Standard Life Investments new Ryder Cup sponsor

STANDARD Life Investments has become the first global sponsor of golf’s Ryder Cup after signing deals for the 2014 and 2016 tournaments.

The agreements cover next year’s competition at Gleneagles and the 2016 event at the Hazeltine national golf course in Chaska, Minnesota.

Pete Bevacqua, chief executive officer of the PGA of America, which runs the tournament in the United States, said: “The Ryder Cup is among the most valuable sponsorship investments in sport and we are confident that Standard Life Investments will reap tremendous value from its worldwide partnership on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Keith Skeoch, chief executive of Edinburgh-based Standard Life Investments, pictured left with the Ryder Cup, said the deal was “an integral part” of its “long-term brand building strategy”.

The competition has a potential daily television audience of 500 million people in 183 countries.

News of the deal comes just weeks after small businesses were invited to tender for contracts to supply the 2014 Ryder Cup via the Public Contracts Scotland website.