The European Tour's determination to internationalise the game of golf is further enhanced today with the announcement that two tournaments on the 2000 Schedule will take place in Brazil.
The Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open will be played at the Itanhangá Golf Club in Rio de Janeiro on March 23-26 - one week before The Brazil Sao Paulo 500 Years Open at Sao Paulo Golf Club.
Prize money for The Brazil Sao Paulo 500 Years Open and The Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open will total $1,400,000 (Approx 1.5 million euro), and these tournaments will unfold in the two weeks immediately before the Masters Tournament at Augusta National.
Luiz Arthur Caselli Guimaraes Filho, President of the Brazilian Golf Confederation, said: "We feel very honoured and proud that Brazil has been given approval to host two European Tour events. Competition of such high quality will certainly promote and contribute to the development of the game both in Brazil and South America."
Joao Lagos, whose company Joao Lagos Sports will promote The Brazil Rio de Janeiro 500 Years Open and The Brazil Sao Paulo 500 Years Open, said: "I feel very honoured for being trusted with the responsibility of promoting the first official European Tour events to be played in Brazil.
“The fact that we are also celebrating in the year 2000 the 500th Anniversary of the discovery of Brazil by the Portuguese sailor Alvares Cabral adds even more meaning to it all. This is indeed a very special moment for me. I have been successfully committed to the development of the European Tour in Portugal, but now that we are extending the 'Portuguese Swing' to out brother country, Brazil, the feeling of accomplishment is overwhelming.”
Ken Schofield, Executive Director of the European Tour, said: "These tournaments provide further impetus to our drive to internationalise the game of golf. We sincerely congratulate and thank the Brazilian Golf Confederation and Joao Lagos Sports for their unique initiative in providing this new location for European Tour competition. We also congratulate Itanhangá and Sao Paulo Golf Clubs in becoming hosts to official European Tour events in South America."
The Itanhangá Golf Club is located in Rio de Janeiro and the Championship layout measures more than 6650 yards. The wind is a factor since the course is located adjacent to the ocean, and the clubhouse facilities are superb with a practice range 400 yards long and 80 yards wide.
The history of Sao Paulo Golf Club mingles with that of Brazilian golf itself. The Club was founded in 1901 by British engineers, many of them Scottish, who were building the Sao Paulo Railway. The course was built in a "nice" hill, surrounded by the huge residences of the coffee "barons", and the club soon became a meeting place for many families, many of them British, which explains why the area is still known today as the "British Hill".
In fact, in 1915 the Club had to move to a less crowded area where it still stands today. The course, designed by the Canadian architect, Stanley Thompson, is both traditional and competitive and one on which Mark James won the Sao Paulo Open in 1981.
