Costa Rica Masters To
Bring Professional Golf
To Guanacaste
(Infocom) — Everything
is ready for Costa Rica
to re-immerse itself in
the world of
professional
international golf,
thanks to the Costa Rica
Masters 2008, which will
be held in Guanacaste’s
Reserva Conchal Golf
Club next Dec. 11-14.
The tournament was
officially announced by
Tour de las Americas (TLA)
and the Canadian Tour,
as part of a partnership
between the two tours
that will also include
tournaments in Chile and
Argentina later this
year.
In addition to being the
first joint competition
between TLA (the men’s
professional golf tour
for Latin America) and
the Canadian Tour, the
Costa Rica Masters will
mark a new era in the
country’s golf scene.
With a purse of
us$125,000, the event
will be the first at
this level ever to be
held in Guanacaste,
which is now home to
many high-quality
courses that have made
Costa Rica famous as a
premiere golf
destination.
Both TLA and the
Canadian Tour, which are
associate members of the
International Federation
of PGA Tours, published
press releases last week
making official the
tree-country tours they
will hold together.
The announcement comes
at a time when golf has
become an important
source of foreign
currency, employment and
hotel occupancy for
Costa Rica, which
welcomes 34,000 tourists
every year who come here
exclusively to play
golf.
Golf tourism is
generating approximately
us$87.6 million annually
in food, lodging and
recreation expenses, in
addition to sales of
sporting equipment. Most
golfers who come to
Costa Rica are
individuals of high
purchasing power who
take advantage of
playing the game to do
business with colleagues
and new clients.
In a release issued by
both tours, the director
of the Costa Rica
Masters, Ricardo
Valdivieso, said: “We
are very pleased for
being able to make the
new Costa Rica Masters a
reality, as this
tournament will proudly
put the country back in
the international golf
scene.” He added that
the tournament is proud
to taking high-level
professional golf for
the first time to the
province of Guanacaste,
where golf and tourism
development are growing
by leaps and bounds.
“We thank Tour de las
Americas and the
Canadian Tour for their
support, as well as
Reserva Conchal Golf
Club, which opened the
doors of its spectacular
course designed by the
famous Robert Trent
Jones II,” Valdivieso
said.
The other two
tournaments of the joint
tour will be held Nov.
27-30 in Chile (50th
Anniversary of the
Sports Frances Open) and
Dec. 4-7 in Argentina (Torneo
de Maestros at Olivos
Golf Club). Costa Rica
will be the last leg of
the trio. The
tournaments will combine
for a grand total of
$435,000 in prize money.
The great business
potential of golf and
Costa Rica’s reputation
as an exotic destination
have contributed to the
emergence in the past
few years of new courses
designed by
internationally
recognized golf stars,
including Robert Trent
Jones II, Greg Norman,
Arnold Palmer and Mike
Young.
The number of golf
courses is expected to
climb in Costa Rica in
the short term, as at
least six new projects
are underway, several of
them in Guanacaste.
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