Japanese electronics company Panasonic has become the title sponsor of a new professional golf tournament in its home country which aims to boost the Olympic aspirations of Asian players.
The Y150m (€1.17m/$1.26m) Panasonic Open Golf Championship will debut at the Chiba Country Club, Umesato course in Noda City, Chiba prefecture from April 21-24. The tournament will be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour.
The Panasonic Open Golf Championship will be one of four tournaments which will be co-sanctioned by both Tours in 2016, the highest ever since they began collaborating in 2002.
Panasonic is already the title sponsor of the India Open on the Asian Tour schedule. The company has been a worldwide Olympic TOP partner since the International Olympic Committee’s global sponsorship programme began in 1985. It sees its new partnership as a strategic one ahead of golf’s return to the Olympic Games at Rio 2016.
Panasonic president Kazuhiro Tsuga said: “We have supported professional golf at the highest level in Asia for a long time, first with the Asia-Pacific Open Golf Championship Panasonic Open from 2008 until 2013 and then with the ongoing Panasonic Open India.
“With the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro celebrating the return of golf, following an absence of 112 years, we felt the timing was perfect for us to relaunch a new event in Japan which will contribute immensely towards a new era for golf in our region.
“Panasonic has enjoyed a very successful association with the Olympic Games over the last two decades and it will be wonderful if our 2016 Panasonic Open Golf Championship winner can go on to qualify for Rio de Janeiro through the world ranking points on offer at our tournament as the cut-off date for the Olympics is July 11, 2016.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Tokyo is due to host the Olympic Games in 2020, following Rio de Janeiro’s event this summer.