New Research From the Nordea Masters Shows how Challenging it is to Play a Championship Course With a top Professional

STOCKHOLM, July 21, 2011 -

New research from Genworth, the official sponsors of the
European Tour Statistics, gathered from the 214 Scandinavian
amateurs and European Tour professionals playing in the Nordea
Masters Pro-am on Wednesday 20^th July, highlights just
how difficult it is for an amateur to play a championship course
under near championship conditions.

     (Photo:  href="www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20110721/469106">www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20110721/469106 )

Compared with playing on their normal course over a quarter
(26%) of the amateurs say that the pressure of playing alongside a
professional is the biggest challenge, whilst a fifth quote the
speed of the greens. The water and bunkers were also significant
challenge for 12%, whilst having spectators watching was difficult
for one in ten (10.8%)  

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.

Interestingly the amateurs rate hole 15 (33% putting it as their
first choice) as the most challenging on the championship course
sighting the length and water of the Par 5 as the most difficult
features.  For the pros however the 15^th is the
hole on which they had most some their best success with 44% making
one putts and 31% making birdies. Other challenging holes mentioned
by the amateurs were the 1st, 2nd, 9th and the 13th.

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

Having the opportunity to play alongside a top professional is
not something that many amateur Scandinavian golfers have the
opportunity to do with nearly a third (30%) putting their
professional playing partner’s ability to consistently hit shots as
the thing they admired most about their play. Driving accuracy and
length where the next two top admired qualities with 20% and 19%
respectively. Interestingly only 6% mentioned their pro’s putting
performance as a top quality perhaps highlighting that many
amateurs do not see the short game as a big point of difference
between themselves and the professionals.

Lars Lindmark the Managing Director of Genworth in Sweden said:
“When you watch the professionals on TV they make it all look so
easy. The course at Bro Hoff Slott is not only a lot more
challenging to play than your standard golf course but the pressure
of playing competitively with a professional in front of a crowd
adds significantly to the pressure.

“As official sponsors of the European Tour statistics we will be
providing each of the 166 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”.

The professionals taking part in the Pro-am included some of the
world’s top golfers including Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and
defending champion Richard S Johnson whilst the amateurs ranged
from students to the CEOs of some Sweden’s biggest businesses.
 Around half of the amateurs playing manage to play golf at
least 5 times a month and have on average been playing golf for 20
years.

Notes to editors

• based on the average driving distances on the 1^st
  hole

Infographic: href="www.genworth.se/content/etc/medialib/genworth_se/nordea_scandinavian.Par.6301.File.tmp/nordea-masters-pro-am-challenge-infographic.pdf">
www.genworth.se/content/etc/medialib/genworth_se/nordea_scandinavian.Par.6301.File.tmp/nordea-masters-pro-am-challenge-infographic.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,
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Genworth has approximately 6,500 employees and operates through
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For further information please contact:

Markus Clavin
Genworth Financial
Markus.clavin@genworth.com
+44(0)7725576-328

Guy Genney
Genworth Financial
href="mailto:Guy.genney@genworth.com">Guy.genney@genworth.com

+44(0)208-380-3786

.