British Masters and Woburn return to European Tour

Woburn will again play host to the European Tour as the British Masters returns to the schedule after a break of seven years.

English quartet Luke Donald, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Lee Westwood will each take it in turn to host the prestigious tournament – and Poulter is up first to select the venue with which he has long been associated with.

This will also be the first time that Sky Sports have supported a European Tour event. The satellite broadcaster will hope to encourage interest in the game across their online, digital media and social media outlets.

Woburn has three courses and it will be The Marquess, the newest of the three having only been opened in 2000, that will welcome the European Tour on October 8, the week after the Dunhill Links.

The club, though, have a long history of staging Tour events, going back as far as 1979 and winners there include Greg Norman, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Sandy Lyle, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam.

"This will be the first time that Sky Sports have supported a European Tour event" The last time it was there, in 2002, Rose beat Poulter by a single shot after a stellar final day.

Poulter said: “British golf has been in a good place for a number of years now with the success we have had internationally, and as players we have all been keen to get more tournaments on British soil, and in England in particular.

“As a young boy I dreamed of becoming a professional golfer, and being able to watch my heroes play the game inspired me to chase these dreams. I am now passionate myself about encouraging young people to try to enjoy this game that I love so much.”

The move continues the trend of players getting involved with tournaments with Rory McIlroy supporting the Irish Open and Paul Lawrie putting his name to a new match play event in Scotland.

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