Race to Dubai leader and US PGA Champion Martin Kaymer and fellow Ryder Cup players Luke Donald, Ross Fisher and Ian Poulter were among the guests at the Genworth Financial Statistics Awards Dinner last night.
The annual gathering recognised the outstanding achievements of players in all the Genworth Financial Statistics Categories and while it is all to play for still for some of the nine performance categories, it was a chance to celebrate an outstanding season on The European Tour.
With Sky Sports’ Ewen Murray taking the Master of Ceremonies duties, the assembled guests were treated to a wonderful evening at Atlantis, The Palm, Dubai.
The Longest Drive winner went not to Alvaro Quiros who has dominated the category since he joined the Tour in 2007, but to Nicolas Colsaerts, who made a welcome return to the European Tour this year.
Peter O’Malley took the Driving Accuracy award for an unprecedented fifth time in nine years.
Ian Poulter is on course to win both the Greens in Regulation and Sand Saves categories and one player is dominating the short game, as Luke Donald has won Putts per Green in Regulation, Scrambles and One Putts and is lying second in Average Putts and Sand Saves.
There were also two special awards. Firstly, the Genworth Financial Excellence Award presented to a player chosen by the media during the week for outstanding progress, with a specific focus on how they have improved their performance, strived for excellence and propelled themselves to greater success, with Graeme McDowell the worthy recipient.
And secondly, The ‘Putts4Charity Putter of the Year’ award presented to the player that has holed most one putts on tour as part of ‘Putts4Charity’, a fundraising initiative hosted by Genworth in association with the Tour Player’s Foundation.
The winner was Maarten Lafeber with 167 one putts at the seven Putts4Charity events during the course of the season. He along with every other Tour Players made a difference out on the course by helping raise money for charity as part of the Genworth Financial Putts4Charity campaign. For every one-putt they holed this season, Genworth Financial donated €2 and the players also took part in special one-putt appearances on tournament days which all helped raise €174,000 this year.
Genworth Financial Brand Ambassador Fisher, Poulter and Donald were on hand to receive a $50,000 cheque on behalf of Maarten and the Tour Players Foundation from Genworth Financial as an appreciation of the players support to the initiative during the season.
The Trustees of the Tour Players Foundation decided to support the chosen charities of the Dubai World Championship by DP World, the Special Needs Families Group and Dubai Autism Centre, by donating the funds in equal share, allowing the Children of Dubai to benefit greatly from the presence of the event in the region.
