The Volvo Golf Champions was an annual 72-hole stroke play men's professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

tournament on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

. Following the inaugural tournament in the

Kingdom of Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ad ...

in 2011, the 2012 event was moved to the Southern hemisphere and the Fancourt Golf Resort in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. In 2013 and 2014, it was played at the Durban Country Club in

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

. The tournament was a unique "Tournament of Champions" style event which saw

winners compete together with leading amateurs on one day of the tournament. The tournament was created by

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

, together with

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...

and in conjunction with the European Tour Tournament Committee. It was cancelled after the 2014 event when Volvo reduced their sponsorship commitments on the tour.

Format

The Championship was contested over 72 holes, with all participants playing four rounds (there was no cut after 36 holes). On Friday, the Volvo World Golf Challenge "World Finalists" played in the tournament, with one amateur playing with two professionals in each group. The professionals continued to play individual stroke play format, while the amateurs played in a team competition with both professionals in their group forming their team. The best two scores of the three team members on each hole counted towards the team total.

Qualification

The Championship was open to players who had taken up the current year's European Tour Membership and who were eligible under the following categories: # Players who had won during the previous year's

schedule. # Past winners of the Volvo Golf Champions under 50 years of age on the first day of the tournament. # Players with 10 or more official

Race to Dubai The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fi ...

European Tour Order of Merit The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

tournament wins under 50 years of age on the first day of the tournament.

Winners

References

External links

*
Coverage on European Tour's official site
{{Former European Tour Events Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in Bahrain Golf tournaments in South Africa