"I'm
head of worldwide sponsorship for Volvo, yelled Pyatt above the
din from the excited and chattering tourists in the lobby. "I'm
interested in golf in China and I heard that you're planning to
start up some professional events."
Perched on one edge of a couch already bulging
with tourists in the corner of the lobby, Polson took Pyatt through
what was being planned – a South China Series of small prize
money events in Guangdong and Hong Kong that would be the forerunner
to a full professional tour. "Sorry to butt in but, to be
frank, I'm interested in something much bigger. Something that
has the potential to grow into a world class tournament,"
chipped in Pyatt. "How about starting the Open Golf Championship
of China? We could call it the Volvo China Open."
"I thought I was dreaming," says
Polson. "Here was the head of one of the biggest sponsors
in world golf telling me he wanted to sponsor a big event when
there were less than 10 golf courses in the country and you'd
be lucky to meet anyone who could tell a sand wedge from a driver!
To say that his idea at that time was ambitious would have been
a massive understatement. "
Pyatt flew back to Europe and Polson contacted
Aylwin Tai, then general manager at Chun San Hot Spring. Together
they had been planning the South China Series. Tai discussed Pyatt's
suggestion with the China Golf Association and they received the
bold idea enthusiastically. "I think the China Golf Association
could see the long term potential," recalls Polson. "The
Volvo China Open was just the sort of thing they needed to kick
start the expansion
of the game."That was in May 1994. Exactly one year later
the first Volvo China Open was held at Beijing International Golf
Club."That year of preparation was one of the toughest but
also most enlightening in my life," Polson added.
First task Polson and Tai had to do was form an
organization which could plan and stage the Open. It was called
Richtone Worldwide. Volvo sent in their event management team
to work with the new organization and to get everybody thinking
"the Volvo way". "Their depth of experience was
frightening," said Polson.In the late '80's and early '90's
Volvo was title sponsor of the European Tour, which was around
the time that the Tour and it's players went through a remarkable
transformation. This was the period when Woosnam, Lyle, Langer,
Faldo and Olazabal burst onto the world scene winning 13 Majors
between them.
Faldo has gone on record attributing much of the
players' improved performances to Volvo. They revamped the practice
range and introduced the Volvo Teaching School at tournaments
creating a campus type atmosphere of study and practice, with
the result that players practised longer and harder both before
and after each round.. They focused on making the players feel
good, boosting their self confidence and motivation by taking
them to/from the venue in chauffeur driven Volvos, creating a
special players' lounge where they could eat, drink and relax
and providing a crèche where players' wives could
keep their children happily occupied. The results speak for themselves.
Within the Tour they built up the Volvo PGA Championship
and the season ending Volvo Masters, sponsored the Volvo Scandinavian
Masters until recently and, at one time, also the Volvo German
Open.
"The Volvo PGA was really something,"
said Polson. "It's the next biggest golf tournament to the
(British) Open in Europe. On the final day there must have been
about 20,000 spectators. The VIP hospitality is like a house specially
built overlooking the 18th green and inside the VIP's are treated
to sumptuous food in very elegant surroundings."
" Everywhere you turned in the tented
village you were confronted by an eating and drinking place for
spectators," he added. "You name it, they had it –anything
from hot dogs and sandwiches, to beer bar (called The 19th Hole),
to champagne bar, to sit down restaurant all equipped with giant
screens to watch the action live. In addition, there was a bank,
clothing outlet, health drinks, wine tastings, Volvo showroom,
test your skill golf games, golf tour outlets, the English Golf
Union, the Tourist Organisations all in a huge area near the 18th
green. You didn't need to even put a foot on the golf course.
You could quite happily spend the day eating, drinking and browsing
your way around the tented village. And it looked like that's
what a lot of people were doing. It looked like the Volvo PGA
Championship was light years ahead of where we could be in a few
years."
The Volvo Way' taught the Richtone team that everyone
at a tournament is important and should be treated so. "They
taught us that you can put up the best tented village, have the
most efficient operation and the most magnificent course but it's
not worth a dime if the staff don't look like their work is fun,
don't show any enthusiam or energy, don't smile, don't treat people
like friends, don't keep looking for ways to keep spectators and
VIP guests involved and feeling part of the event," said
Polson, making sure he smiled. Having learnt, Polson and Tai then
set about building the Open team. Administration and
rules was handled by the team who had worked on the Hong Kong
Open. The China Golf Association did the starting and all the
scoring around the course. A team from Australia came to oversee
the operations side. A new company linked to Star TV worked on
the TV broadcast. A team from London looked after all the signage
and ad boards. The photographer also came from London. There was
the team from the old Asian Tour. And, of course, there was the
team from Volvo.
"Apart from almost having a heart attack
when we couldn't get a TV broadcast signal from the satellite,
the whole event went amazingly well," says Polson. "There
was such a great spirit, a great desire amongst all the teams
of wanting to make it work. You could feel people were really
willing the event to be a success. It was a wonderful sensation
to have. I've had that feeling through all the Opens. I guess
we must really have taken 'the Volvo way' to heart."
This will be the fifth year in a row that Shanghai
Silport GC will play host to the Open. Beta Soong, chairman of
the club is a staunch supporter and believes that it will one
day be one of the world's top events. "It obviously helps
if people know it's the Open Championship of China," he said,
"But definitely a lot of it has got to do with attitude.
If you know you're good then it's most likely that you will be
good. That's how the Open team think. We know we've built a good
thing. We know it's going to be big."
Polson agrees with Beta Soong. "I'll give
you an example. I think it was about three years ago when we had
a problem with some volunteers who came to help as walking scorers.
It's a job where you need to know golf, ideally play the game
yourself. A couple of guys turned up about one hour beforehand
knowing absolutely nothing about golf. So, instead, we gave them
some lunch and sent a message around our team letting them know
our predicament. Two of the team who had started at 7am and were
going for a well earned
lunch break suddenly appeared at the scorer's station and volunteered.
I was very impressed. Everybody's pulling for each other in the
Open. Everybody's prepared to go that extra mile."
Since 1995, Volvo have reaped the rewards of Mel
Pyatt's 'over ambitious idea'. Golf is expanding rapidly throughout
the country, Zhang Lian Wei is arguably best player in Asia, the
Volvo China Open is firmly established as one of Asia's premier
golf events and sales of Volvo in China are doing very nicely.
"Yes, a pretty shrewd move. But then…."that's
'the Volvo way'," laughed Pyatt. |
