Golf

The European Tour has agreed a three-year partnership with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

In addition to supporting all 46 events in 31 countries throughout the 2019 Race to Dubai competition, Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be an official supplier at European Tour tournaments in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Ireland.

During the Race to Dubai season, players, staff and fans will have the opportunity to experience Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s customer service, as well as a wide selection of vehicles at more than 1,000 locations across Europe.

US media company Discovery has furthered its commitment to golf by acquiring leading media brand Golf Digest from Condé Nast.

The acquisition is set to create a programming engine for Discovery’s GOLFTV OTT platform, which will now house Golf Digest content alongside its existing coverage of the PGA Tour, European Tour and Ladies European Tour.

Discovery will now reach US golf fans through instructional videos, equipment advice, course rankings, travel destinations, online bookings and more.

England Golf has launched a new campaign to position the sport as a tool for reducing stress levels and improving individuals’ mental health.

Launched to coincide with Stress Awareness Month in the UK, ‘Switch off with Golf’ will aim to encourage lapsed golfers to pick up their clubs and reduce screen-time.

Well-documented research has shown how social media and other tech-based communications can add to stress levels, while England Golf cited research that 74% of British adults have felt so stressed at some point over the past year that they have felt unable to cope.

The European Tour has announced a new partnership with IMG Arena, providing an enhanced statistical offering at tournaments through real-time, shot-by-shot data.

IMG’s sports betting and content hub believes the partnership, more than a year in the making, will deliver “one of the most sophisticated sports data products ever created.”

As a result, fans of the European Tour are to benefit from significantly enhanced statistics and insights.

The PGA Tour has renewed and expanded its partnership with Twitter in a multi-year agreement which will see the social media platform distribute and live-stream almost 140 hours of live tournament action for free.

Twitter will globally stream the first 60-90 minutes across the morning hours of all four rounds of PGA Tour Live’s OTT subscription window.

Discovery has agreed a rights deal with the European Tour, expanding the portfolio of its GOLFTV OTT platform, which already includes multiplatform rights to the PGA Tour in most international markets.

The new four-year partnership will see the European Tour and both the 2020 and 2022 Ryder Cups broadcast via the global live and on-demand video streaming platform, which is set to launch in January 2019.

Car giant BMW has further strengthened its investment in golf, upgrading its relationship with the European Tour to become a worldwide partner of The Ryder Cup for the next two encounters between the United States and Europe.

The agreement gives the brand global rights to the events at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin in 2020 and in 2022 at Marco Simone in Italy.

Discovery has announced a multi-year global content agreement with Tiger Woods, as part of plans for its soon-to-launch GOLFTV OTT platform in partnership with the PGA Tour.

The media giant will collaborate with 14-time Major winner Woods to develop exclusive content for subscribers to the service.

The first material is set to air in January 2019, when GOLFTV will start its roll-out across all global markets excluding the US, China and South Korea.

On the eve of the Turkish Airlines Open 2018, Tommy Fleetwood was crowned ‘King of the Sand’, beating Justin Rose at the first ever Turkish Airlines Beach Golf Championship.

In a tournament played over three holes at the Regnum Carya Resort, home of the Turkish Airlines Open 2018, Fleetwood and Rose went head to head on the beach, skilfully navigating iconic monuments made of sand.

Travel insurance provider Staysure is approaching the end of its first season as the first-ever title sponsor of golf’s European Senior Tour. The company, which specialises in travel insurance for the over 50s market, signed a ten-year agreement with the property at the end of last year.

Sport Industry Group took the opportunity to chat to Staysure chairman and founder Ryan Howsam about the impact of the milestone partnership.