Press Releases

Killarney, July 28th 2011 - New research from Genworth, the official sponsors of the European Tour Statistics, gathered from 38 amateurs and 42 European Tour professionals playing in the Irish Open Pro-am on Wednesday 27th July, highlights just how difficult it is for an amateur to play a championship course under near championship conditions.

Compared with playing on their normal course over a third (34%) of the amateurs say that the pressure of playing in front of spectators is the biggest challenge, whilst 17% quoted the pressure of playing with a pro.  The narrow fairways and distance of holes were also a significant challenge for 14%, whilst reading the greens was tough for 11% of respondents. 

When comparing the on the course performance of Europe’s top golf professionals and the amateurs:

• The professionals are, on average, driving the ball around 86 yards further than the amateurs*
• The obstacles are proving equally challenging for the professionals and the amateurs with 15% of the pros on average hitting at least one bunker on each hole, compared with 13% for the amateurs.
• The professionals are more accurate, on average hitting 58% of the fairways compared with 40% for the amateurs.

Hole 13 at Killarney, a tough par 4 affectionately known as the 'Tiger’ hole, was far and away the most difficult for the amateurs with (32% putting it as their first choice).

It was not all bad news for the amateurs however with a higher percentage of them managing to hole one putts on the 3rd than the pros. They also hit the bunkers less frequently than the pros on the 3rd, 12th and 15th holes.

Having the opportunity to play alongside a top professional is not something that many amateur Irish golfers have the opportunity to do with nearly half (47%) putting their professional playing partner’s ability to consistently hit shots as the thing they admired most about their play. Driving distance and putting accuracy where the next two top admired qualities with 25% and 19% respectively.

Redmond McDonnell, Managing Director - Ireland at Genworth said: “When you watch the professionals on TV they make it all look so easy. The Killeen course at Killarney is a challenging course to begin with so when you add the pressure of the spectators the pressure to play your top game becomes quite significant for an amateur.”

“As official sponsors of the European Tour statistics we will be providing each of the players with their own personalised statistics packs so that they not only have a record of the day but they can look at areas for improvement in the same way the pros use the official statistics”.

Please download infographic e-book from the event: http://www.genworth.ie/content/etc/medialib/genworth_ie/pdfs.Par.57093.File.tmp/irish-open-infographic-27-july-2011-v0.pdf

About Genworth Financial
Genworth Financial, Inc. (NYSE: GNW) is a leading Fortune 500 insurance holding company with more than $100 billion in assets that is dedicated to helping people secure their financial lives, families and futures.  Genworth has leadership positions in offerings that assist consumers in protecting themselves, investing for the future and planning for retirement – including life insurance, long term care insurance, financial protection coverages, and independent advisor-based wealth management – and mortgage insurance that helps consumers achieve homeownership while assisting lenders in managing their risk and capital.

Genworth has approximately 6,500 employees and operates through three segments: Retirement and Protection, U.S. Mortgage Insurance and International. Its products and services are offered through financial intermediaries, advisors, independent distributors and sales specialists. Genworth Financial, which traces its roots back to 1871, became a public company in 2004 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. For more information, visit Genworth.com.  From time to time, Genworth releases important information via postings on its corporate website.  Accordingly, investors and other interested parties are encouraged to enroll to receive automatic email alerts and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds regarding new postings.  Enrollment information is found under the “Investors” section of Genworth.com.

For further information please contact: