Australia’’s richest tournament, the Heineken Classic at The Vines Resort, Perth Western Australia, has announced an Aus $100,000 increase for the 1999 event which will have a prize fund of Aus $1,500,000 when it is played on January 28-31.
Tournament Director Tony Roosenburg said: “It gives me great pleasure to make this announcement, as it was only in 1993 that we asked Heineken and our local sponsors to take a risk and support the Heineken Classic. In 1993 our prize money was $300,000 and Greg Norman and Ian Baker-Finch were our stars. Six tournaments on, we are the country’’s richest golfing event, we are jointly sanctioned by the Australasian and the European Tours, most of the Worlds’’ leading players have played at The Vines and we have developed an enormous international television distribution.”.
Probably the only thing missing from the Heineken Classic’’s list of achievements was National coverage, with East Coast viewers in Australia only seeing highlights. That problem has been overcome and in a first for Australian golf, the Heineken Classic will be shown in prime time. Viewers on the East Coast will catch all the action live on Fox Sport for six hours on each of Thursday and Friday and on Network Ten from 14.00-17.00 and 18.00-21.00 on both Saturday and Sunday.
“We have come to a mutually beneficial arrangement with European Tour Productions, who will now televise the Heineken Classic for the next three years. Network Ten have really taken the initiative and have offered all Australian viewers the opportunity to watch this Country’’s richest golf tournament and are to be congratulated on taking this direction. We are looking forward to a long and successful association” added Roosenburg.
Representing Network Ten, Ian McRae, General Manager in Western Australia, responded: “Televising live golf in prime time is ground-breaking in Australian television and we are very excited about this at Network Ten. The Heineken Classic is a marquee event which we are extremely pleased to be associated with and I know that is will be very good for our Perth station as well as our National viewers. This tournament now becomes, I believe, the jewel in the crown in Ten’’s expanding golf coverage which is done in conjunction with European Tour Productions.”
