Matt Fitzpatrick’s US Open triumph could help Yorkshire land top-level tournaments once again

SGH Events have co-hosted the Ian Woosnam Senior Classic at Ilkley the last two years and will do so again with former US PGA champion Rich Beem the star attraction at September’s event.

But they are aiming higher for 2023, with designs on bringing a Legends Tour event (formerly the Seniors Tour) to the White Rose county, even with their previous co-organisers Welcome to Yorkshire having folded.

After that the aim is to raise enough capital to bring a DP World Tour event (former European Tour) to the region.

Yorkshire was a regular destination for European Tour events all the way up to the end of the 1980s, with the biggest names in golf like Woosnam, Nick Faldo and Seve Ballesteros regularly playing at Moortown in Leeds and Fulford in York. But the region has not hosted an event of such standing since 1989.

SGH Events, a promotions company co-founded by former professional golfer Simon Hurd and Andrew Jennings, believe that with the right financial backing they can change that.

Jennings explained: “We were really excited about what we were doing with Welcome to Yorkshire and even though that organisation has gone, we remain desperate to bring professional tournaments back to Yorkshire. We’ve got a three-year contract with Ilkley for the Senior Classic and through that event we’ve got some great partners on board to the point where we’re now thinking ‘right, let’s set our aspirations a bit higher for next year’. We’ve got backing from the Legends Tour and if more partners buy into it we will then look to the DP World Tour.

“That’s the dream – in fact, it’s not a dream, because we can make this happen if we can find the financial backers.

“I appreciate times are still tough but there is still a huge desire for golf out there; to play it, support it and promote it in Yorkshire.

“We’ve got this momentum from what Matt has done, let’s now go and build on it.”