Heythrop Park Resort in Oxfordshire is to host its first professional tournament under the auspices of the European Tour following the announcement that it will stage the Bridgestone Challenge in August.
The Chipping Norton-based venue, which first opened its Bainbridge Course in 2009, will be the stage for the first Challenge Tour event to be held in England since 2012.
The Bridgestone Challenge, which takes place at Heythrop Park from August 25-28, will form part of the tyre manufacturer’s three-pronged association with golf, which includes sponsorship of the British Masters supported by Sky Sports on the European Tour, as well as the creation of a new amateur event.
Alain de Soultrait, Challenge Tour director, said: “We are delighted to be able to partner with Bridgestone and are excited to be bringing the Challenge Tour back to England, aided by the support of England Golf. The Challenge Tour offers the best way for talented young golfers to develop their game and a large number of our recent success stories have been English players. Justin Rose and Ian Poulter both came through our ranks, while Tommy Fleetwood and Andrew Johnston both finished top of the Challenge Tour rankings in recent years.”
Farrell Dolan, Bridgestone’s marketing director, said: “We are extremely excited to be entering into a series of sponsorships covering such a broad range of golfers. We will be engaging with hundreds of amateur players who will already be familiar with our brand and we have structured our sponsorships to actually give them an opportunity to play at the very top of the game. Not only this, but the exposure we will generate from our British Masters partnership and English Challenge Tour title sponsorships is vast, the latter of which will be making a welcome return to the golfing calendar after a three year absence.”