Thomas Björn, Nick Faldo and José Maria Olazábal have been added to the list of professionals set to compete in the inaugural $5 million Dunhill Links Championship on October 18-21.
They join world-class players such as Darren Clarke, Steve Elkington, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Padriag Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Ian Woosnam who have already been announced.
The line-up of amateurs who have confirmed their participation now includes Hollywood film
stars Kurt Russell and Samuel L Jackson as well as Kyle MacLachlan, Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres, country and western star Clay Walker, Olympic skiing legend Franz Klammer and English cricket captain Nasser Hussein.
Other amateur players who have signed up for the celebrity tournament include Michael Douglas, Sir Steven Redgrave, Ian Botham, Gavin Hastings, Kapil Dev, Sir Bobby Charlton, Zinzan Brooke, Kenny Dalglish, Gary Lineker, Nigel Mansell and Marco van Basten. The full line-up will be announced in due course.
Conceived as a celebration of Links golf, the 72 hole event will be decided over some of the world's best known and respected links courses: The Old Course at St. Andrews; the Championship Course at Carnoustie and the highly regarded Kingsbarns Golf Links.
The $5 million prize money is shared between the top 70 professionals taking part, with a first place purse of $800,000.
The event is sponsored by Dunhill, the mens' luxury goods company, which recently opened its new London flagship store at 21 Old Bond Street.
156 teams of one professional and one amateur will contest the first three rounds with one round being played at each of the three links courses in rotation. Two competitions will be played concurrently. Professional Individual and Team. The team score will be the best net score of the two members at each hole. After 54 holes the field will be reduced to the leading 60 professionals and ties plus the 20 leading teams, all of whom will play the final round over the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The Dunhill Links Championship will be televised live from all three golf courses on all four days on SKY SPORTS TV in the UK, on the Golf Channel in the USA and Japan, on M-Net in South Africa and in over 120 countries world wide.
