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WGC ALGARVE WORLD CUP


November 20, 2005


Orlando Carrasco

Bradley Dredge

Andre Jordan

George O'Grady


ALGARVE, PORTUGAL

PETER ADAMS: Ladies and gentlemen, we are shortly going to do a formal presentation of the prize giving. Just bear with us for a second while the prize giving party come up to the podium. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your attendance. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the official prize giving for the World Golf Championships 2005 Algarve World Cup in Portugal. First of all, I'd like to invite Mr. Constantino Jordan, who is director of Lusotur Golfes, the owners of Vilamoura Golf Club to make a welcome in Portuguese.

CONSTANTINO JORDAN: (Applause).

PETER ADAMS: Thank you very much, Constantino. I'd now like to introduce you to the prize giving party, and we have Mr. Jorge Sampaio, the president of Portugal; George O'Grady, the Executive Director of the PGA European Tour, Laurentino Dias, the Secretary of State for Sports; Andre Jordan, the Chairman of the Andre Jordan Group; Manuel Agrellos, the President of the Portuguese Golf Federation; Orlando Carrasco, the Chief Executive Officer of the Portuguese Tourist Board; and David Silva, the President of the PGA of Portugal.

I'd now like to invite Orlando Carrasco, the Chief Executive Officer of the Portuguese Tourist Board to say a few words.

ORLANDO CARRASCO: Hello, in the name of the Portuguese Tourism, I would like to thank you for your participation, congratulate the Wales victory, and of course congratulate also the other teams that participated in this championship, and of course our own Jose Filipe Lima and Antonio Sobrinho.

I would like also to think our partners, Mr. Andre Jordan, you have made a lot for tourism and the golf industry in Portugal, thank you very much.

As you know, Portugal is a country of sun and tourism, but sometimes it rains, also. (Laughter). But I can promise you that in the near future I hope that you can come and we promise to give you another kind of weather. Thank you very much. (Applause).

PETER ADAMS: Thank you, Orlando. Moving on, I would like to now invite Mr. Andre Jordan, the Chairman of the Andre Jordan Group to come forward to say a few words. Thank you.

ANDRE JORDAN: Well, there's been a drought in Portugal, and we decided to make our contribution to end the drought, and sacrifice a day of marvelous golf for the benefit of the water table of this country, so there we are. (Laughter).

I want to thank, of course, our partners from the International Federation of golf tours. This has been a wonderful year of preparation of harmony and of cooperation between these organizations under George O'Grady, Peter Adams, John Paramour, Jack Warfield, all of these great people who have been working with us for this whole year and to create this tournament.

I want to thank the players, the players made a beautiful performance here. It's a pity we've missed the last day but I congratulate the winners, they deserve to win, they are wonderful golfers, they put on a great performance.

And this is, really, an example of brotherhood of men, here we are, many countries, in a time of turmoil in the world, sharing sport, sharing joy, sharing friendship, and this is what the world should be, and involved it is. (Applause).

And finally, I want to thank President Sampaio. President Sampaio has made golf popular to the Portuguese people, and to the hundreds of thousands of visitors here, what he's done for golf in this country and in a way around Europe is what President Eisenhower did many decades ago. There are very few people my age here that remember that. President Eisenhower made golf very popular in the United States, and this is what President Sampaio has done for us and we wants to thank him for his continued support and thank you very much. Come back next year. (Applause).

PETER ADAMS: Thank you very much. I'd now like to ask George O'Grady, the Executive Director of the PGA European Tour to come forward to speak.

GEORGE O'GRADY: Thank you, Peter. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time and thank you to the media for allowing us to use your media center for this presentation today. It's very important for The European Tour on behalf of the World Federation of Tours to take this opportunity to thank our partners here in Portugal, the Portuguese Tourism Department and the Algarve, and, in fact, the Portuguese Golf Federation, represented by their president here today.

The European Tour has enjoyed a wonderful relationship with the Portuguese nation for so long in golf with one of our great British golfers, Sir Henry Cotton, who formed his home here at Penina many years ago. They have enticed most of the best events you can have. And people that had to make the decision to cancel this World Cup, just to show everybody, we have the top tempers overhead as we speak.

If the Tour and the World Golf Federation could say to everybody here in Portugal, thank you for the welcome. Thank you for the very Portuguese welcome, nothing has been too much trouble. And at least we brought something that Portugal really wants besides golf tourism, which is rain. And they are apparently in a drought situation, so they won't have a brought by the time we leave.

Mr. President, thank you. Thank you to everybody for your work. And could I ask you to do us the honor of in a six week period for the world of golf, we've been guests at The White House, guests at the Presidents Cup, we've been guests at the Taoiseach of Ireland at the Ryder Cup dinner, and to have you here sir today presenting our trophy, we really do appreciate it, thank you very much. (Applause.)

BRADLEY DREDGE: On behalf of myself and Stephen and the rest of the players, first I'd like to say thank you to all of the sponsors. Obviously without them, this would not be on, without the Portuguese Golf Union and the Tourist Board.

Both Stephen and I thought the golf course was absolutely fantastic this week, and this is certainly one of the best courses we've played in not just Portugal but throughout Europe. So hopefully we'll have a few more events back here again and thank you everybody for supporting us this week. Thank you very much.

PETER ADAMS: Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the formalities of the prize giving. I'd like to thank you all for your attendance, and wish you a safe journey home when that time comes.

End of FastScripts.

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