LACK of cash has led to the loss of a professional golf event which the Island has hosted for the past 20 years.

With no sponsor and only a £1,000 contribution from Tourism, Les Mielles Golf Club has been forced to withdraw from hosting the PGA Jersey Players Championship in October.

‘We used to get around ฃ10,000 from Tourism along with Sport, Leisure and Recreation but from 2005 we’ve had to find our own sponsors because when they re-arranged committees and looked at budgets they found that they couldn’t help us on the same scale anymore,’ explained Les Mielles administrator, Lynne Cottignies.

‘Lack of any substantial support from Jersey Tourism has been a major factor in the loss of the tournament. Their decision to award ฃ50,000 to La Moye for the Seniors event and ฃ3,000 to Les Ormes for the National Nines while only allowing ฃ1,000 to Les Mielles, has made it increasingly difficult to finance the Championship.’

With no sponsor in place, despite interest being shown when it was reported earlier this year that the event was under threat, Les Mielles had to report back to the PGA with a disappointing ‘No’ to hosting the South Region Order of Merit event.

‘When we’ve approached Tourism to find out if there is any chance of reviewing the amount we were just told a blank no,’ added Cottignies.

‘We’ve found out all this money has gone to the other golf clubs and if it had just been shared out a bit more then all three could have been run.

‘It’s local golfers’ one chance to have the opportunity to play with professional golfers in a friendly atmosphere and last year we introduced free tuition from the professionals to local schoolchildren.

‘That was an absolute hit both with professionals and the schools, with people queuing up to get involved, which was something we were hoping to grow this year.

‘It’s such a crying shame that something that’s been here for 20 years and going so well has no choice but to end.’

Tourism were quick to respond upon learning that the event had been cancelled and David de Carteret, director of Tourism and Marketing said: ‘Our policy is very much one of trying to support a broad range of sporting and leisure activities in order to bring large numbers of people to the Island and also to create atmosphere and activities for those already here.

‘Each event is looked at and scored on a variety of criteria and golf plays an important part but can only justify a certain level of funding. We have to think about value for tax payers’ money. For this event we had agreed to provide ฃ1,000.

‘We regret the loss of an event which had a part to play in bringing visitors to the Island and providing entertainment, but at the end of the day if it can’t be run because of a lack of sponsorship obviously it’s most unfortunate, but we can’t increase our funding.’