Now in its sixth season, the Volvo Masters Amateur in Poland is gathering momentum, family friendly golf the name of the game as over 200 players chase a coveted place in the national Final and the chance to go for glory and a place in the World Final in Bahrain early next year.

When Volvo Auto Polska took its first tentative steps in golf by joining the Volvo Masters Amateur family in 2005, the game of golf was in its embryonic stages in the country, enabling the brand and its dealers to share in the development of the game as it grew in popularity.

Six-year-later, golf id one of the fastest-growing sports in Poland and the Volvo Masters Amateur has become a firm favourite, with over 200 participants and 10 events including the national final, to be staged once again at the First Warsaw Golf & Country Club in the country’s capital.

In partnership with Raiffeisen Leasing, Volvo Auto Polska has driven a family-friendly approach to its amateur golf programme, each of the nine qualifying events nationwide tied into a Family Golf Picnic and it’s groundbreaking Golf Academy.

“We have based our Volvo Masters Amateur golf programme around those two strands, positioning golf as a family orientated activity whilst offering participants the opportunity to learn the game through the professionals staffing our Golf Academy,” explains Lukasz Wójcik

Communication Manager at Volvo Auto Polska.

From late May until the week before the National Final, men and women, young and old, Volvo customers and prospects alike have been playing for all they are worth, first in the hope they can claim one of the places in the National Final and then to play well enough to earn a place in the Polish line-up for the Volvo Masters Amateur World Final in Bahrain in January 2011.

“We work hand-in-glove with our business partner Raiffeisen Bank to help develop the game of golf and our respective brands through the Volvo Masters Amateur,” says Lukasz Wójcik, adding, “Golf provides the perfect marketing platform for both sponsors and in making each event not only a golf event but also a family occasion works well for us.”

Some of Poland’s finest golf courses come into play for the demanding Volvo Masters Amateur qualifying series, including the excellent Toya Golf & Country Club in Wroclaw in the west of the country, the award-winning Postolowo Golf Club near the northern city of Gdansk and the splendid NTB Active Club in Piaski to the east of Warsaw.

Designed by Jan Soderholm and opened in 1992, the Par-71, 6,035-yard First Warsaw Golf & Country Club, which is staging Poland’s Volvo Masters Amateur National Final for the sixth successive season may not be the longest golf course in the world, but it is certainly one of the most dramatic, set in stunning scenery, many of the 18 holes skirting the expansive lakes and waterways that are a feature of the course.

Fast facts:

Growing the Game of Golf: Just 10-years-ago, in 2000, Poland had just six golf courses and 900 registered players; today, a decade on, there are 24 courses in play and almost 3,000 regular players, with six more courses under construction or in design.

www.volvocars.com/pl / www.pzgolf.pl

Poles Apart: The PGA European Tour visited Poland on three occasions in 2009, the DHL Wroclaw Open, the Parkridge Polish Senior Championship and Omega Mission Hills TC European Qualifier and it is considered only a matter of time before Polish players begin to emerge on the professional circuits.

www.volvocars.com/pl / www.pzgolf.pl