Did You Know - A Summary of Things You Might Not Know About IMG's Recent Global Activities
2/14/05 1:07

IMG Golf has finalized arrangements as the owner, organizer and promoter of the inaugural HSBC Women�s World Match Play Championship, the only individual match play championship in women�s golf and the first official women�s match play tournament to be played in America in half a century. The event will be played at the spectacular Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, New Jersey, June 30 - July 3, 2005.  The winner will receive $500,000, the largest first prize in the history of the LPGA.  Players in the 64-woman field will compete in 18 holes of head-to-head match play golf culminating in a grand final on Sunday.  The event will be covered live in the U.S. by CBS on Saturday, July 2 from 3:00 � 5:00 PM EDT and Sunday, July 3 from 2:00 � 4:00 PM EDT.  The Golf Channel will broadcast the first two days of play.  Internationally, the championship will be seen in major markets around the world with a cumulative reach of an estimated 100 million homes.

With his powerful win at the Australian Open, 15 year-old IMG Tennis client Donald Young became the youngest boy to win a junior (age 18 and under) Grand Slam title.  At Melbourne, he delivered a devastating performance, beating Korean Sun-Yong Kim 6-2, 6-4 to also become the youngest player to reach the No. 1 Junior rankings since they began. Donald is the first American to win the Australian Open boys' title and first to be ranked No. 1 in world since then-18 year-old Andy Roddick accomplished both feats in 2000.

IMG Skating Client Jeff Buttle won the Men's singles event at the Canadian Nationals in London, Ontario, and IMG Skating Clients Katie Orscher and Garrett Lucash won the U.S. Pairs event at the U.S. Nationals in Portland, Oregon.  All will compete at the World Figure Skating Championships in Moscow in March.

IMG's soccer client Maxi Lopez signed a four-and-half-year contract with FCBarcelona, one of the best teams in the world. The deal was the result of a close collaboration between IMG Argentina (who represents Maxi and negotiated his transfer from his old club, River Plate) and IMG Spain, who negotiated the deal with FCBarcelona.

IMG was recently asked by the Hong Kong Football Association to assist with a charity match and charity auction to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami. In addition to selling match signage to sponsors (raising around US$20,000), IMG used its contacts with a number of English football teams to collect signed shirts for auction.  Together these shirts (from Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and the England National Team) were auctioned off for a total of over US$131,000.  Altogether, IMG helped to raise over US$150,000.

Tennis legend Boris Becker, the former three-time Wimbledon champion, has signed with IMG for exclusive representation in the UK and the US.  In addition to tennis and other commercial opportunities, IMG will to help develop Becker�s television career via TWI.

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