GOLF. Australian Brett Rumford won the 2013 Volvo China Open on Sunday and in doing so qualified for the 2013 Volvo World Match Play Championship, while a resurgent Henrik Stenson received the coveted sole invitation on offer. They complete an elite 24-man field that includes 14 of World’s top 50 challenging for the title at the breathtaking Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort in Bulgaria from the 16th to the 19th May, 2013.

Australian Brett Rumford won the 2013 Volvo China Open

The new Volvo China Open Champion Brett Rumford, who also won the Ballantine’s Championship the previous week and has risen from 138th to 76th on the Official World ranking, was ecstatic to win his first Volvo title and qualify for the Volvo World Match Play Championship. Rumford said "I feel very honoured to have won this event, and one of the great things about it is that it gets me into a fantastic event like the Volvo World Match Play Championship. It’s another stepping stone in my career, and I’m really looking forward to teeing it up against so many great players."
 
Swede Henrik Stenson, born in Volvo’s hometown Gothenburg, won the 2007 WGC Accenture Match Play and is excited to be back in the field for the first time since 2009. On hearing the news that he had received the only invitation on offer, Stenson said, “I am delighted to receive this invite from Volvo. I know a lot of players were in the mix so I was thrilled to hear that I had been the lucky one as I love the cut and thrust of match play and can’t wait to get to Bulgaria. We don’t often go to a completely new venue and country, so I am really looking forward to having a look around and to playing at Thracian Cliffs for the first time – it looks really beautiful.”
 
The 2013 field contains a strong showing of proven match play stars, namely five of our European Ryder Cup heroes, Ian Poulter, the 2011 Volvo World Match Play Champion, Graeme McDowell, the 2010 US Open Champion, Peter Hanson, six-time European Tour winner, Italy’s Francesco Molinari and Nicolas Colsaerts, the defending champion,
 
Stand-out US PGA Tour players World No 26, American Bo Van Pelt and American-based Swedish star World No.37, Carl Pettersson are making their first appearance in the Volvo World Match Play Championship while Australia’s Geoff Ogilvy is returning for the first time since 2005. Other notable Championship debutantes include Masters stand-out and World No.33 Thorbjorn Olesen and World No.31 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano from Spain who will be competing for an increased prize fund of €3,000,000 (€250,000 more than 2012) with the eventual winner taking home a €800,000 first prize.
 
Once again this elite match play tournament boasts a very international field with 14 countries represented in the 24 man field from all around the world including and a strong showing from South Africa with ‘Volvo specialist,’ Branden Grace, the winner of both the 2012 Volvo Golf Champions and Volvo China Open, George Coetzee, Richard Sterne and Thomas Aiken as well as Chile’s Felipe Aguilar and a two-strong Thailand representation of Thongchai Jaidee and Kiradech Aphibarnrat.
 
The 2013 Championship marks both 50 years since the inaugural World Match Play Championship and Volvo’s 130th title sponsorship in men’s professional golf as well as their 80th tournament on the European Tour.
 
The Championship, begun by IMG in 1964 and organised together with Volvo since 2009, will generate worldwide media coverage, with approximately 1,600 hours of golf broadcast to half a billion households, has evolved considerably since moving from Wentworth in 2009, successfully securing a world-class field by qualification on merit, increasing the field to 24 players and revising the format.  The qualified players are divided into eight groups of three players to be played out on Thursday and Friday with 16 players progressing to Saturday’s knock-out stage with the semi-finals and final played on Sunday. The draw will be made at an official press conference at Thracian Cliffs at 1.30pm on Tuesday, 14th May.
 
This is the first full European Tour event to be played in Bulgaria as the Championship moves to the much-lauded Gary Player designed signature course. Framed by rugged coastal cliffs and the vast blue of the Black Sea, which can be viewed from each and every hole, Thracian Cliffs is arguably one of the most dramatic golf courses on earth. Gary Player once commented, "You will not find a golf course like this anywhere else on the planet." Underlining the unique features of this new venue, the Thracian Cliffs has also been called the ‘Pebble Beach of Europe’. The last three editions of the Volvo World Match Play Championships were held at Finca Cortesín in Spain.
 
2013 Volvo World Match Play Championship Final Field

2013 Volvo World Match Play Championship
www.volvoworldmatchplaychampionship.com