Turkey’s bid for the 2020 Olympic Games has been boosted with the announcement Wednesday of a first ever Turkish Golf Open to be staged from 7th to 10th November, 2013. Ahmet Agaoglu, President of the Turkish Golf Federation, indicated the seven million dollar prize-money event will be staged on The Montgomerie Course in Belek and will be a limited 78-player field. The new tournament will become the penultimate event on the European Tour schedule. “I am honored to announce that starting from 7th November next year the first European Tour PGA event will take place in Turkey for three years up to and including 2015,” said Agaoglu. “There has never been a Turkish Open and this will be an exciting start for this new tournament and it is our hope too that the players competing in this week’s Turkish Airlines World Golf Final will compete,” he added. Andrew Chandler, head of the UK-based International Sports Management (ISM), will be tasked with running the tournament with Turkey having one eye on hosting the 2020 Olympic Games – the sport will feature at the Rio Games in 2016.
