Sponsor stubs out team tournament

The Alfred Dunhill Cup will get a new format next time round after suffering years of decline

Extract from article by Alasdair Reid, Sunday Times, 15 October 2000

Stubbed out at last. After years of apparently inexorable decline, the Alfred Dunhill Cup will die a quiet death this afternoon when its last round is played on the Old Course at St Andrews. The sponsors, having watched their once-prestigious tournament play host to increasingly lacklustre fields, largely through the apathy of top American players, finally pulled the plug yesterday afternoon by announcing that its days as an international team event are now over.

Of course, that wasn't exactly how they put it, for they couched their decision in the corporate gobbledegook that has always been the lingua franca of the tournament. The company, according to the press release, will next year be "extending its commitment to St Andrews" with a new event, a 72-hole strokeplay affair involving pro individual and pro-am team competitions. It was an imaginative piece of phrasing, although it would be more of a flight of fancy to believe that Hollywood's A-list celebrities will be falling over themselves in any rush to spend October beside the North Sea.

Make way, then, for Brucie and Tarby and all the rest of them, and make way for yet more of the hospitality-tent nosebagging that has long been the central purpose of these chill autumn days in St Andrews. It is worryingly easy to believe that someone in Dunhill's Knightsbridge offices has rather missed the point about this sport lark, believing that a decent purse and a few sitcom artistes will bring them more kudos than a competition of genuine intensity. Last week's magnificent Solheim Cup at Loch Lomond - no prize-money, no refugees from Celebrity Squares - was as thumping a refutation of that philosophy as you could wish for.......

Welsh oust favourites

Extract from article by David Davies, The Observer, October 15, 2000

.....Earlier in the week Woosnam had indicated that if the rumours of the Dunhill Cup morphing into a pro-celebrity pro-am tournament were true, he might find himself unavoidably detained elsewhere. Yesterday the rumours were confirmed. This will be the last Dunhill Cup and next year there will be an event called the Dunhill Links Championship, from 18 to 21 October, a 72-hole strokeplay tournament, in its place.

It will be played over the Old Course, Carnoustie, and the new Kingsbarns course just outside St Andrews.

But the tournament will be a logistical nightmare, with Carnoustie some 30 miles and 40 or more minutes away. As far as the professionals are concerned, though, it will have one massive plus point: the prize fund of US$5 million is the largest ever offered in the UK.

Scots make a hurried exit from last cup

Extract from article by Paul Forsyth, Scotland on Sunday, 15 October 2000

The rather bizarre prospect of Jimmy Tarbuck, Bruce Forsyth and Ronnie Corbett attempting to do what Colin Montgomerie, Andrew Coltart and Gary Orr couldn’t presented itself at St Andrews yesterday when Scotland’s exit from the last Alfred Dunhill Cup coincided with the announcement of a pro-celebrity event to replace it.

There can be little doubt that the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, to be contested over the fairways of Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and the Old Course next October, will be more entertaining than the host nation’s 3-0 defeat by Wales. There wasn’t much laughing and joking in the galleries about a match in which the failure of all three Scots to finish under par propelled their opponents into today’s semi-finals.

The new event, described as a celebration of links golf, will be a 72-hole stroke-play competition played in a pro-am format. There will be a simultaneous team competition, with sides comprising one professional and one amateur, and a prize fund of more than £3m.

The tournament will be sanctioned by the European Tour and will count towards official money and Ryder Cup points......

Wales seize last chance to make up for lost time

Extract from article by Andy Farrell, Independent on Sunday, 15 October 2000

......The tournament's demise is a damning indictment of modern professional sportsmen who cannot find space in their schedules to represent their countries. Over 50 Americans turned down an invitation before Larry Mize filed out a US side whose only victory of the week came over Japan yesterday. Sergio Garcia, captain of the winning Spanish team a year ago, Lee Westwood, Darren Clarke, Jean van de Velde and Stuart Appleby were also missing for various reasons.

Worse, much worse, was the revelation that almost double the prize fund of £1m was required to assemble the field each year. With no appearance fees next year, the purse will triple, making it the richest domestic event on the European Tour. But Johann Rupert, chief executive of the sponsors' parent company, explained: "It will not cost us much more. You will understand there are appearance fees and, as a traditionalist, I feel it is wrong they are sometimes bigger than the prize money. If the top players don't want to come next year, fine, we are going to have fun celebrating links golf."

The new tournament will feature each pro teaming up with an amateur for the week over the Old Course, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, a new layout just outside St Andrews. "It is spectacularly beautiful and a true links course, a blend of Ballybunion, Royal Dornoch and perhaps a bit of Pebble Beach," Rupert said.

New Dunhill format unveiled as Scots slump again

Extract from article by Alan Campbell, Sunday Herald, 15 October 2000

.....It was confirmed yesterday that a new pro-am tournament, still under Dunhill's patronage, will replace the Cup next October. The Alfred Dunhill Links Champion-ship will have a massive prize fund of $5m and will have team (one professional, one amateur) and pro individual competitions running concurrently.

The size of the pot, which includes appearance money, should ensure a high-quality field for the tournament, which will also count towards the European Order of Merit and, every second year, for Ryder Cup points. The same, unfortunately, could not be said of this week's event.....

......Judging by the size of yesterday's galleries, which were not substantial, the correct decision has been taken to change the format of the St Andrews event.

Three venues - Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and the Old Course - will be utilised for the first three rounds of the October 18-21 tournament, with the final 18 holes held on the Old Course.

While Ken Schofield, the European Tour's executive director, welcomed the move, there was a note of discord when Johann Rupert, chief executive officer of Dunhill's parent company Richemont, complained about having to pay appearance fees to attract the top players.

"As a traditionalist I feel it is wrong that appearance fees are sometimes more than the prize money."

Wales secure maximum return

Extract from article by Derek Lawrenson, Sunday Telegraph, 15 October 2000

......As for next year's event, Dunhill spokesman Johann Rupert confirmed last week's Sunday Telegraph disclosure that it would become a pro-am played over the Old Course, Kingsbarns, and Carnoustie, along the lines of the AT&T tournament in America. Prize money will be $5 million (£3 million), making it the richest event in Europe.

That is more than three times this year's fund but Rupert said the difference will, in practice, turn out to be loose change as they are no longer paying appearance money. Two million pounds appearance money for this field? No wonder the Dunhill Cup is being scrapped.