Seve Trophy gets new name and new date

BALTRAY, Ireland ' The biennial Seve Trophy competition pitting Britain & Ireland against Continental Europe will have a new name in September.

The event is named after Spanish golf great Seve Ballesteros, who helped organize the first competition. It will be called the Vivendi Trophy with Severiano Ballesteros, and held at Saint-Nom-la-Breteche near Paris on Sept. 24-27, the European Tour said Thursday.

Ballesteros is recovering from surgeries to remove a cancerous brain tumor.

Fittingly, Seve has a special relationship with France, where Vivendi is based and where he has won no fewer than nine times, said European Tour chief executive George OGrady.

Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn will be the captains for Britain and Ireland, which will defend the trophy they won in 2007.

Vivendi is a French media conglomerate.