One of the very real privileges of my term of serving as president of the PGAs of Europe, and more recently as a director, has been to meet the wonderful people who either sponsor or administer golf tournaments in regions of the world where golf is a comparatively new sport.

Among the more recent was Aegean Airlines who for the past three or four years have sponsored a marvellous Pro-Am golf tournament firstly on the Geek island of Crete and in 2009 at the splendid and indeed historic resort of Porto Carras (below). Similar events take place in Turkey where, of course, Mustafa Koç and Beko have played such a crucial part in the country’s golf development followed by Kempinski with their international Pro-Am. Everything about these events is produced to the very highest of international standards.

Talking of Greece and my time as Executive Director of The PGA European Tour from 1975 - 2004 reminded me that we were destined not to see the Tour players visit that wonderful country in South East Europe. Until now and the arrival of Aegean’s sponsorship, golf in Greece has not been developed to the extent that the country’s neighbours to the west, namely Spain & Portugal, where hundreds of thousands of golf related tourists visit virtually every month of each year.

Greece intends to catch up... and we should be optimistic that it will and, indeed, join its even closer neighbour Turkey as a true golfing haven.

Whilst at Porto Carras I was intrigued to see the arrival of golfers arriving by road - from nearby Bulgaria, and by air from many Eastern European countries. This thrilled me because for the first 15 years or so of my time at the European Tour we saw no golf – and indeed no golfers from Eastern Europe.

Not until that moment of supreme history 20 years ago, when the Berlin Wall was toppled, was our great game permitted to be played in East Germany and all points to Vladivostok!

Now, happily, major tournament golf and emerging high-quality golfers - amateur & professional - are emerging from many of our Eastern European nations. The Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, and Kazakhstan have each hosted top level competition.

This growth in golf, that is reflected in other regions of the world including Central and South America and parts of Africa, has not happened by accident. Nor has the quality of the amateur and professional players of both gender who constantly emerge.

One essential common denominator has been the often unseen work carried out under the auspices of the joint development initiative operated by The R&A and The PGAs of Europe.

During the last decade or so some 40 countries globally have been visited by consultants/tutors selected by The PGAs of Europe Education Committee and funded by The R&A using surplus income from the stage of The Open Championship.

In many, maybe most, cases these countries have benefited subsequently by an on-going three-year programme of visits by the relevant consultant. This philosophy of exporting golf education and best practices free of charge has proven to be a highly significant power for good in the sport worldwide.

Then, perhaps, the single biggest boost to the future of the game was announced in Copenhagen on October 9. That day The International Olympic Committee announced that golf would rejoin the Olympic Movement in 2016 when Rio de Janeiro will play host.

What price some European medals – and that hopefully some will be for our Eastern colleagues. They would be some of the most deserved medals in the great history of the Olympics when one thinks of the long struggle simply to get to the first tee!!”