27 July 2010: A total of almost 50 young golfers from nine different countries will tee up in the inaugural Faldo Series Greece Championship, to be staged over the newly opened Dunes Course at the Costa Navarino Resort, Messinia, Greece, on July 27–28.
The cosmopolitan international field comprises competitors from Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Italy, Malta, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey, Russia and the USA, all of whom will be bidding to win their age group events and earn a coveted place at 2010 Faldo Series Europe Grand Final to take place over The Faldo Course at The Lough Erne Resort, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland on September 21-23.
The field for the Faldo Series Greece Championship features over 20 golfers from the home nation as well as eight from Turkey, including 19 year-old Eclin Ulu, from Carya Golf Club, who won the Girls’ title at the 2008 Faldo Series Turkey Championship at the Cornelia Resort to progress to that year’s Faldo Series Europe Grand Final at the Costa do Sauipe Resort in Brazil.
The inaugural Faldo Series Greece Championship is the tenth event on the 2010 Faldo Series Europe schedule and follows hard on the heels of a successful Faldo Series Netherlands Championship, staged at Goyer Golf and Country Club near Eemnes and won by 15 year-old Dutch junior international Philip Bootsma.
To date, six events have been played in England as well as others in Northern Ireland, Russia, Scotland and The Netherlands. The forthcoming schedule continues with one more tournament in England, plus others in Brazil, Germany, Poland, Wales and Slovakia before all the age- group winners progress to the Grand Final at Lough Erne Resort in September.
The Faldo Series Greece Championship is a 36-hole stroke play event with competitors divided into five different age group categories (Boys’ Under-21, Boys’ Under-18, Boys’ Under-16, Girls’ Under-21 and Girls’ Under-16).
During the week, there will also be a series of clinics, headed by Sir Nick Faldo’s personal coach, Keith Wood, and designed to give local children their first taste of the game of golf. Similar clinics have also been staged in Russia, at Lough Erne Resort and at many of this year’s other Faldo Series events, both in Europe and in Asia.
“We are delighted the inaugural Faldo Series Greece Championship has attracted such a strong field from several different countries and would like to take this opportunity to thank Glyfada Golf Club of Athens and our local sponsors for their efforts in making it such a success,” said Kerry McDonald, Director of the Faldo Series.