Virgin holds international golf event
Virgin Atlantic has run its first Virgin International Golf event as part of its focus on sports travel.
Representatives from China, Europe, South Africa, USA – East Coast, USA – West Coast, Japan, Ireland and England all took place in a 36-hole team event.
The first day was held at a very breezy and dry London Club near Brands Hatch when Ireland emerged as the early leaders with a team total of 102 Stableford points (all 3 tram members scores counted).
All of the teams were hosted in London at the Royal Garden Hotel Kensington and coached out to the venues.
The second day was held at the prestigious Stoke Park Golf course near Stoke Poges.
Before going out, the teams were given a short game and putting lesson by ex-tour professional and current Sky commentator Ross McFarlane.
Three teams were vying for the inaugural championship with China, England and Ireland within three points of each other, but it was England that emerged victorious.
The England team of Phil Cook, Graham McKenzie and David Giles were awarded the trophy by Paul Wait of Virgin Atlantic after a celebratory dinner.
Wait said: “We have been working on this concept for some time as an extension of our well established Champion of Champions event held here in England.
“At Virgin we have tried and succeeded in working with the grass roots of sports. In golf we work with the PGA and club professionals making sure that when they think of flights the first thought is to travel with us. This week’s event extends that concept across our international network and I am delighted that we have eight teams from around the globe who have competed for what we hope will be a very longstanding occasion.â€
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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