|
Wednesday 29 October 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Registration Now Open
For Costa Rica Golf
Classic Qualifying
(Infocom) — Registration
for a qualifying round
for the upcoming Costa
Rica Golf Classic is now
open. Qualification will
take place Nov. 2-3 at
Cariari Country Club in
San Jose.
This qualifying
tournament will consist
of two 18-hole games and
is open to both
professional and amateur
players. After the 36
holes, the golfers with
the four best scores
will automatically
qualify for the Costa
Rica Golf Classic — a
professional,
$125,000-purse
competition sanctioned
by both Tour de las
Americas (TLA) and the
Canadian Tour.
“Thanks to this first
edition of the Costa
Rica Golf Classic, in
only a few weeks our
country will be the
epicenter of
professional golf in the
Americas,” said Alfredo
Sasso, president of
Afrasport, the company
that is promoting this
event, which will be
held Dec. 11-14 at
Guanacaste’s Reserva
Conchal Golf Club.
Organizing the
qualifying round will be
the National Golf
Association (ANAGOLF),
on behalf of Afrasport.
To register for
qualifying action,
golfers must fill out a
form and pay $150 each
before 5 p.m. on
Thursday, Oct. 29.
Costa Rica will
re-immerse itself in the
world of professional
international golf
thanks to the this
tournament, which was
officially announced by
Tour de las Americas (TLA)
and the Canadian Tour
last August as part of a
partnership between the
two tours that will also
include tournaments in
Chile and Argentina
later this year.
For Tour de las
Americas, the Costa Rica
tournament will be the
last of its 2008 season.
Meanwhile, for the
Canadian Tour — which
holds an official
tournament here for the
first time — the Costa
Rica Golf Classic will
be the first of three
tournaments marking the
beginning of its 2009
season.
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
$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.
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. |
