the next couple of weeks regarding the Volvo Golf Champions.”
Insiders suggest there is a heated debate continuing about where to stage the event next year with organisers split between remaining in South Africa or returning to Bahrain with one highly-regarded source saying the kingdom will have to wait another 12 months: “I believe it will come back to Bahrain in 2014, providing there is no further trouble,” he said.
It is clear the Bahrain Economic Development Board would be delighted to stage a high-profile European Tour event once again to promote the country globally and as for the Royal Golf Club, it is ready and waiting.
