Royal Trophy
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The Royal Trophy is a men's professional team golf tournament which was played for the first time in January 2006 at the Amata Spring Country Club in Bangkok, Thailand. The competitors are Europe and Asia. The Asian team brings together the two rival teams from the Dynasty Cup, which is played between Japan and the Rest of Asia. Eight man teams play a series of 16 matches involving foursomes, four-ball and singles for a trophy donated by the King of Thailand. The event is scheduled to be played in Thailand until 2010 and to start alternating between the two continents after that. [1]
The Royal Trophy is one of several new team golf tournaments between teams from rival regions of the world started since the 1990s, inspired by the popularity of the Ryder Cup. The prize fund is US$1.5 million. Seve Ballesteros, a leading proponent of team golf competitions, captained the European team, and Japan's Masahiro Kuramoto captained Asia. Unlike the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup the tournament does not feature all of the most prominent eligible players, but Europe's team included the highly ranked David Howell and Paul McGinley and former World Number 1s Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam were Ballesteros's captain's picks. Europe won the inaugural event by 9 points to 7 and retained the trophy in 2007 with a 12½-3½ victory.
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