NEW sponsorships ensure professional golfers in Wales and the West will play for a prize fund exceeding £325,000 for the seventh successive year.

Satelcom, a Berkshire-based telecommunications company run by Brian Jacobs, who is a member of Dorset club Rushmore Park, is investing £20,000.

The cash will bring added spice to the Satelcom Order of Merit as the leading five players will earn cash prizes for the first time.

He is also again backing the Club Professionals' Championship at Rushmore Park in September as well as the West Region Championship at the Player's Club, near Bristol, on April 13-16.

NIS Employment Services Ltd from Chipping Sodbury are co-sponsoring the championship, the region's flagship tournament.

Managing director Amanda Parker is a member of Chipping Sodbury and a keen supporter of regional Pro Ams.

Bristol, the West's regional centre, features prominently in this year's calendar for the first time in more than a decade.

The £7,500 Bristol Festival has been launched by new Redwood Lodge Hotel manager Derek Silk supported by the hotel's parent company Corus at Long Ashton and Bristol and Clifton on August 27-28. It will be restricted to 44 teams.

The national club professionals tournament renamed the PGA Members' National Championship is being held at The Kendleshire on June 3.

A new 36-hole £15,000 order of merit event is being played at Cumberwell Park on July 29-30. This will also be the West's round of the Adgolf Professional Series. The nine regional qualifiers are taken to Spain for the grand final in December.

The 54-hole Wood-BMW Classic is being staged at Dudsbury for the eighth year on July 1-4.

Once again another strong Welsh programme is supported by the successful Welsh 2010 Ryder Cup bid committee, headed by Rob Holt.

The Welsh Masters remains at Marriott St Pierre, but switches to the Mathern course from August

3-6.

The 54-hole South Wales Open, staged at Newport last year, now becomes the Mid Wales Open and is held at Cradoc on September 1-3.

The Welsh Classic is the sixth and final order of merit tournament at the Vale of Glamorgan on October 14-16. That is where this year's order of merit winner will be decided, based on points won in five of the six tournaments

The £40,000 Welsh Professional and Welsh Seniors Championships have moved from South Wales back to the north and hosted for the first time by Portmadoc from September 8-11.

Regional secretary Ray Ellis said: "The Welsh section has never been stronger. We have four exceptionally attractive tournaments, thanks to Welsh Ryder Cup bid funding.

"We have been the most successful region outside Scotland for almost a decade and this season promises to be the best we've had for a long time."

The Welsh order of merit winner will be determined from the best three finishes out of the four tournaments in the Principality.

New Pro-Ams will be staged at Clevedon, Crane Valley, Pontypridd and Salisbury.

The first major Pro-Am is the three-day annual Cornish Festival from April 29. St Enodoc, a championship course rated among the best in Britain, returns to the rota, alongside Newquay and the traditional home base at Trevose.

The long-standing fourball betterball White Hart Hotel tournament is being held for the 22nd year at Launceston from June 16-18. The five-day Stena Line Irish Pro-Am at St Helen's Bay and Rosslare starts on June 23.

The Assistants Championship goes to Woodlake Park for the first time on May 19-20.

Venues for the Titleist-Footjoy Assistants League, which encourage up-and-coming professionals, are Exeter, Bath, Tredegar Park, Weston-super-Mare and The Wiltshire. The leading five players at the end of the series win handsome prizes from the sponsors.

The precise format of the three-day Bournemouth Festival has not been finalised, but it will centre on Dudsbury from September 23.

The South West Championship that started nearly 20 years ago is not being played this year. The Manor House Hotel at Moretonhampstead has been sold and the course is being redesigned.

Tournaments for the 100 members of the Patrons' Club have been arranged at Saunton, Lyme Regis, Parkstone, Brynhill, Exeter, The Player's Club and Bath.