European Tour to stage the inaugural Portugal Masters at the Victoria Course

The European Tour is honoured to have the opportunity to stage the inaugural Portugal masters at the Victoria Course, Vilamoura. This is one of three new tournaments on the 2007 European Tour International Schedule. With the addition of this event, there are now 3 events in Portugal on the 2007 Tour schedule.

We would like to thank TP (Turismo de Portugal, I.P.) for their significant financial support of these golf tournaments and the Tour intends to reward that support by delivering real commercial return through tourism on that investment.

The Tour views the relationship with TP as a partnership that will be mutually beneficial to both parties.

We are excited by the prospects of this new event being extremely successful over the next 3 years. There are a number of ingredients in place that suggest this event will be immediately successful.

Following the changes to the US PGA Tour schedule, commencing this year, we have been able to position this event in a week when all the leading players in Europe will be available to play and take advantage of the climate in the Algarve during October.

We also have a wonderful modern golf facility, where the conditioning of the Victoria course, since its opening, has been excellent.

Finally, we have a very strong prize fund in 3 million euro minimum, where the winner will receive 583,33 euro. Our discussions with the leading players and their managers to date suggest we can expect a strong international field and a strong level of World Ranking points.

We can guarantee the international television exposure through our worldwide TV agreements, where all four days of the tournament will be shown live in all the major golf destinations across the globe. We anticipate very good support from the written and other media organisations.

The Tour would like to thank the Portuguese Golf Federation and Manuel Agrellos for all their support and opportunity, as part if this wider relationship with the Tourist Board, to promote, manage and stage the Open de Portugal at Oitavos in April.

In closing, we would like to thank TP for their confidence and support, likewise the Estoril Tourist Board in supporting the Open de Portugal and the venues Vilamoura and Oitavos.