The International Federation of PGA Tours announced on January 30 that Omega has further enhanced its involvement in golf with the signing of an agreement to become title sponsor of the Mission Hills World Cup.

The World Cup is the oldest and most prestigious global golf team event in the world inviting two person teams from as many as 28 nations to play; it is hardly surprising that it has been labelled "The Olympics of Golf", a title of huge significance in today's China.

The 12 year contract, concluded at The European Tour's headquarters at Wentworth, England, will see Mission Hills Golf Club, China, host the Omega Mission Hills World Cup through to the year 2018. The event, although sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours, will not fall under the umbrella of the World Golf Championships.

Omega's involvement in golf includes world class tournaments such as the Omega European Masters in Switzerland on The European Tour International Schedule, and the link-up with Mission Hills will signify a return to Asia where the company had been active with the Asian Tour for many years and is currently the title sponsor of the China Tour. Golf is an integral part of Omega's sport strategy which is based on its unique role as Official Timekeeper at 23 Olympic Games, including Beijing in 2008.

The 2007 Omega Mission Hills World Cup will be held from November 22 to 25 2007 on the Olazabal Course at Mission Hills, the 7400-yard layout of which was designed by double Masters Tournament Champion Jose Maria Olazabal.

The defending champions will be Germany who claimed their second World Cup crown in Barbados last December when Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem defeated Scotland's Colin Montgomerie and Marc Warren at the first hole of a sudden-death play-off.

First played in 1953, John Jay Hopkins, a noted Canadian industrialist and scholar, had a dream that the game of golf could promote goodwill between nations all over the world, and thus founded the International Golf Association and with it a tournament called the Canada Cup. The tournament toured the world and in 1967, to reflect its international image, it became the World Cup, which has since been won by all the great names of the game.

In 1995, the World Cup visited China, hosted by Mission Hills, and thereby introduced the game of professional golf into the world's largest country. In 2000, the World Cup became sanctioned by the International Federation of PGA Tours. The Omega Mission Hills World Cup will continue in the tradition of the World Cup as the only world team stroke play event with a prize purse of $5 million.