2014 Volvo World Match Play Championship

The Volvo World Match Play Championship was an annual match play men's professional golf tournament which was staged from 1964 to 2014. The World Match Play Championship was a limited field event, originally contested by just eight players before being expanded to sixteen in 1977, and to 24 in 2011. In 2004 it became an official tournament on the European Tour for the first time, having previously been a designated "approved special event". The event was traditionally played in the autumn, usually in October, but moved to a May date in 2011. Previous sponsors have included Piccadilly, Suntory, Toyota, Cisco, HSBC and Volvo. The Wentworth Club near London was host venue for the World Match Play for the first 45 years. From 2009 to 2012 the event was played at the Finca Cortesín Golf Club in Casares near Málaga, Spain. In 2013, the event was held at the Thracian Cliffs Golf & Beach Resort in Kavarna, Bulgaria, and in 2014, it was held at the London Golf Club in Kent, England.

Kent is a county in the south-eastern corner of England. It is bounded to the north by Greater London and the Thames Estuary, to the west by Sussex and Surrey, and to the south and east by the English channel and the North Sea. The county town is Maidstone. It is governed by Kent County Council, with twelve district councils, Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Dover, Folkestone and Hythe, Gravesham, Maidstone, Thanet, Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells. Medway is a separate unitary authority. The chalk hills of the North Downs run from east to west through the county, with the wooded Weald to the south. The coastline is alternately flat and cliff-lined.Local nature reserves are designated by local authorities under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The local authority must have legal control over the site, by owning or leasing it or having an agreement with the owner. Local nature reserves are sites which have a special local interest either biologically or geologically. Local authorities have a duty to care for them and can apply local bye-laws to manage and protect them.As of May 2018, there are 42 local nature reserves in the county. Thirteen are Sites of Special Scientific Interest, five are Ramsar internationally important wetland sites, three are Nature Conservation Review sites, five are Special Protection Areas under the European Union Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds, two are Special Areas of Conservation, one is a Geological Conservation Review site, one includes a scheduled monument, one is a national nature reserve, five are managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust and one is owned by Plantlife.

Egerton is a village and civil parish in the Ashford District of Kent, England. The village is on the Greensand Ridge 9 miles (14.4 km) north of Ashford and stretches three miles south into a lower plain towards the West Stour. The parish is a relatively scattered rural one; the settlement of Stonebridge Green, adjacent to Egerton village centre, is also in the parish.

Stonebridge Green is a settlement adjacent to, and within the civil parish of, Egerton in the Ashford District of Kent, England. It lies immediately north east of the main village, and includes the bridge over the Great Stour river, after which it is named.

Lenham Heath is a hamlet in Kent situated on the southern edge of the North Downs, halfway between Maidstone and Ashford. grid reference TQ910500. The road through Lenham Heath runs parallel, and close to High Speed 1 and the M20 motorway. The Stour Valley Walk passes through the community.

Pluckley is a village and civil parish in the Ashford district of Kent, England. The civil parish includes the adjacent hamlet of Pluckley Thorne.

Smarden is a civil parish and village, west of Ashford in Kent, South East England. The village has the Anglican parish church of St Michael the Archangel which, because of its high scissor beam roof, is sometimes known as "The Barn of Kent".

Four major rivers drain the county of Kent, England.

Kent is a county in the South East England region, the closest county to continental Europe. It borders Essex across the entire estuary of the River Thames to the north; the French department of Pas-de-Calais across the Strait of Dover to the south-east; East Sussex to the south-west; Surrey to the west and Greater London to the north-west. The county town is Maidstone. It is the fifth most populous county in England, the most populous non-metropolitan county and the most populous of the Home Counties, an area influenced by the capital such as commutes and transport connections to the capital. Twenty-eight per cent of the county forms part of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty: the North Downs and The High Weald. Kent was one of the first British territories to be settled by Germanic tribes, most notably the Jutes, following the withdrawal of the Romans. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the oldest cathedral in England, has been the seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the conversion of England to Christianity that began in the 6th century with Saint Augustine. Rochester Cathedral in Medway is England's second-oldest cathedral. Located between London and the Strait of Dover, which separates England from mainland Europe, Kent has been the setting for both conflict and diplomacy, including the Battle of Britain in World War II and the Leeds Castle peace talks of 1978 and 2004. England relied on the county's ports to provide warships through much of its history; the Cinque Ports in the 10th–14th centuries and Chatham Dockyard in the 16th–20th centuries were of particular importance. France can be seen clearly in fine weather from Folkestone and the White Cliffs of Dover. Hills in the form of the North Downs and the Greensand Ridge span the length of the county and in the Vale of Holmesdale in between and to the south are most of the county's 26 castles. The county has agriculture, haulage, logistics and tourism industries. As the land between the capital and the wider continent, it is a high-income county. Agriculture of the county is a notable sector: "The Garden of England" is a nickname for the county, which has multiple orchards and allotments. In north-west Kent, industries include aggregate building material extraction, printing and scientific research. Coal mining has also played its part in the county's industrial heritage.

Pluckley railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the village of Pluckley, Kent, which is approximately 1.2 miles (2 km) to the north. It is 50 miles 35 chains (81.2 km) down the line from London Charing Cross. The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by Southeastern.

Royal Air Force Headcorn or more commonly known as RAF Headcorn is a former Royal Air Force Advanced Landing Ground located 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of Headcorn, Kent, England. Opened in 1943, Headcorn was a prototype for the temporary Advanced Landing Ground airfields to be built in France after D-Day, when the need for advanced landing fields became urgent as the Allied forces moved east across France and Germany. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces. It was closed in September 1944 and has now reverted to farmland.

Boughton Malherbe ( BAW-tən MAL-ər-bee) is a village and civil parish in the Maidstone district of Kent, England, equidistant between Maidstone and Ashford. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 428, including Sandway and Grafty Green, increasing to 476 at the 2011 Census.