Golf News
Stars Rise to the Top in the Genworth Financial Statistics
As the official sponsors of the European Tour Statistics programme, Genworth Financial hosted the annual 'Statistics Awards Dinner' in Valderrama, Spain during the season's finale, the Volvo Masters. The highlights of this event were broadcast to a potential international television audience of over 300 million alongside further Genworth sponsorship news and interviews.
The awards ceremony, recognising some of the top golfing achievements of the year, was held in the historic Valderrama Golf Museum and hosted by Sky Sports presenter Ewen Murray. This high profile event brought to a close a season during which Genworth has conducted a programme of local golf tournament sponsorships (in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain) and client entertaining as well as an innovative fundraising initiative, 'Putts for Charity' as part of the 2007 European Tour schedule.
The Genworth awards evening was attended by Tour players, the media, client guests, Genworth's local Spanish charity partner Aldeas Infantiles SOS and representatives from The European Tour.
The "Genworth Financial Statistics" programme has provided Tour Members, the media and their audiences with a valuable analysis of the players' performance in all Order of Merit tournaments. Every shot played by every Tour Member has been profiled during the course of the season, with the results collated into eight categories - Stroke Average, Driving Accuracy, Driving Distance, Greens in Regulation, Putts per Greens in Regulation, Putts per Round, Sand Saves and Scrambles.
This year's event also included the 'Think it Possible Award' a new accolade designed to recognise outstanding achievements recorded in the statistical categories. The award, linked to Genworth's European advertising strap line and brand values, was presented to pro golfer Andres Romero following an overwhelming vote from the media who recognised the Argentinean's outstanding increase in performance in a number of statistical categories.
The Genworth Statistics Award winners recognised at the ceremony were as follows:
Stroke Average: Ernie Els - South Africa (70.10)
Driving Accuracy: Peter O'Malley - Australia (76.0%)
Driving Distance: Alvaro Quiros - Spain (308.2 yds)
Greens in Regulation: Retief Goosen - South Africa (77%)
Putts per Greens in Regulation: Marcus Fraser - Australia (1.739)
Putts per Round: Thaworn Wirachant - Thailand (27.9)
Sand Saves: Richard Sterne - South Africa (78.7%)
Scrambles: Padraig Harrington - Ireland (63.6%)
