RI amateurs to vie for world tourney

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Audi quattro Cup, an amateur golf tournament, will be played for the first time in Indonesia with the winners qualifying for the world finals in Italy.

The one-day tournament will be played at the Rancamaya Golf Course and Country Club on July 28.

The organizers said 130 of the expected 144 players had confirmed their participation. A few of them are invitees. "We have 40 special invitees to the tournament," Koko Sugiharto, committee chairman, said on Wednesday.

Koko said that the tournament would apply an unprecedented -- for Indonesia -- strict requirement that the participants attach their handicap cards sanctioned by their respective clubs or courses.

The tournament will be divided into Flight A for players with handicaps between 1 and 14 and Flight B for those with handicaps between 15 and 28.

The winners of each category will represent Indonesia in the world finals on the island of Sardinia in Italy, in October.

Ralph Rieder, Audi chief representative in Indonesia, said the event would be held to commemorate five years of Audi, a German carmaker, in Indonesia.

"Apart from our obligation to our sponsors, we are seeking to help promote golf among amateurs. I hope the event will attract a lot of people here," Rieder said.

The Audi quattro Cup was first played in Germany in 1991. The following years it began to move out with the number of hosting countries and participants increasing every year.

However, the world amateur finals have not been played until in 1993, at The Belfry, England.

"Sardinia is famous for its nice golf courses. The landscape is beautiful. It's a good chance for the Indonesian amateurs to raise their golfing level," Rieder said about the 2002 finals site.

He said that the organizers would try to make it an annual event.