Toronto, ON - PGA golf star
Stephen Ames has upped the ante of the TELUS World Skins Game annual
eBay auction raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
(JDRF). Ames has decided to take the charity auction one step further.
The Canadian fan favourite is adding two practice round passes for the
2008 Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia to his charity caddie
package.Ames, along with PGA professional
golfers John Daly, Retief Goosen, Colin Montgomerie and Geoff Ogilvy,
are giving Canadian golf fans the chance to be their personal caddies at
this year’s TELUS World Skins Game being held June 18 and 19 at the
Raven Golf Club at Lora Bay, near the Town of The Blue Mountains,
Ontario.
“We are deeply grateful to Stephen Ames’ for his
ongoing support of the TELUS World Skins and his generous donation to
help raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF),”
said Steve Podborski, TELUS director of Sport Marketing. “The chance to
pull the clubs and read the putts for these great golf champions right
here in Canada is truly priceless. Stephen Ames caddy position combined
with an invitation to the practice rounds at the Masters in Augusta,
Georgia goes beyond priceless.”
Fans can bid on the chance to serve as the
personal caddie for one of their favourite professional golfers through
this special auction which runs online at the website
www.ebay.ca until June 10, 2007 at
8:00 p.m. ET. The prize package includes two nights at the Westin
Trillium House Blue Mountain Hotel, TELUS World Skins Game memorabilia
and lots more. Bidding for these five packages is ongoing and offers
fans the chance of a lifetime to get up close and personal with five of
the world’s most popular golf stars.
Last year’s TELUS Skins Game charity auction saw
a Calgary resident bid more than $51,000 for the chance to serve as John
Daly’s caddie when the event visited The Fairmont Banff Springs, in
Banff, Alberta. The 2006 charity auction alone raised more than $67,000
contributing to TELUS’ total donation of $200,000 to the Alberta
Children’s Hospital Foundation.
As part of the event’s tribute to the ‘world’
game, fan favourite and TELUS Skins Game defending champion
John Daly, representing the United States, will return for
his sixth consecutive appearance, with Stephen Ames,
representing Canada, appearing in his third consecutive year in the
event. Three first-time players will participate in the 2007 TELUS World
Skins Game, including five-time European Tour Player of the Year
Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, with Australia’s
Geoff Ogilvy and South Africa’s
Retief Goosen, ranked eighth and tenth in the world
respectively, rounding out the field.
Tickets for the 2007 TELUS World Skins Game are
on sale through IMG Tickets by calling 1-866-60SKIN1 or by visiting
www.telusskins.com.
A two-day tournament pass is priced at $130, with single day passes, for
either day of the event, priced at $75. A junior ticket for fans 12 and
under is available at a 50 per cent discount, while children five and
under are admitted free to the event. A maximum of 5,000 tickets are
sold for each day of the event.
The Raven Golf Club at Lora Bay’s 7,200-yard
championship layout, co-designed by PGA Tour Professional Tom Lehman and
Canadian golf course architect Thomas McBroom, was named to Travel &
Leisure Magazine’s list of the Best New Golf Courses in 2006.
The TELUS World Skins Game is also sponsored by
The Westin Trillium House, Blue Mountain; The Raven Golf Club at Lora
Bay; Intrawest; Making the Connection; Capital One; Grey Goose Vodka;
Audi; TaylorMade Adidas; OMEGA; Wolf Blass Wines; The Globe & Mail;
Corus; Town Media Inc.; The Jim Pattison Media Group; Ontario PGA, and
in partnership with Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation.
About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU) is a leading national telecommunications
company in Canada, with $8.8 billion of annual revenue and 10.8 million
customer connections including 5.1 million wireless subscribers, 4.5
million wireline network access lines and 1.1 million Internet
subscribers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and
services including data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, entertainment
and video. Committed to being Canada's premier corporate citizen, we
give where we live. Since 2000, TELUS and our team members have
contributed more than $91 million to charitable and non-profit
organizations and volunteered more than 1.7 million hours of service to
local communities. Eight TELUS Community Boards across Canada lead our
local philanthropic initiatives. For more information about TELUS,
please visit telus.com.
About IMG
IMG is the world's premier Sports, Entertainment and Media Company. IMG
is a diversified global business with two major business segments: IMG
Sports & Entertainment, and IMG Media. IMG employs over 2,600 people in
30 countries. Forstmann Little & Co. purchased IMG in 2004.
IMG Sports & Entertainment includes: consulting
services; event ownership and management; fashion events and models
representation; licensing; golf course design; client representation in
golf, tennis, broadcasting, speakers, European football, rugby, cricket,
motorsports, coaching, Olympic sports and action sports. In addition,
IMG Academies is the world's largest and most advanced,
state-of-the-art, multi-sport training and educational facility,
delivering world-class sports training experiences to over 12,000
junior, collegiate, adult and professional athletes each year.
IMG Media, which includes our content production
subsidiaries TWI, Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) and Tiger Aspect
Productions (TAP), is recognized as a global leader in the delivery of
traditional and new media content and services, with Internet, broadband
and mobile expertise, transforming how audiences access and interact
with content.
IMG Media produces and distributes over 11,000
hours of sports, documentary, drama, comedy, entertainment,
popular factual and children’s content annually, over multiple platforms
across 220 countries, including award-winning television and radio
programming. It also represents the broadcast rights to many of the
world's premier sporting events and has the world’s biggest sports
archive with more than 250,000 hours of footage.
More information about IMG is available at
www.imgworld.com,
www.darlowsmithson.com and
www.tigeraspect.co.uk
For all media inquires, please contact:
Cecily Dobson
TELUS Media Relations
(403) 333-2052
cecily.dobson@telus.com
Dave Haggith
IMG Canada
(416) 960-5312 ext. 120
dhaggith@imgworld.com
