Johnnie Walker Tees Off at Ryder Cup with Brand Experience

Johnnie Walker, Official Partner of the 2014 Ryder Cup, is creating a bespoke, brand immersion experience at this year’s tournament at Gleneagles. The Johnnie Walker Experience will include a four-hole Mini Golf Course for fans of whisky and golf to enjoy.

The Johnnie Walker Experience is an exclusive pop-up installation where players, media and invited guests can have fun and sample a Johnnie & Ginger as the drama of The Ryder Cup unfolds a short walk away on the PGA Centenary Course. The unveiling is part of a series of exciting activities by Johnnie Walker, as anticipation builds ahead of the tournament’s tee-off on September 26, including an ambitious plan to get 25,000 people to ‘Join the Pact’ during Ryder Cup week by asking them to make a commitment to Never Drink and Drive. 

Revealing details of the Johnnie Walker Experience, Guy Escolme, Global Brand Director, Johnnie Walker, said: “Whisky and golf are two of Scotland greatest gifts to the world and what better way to celebrate them than with a visit to our spectacular pop-up house and a thrilling game of Mini Golf?

“The Johnnie Walker Mini Golf Course tells the story of how the whiskies of John Walker & Sons travelled from the four corners of Scotland to the four corners of the world in a fun and relaxed environment. 

Fans of whisky and golf who are attending this year’s Ryder Cup can book a tee-off time by signing up at johnniewalkerexp.eventbrite.com.”

Johnnie Walker was the first Scottish brand to enjoy Official Partner status for the 2014 Ryder Cup. The partnership builds on Diageo’s long-standing association with The Ryder Cup which stretches back to the 1980s.

The creation of the Johnnie Walker Experience follows on from the release of the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Ryder Cup Collectors’ Limited Edition bottle earlier this summer when just 2,350 bottles of the luxury edition were created.

Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker, also owns the Gleneagles Hotel, the host venue for this year’s Ryder Cup. 

In the past 10 years, Diageo’s investment in supporting golf through the Johnnie Walker Championship, the 2014 Ryder Cup and through initiatives including direct spending on golf at Gleneagles totals over £30million. The investment at Gleneagles includes ongoing investment in maintaining and improving the hotel and golf course.

In 1921, Gleneagles played a role in the genesis of The Ryder Cup by hosting the first of two unofficial matches between professionals from Great Britain and the United States. The second of these matches was played five years later at Wentworth Club – and in the gallery was an English entrepreneur named Samuel Ryder. Enthralled by the match, he donated a small but striking gold cup for subsequent competitions, the first of which was played officially as The Ryder Cup in 1927.

Players of the Johnnie Walker Mini Golf Course will receive score-cards and make their way around the tricky four holes while discovering fascinating facts about the brand’s history. The four holes have been named: The Grocery Store; The Four Corners; Scotland’s Finest Exports and Keep Walking and each hole has been inspired by different elements of the brand’s history.

Guy Escolme added: “Johnnie Walker is a proud sponsor of the 2014 Ryder Cup and we look forward to welcoming fans of whisky and golf to experience our Johnnie Walker Experience as the world’s greatest golfers descend on Gleneagles for what promises to be three days of fantastic golf.”