MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Walmart announced the members of its professional angling team that will hit the water in 2015. The Walmart team will be comprised of pros Mark Rose of West Memphis, Arkansas, David Dudley of Lynchburg, Virginia, and co-angler Nicole Jacobs of New Brighton, Minnesota.

Rose, a 16-year veteran of the Walmart FLW Tour, wrapped up his 2014 season with a fifth-place finish in the Angler of the Year standings. He qualified for the ninth Forrest Wood Cup appearance of his career and earned more than $100,000 throughout the season. The Arkansas native has 40 career top-10 finishes and six career victories.

"When I represent a title sponsor, it needs to be something that I believe in and can really endorse whole heartedly," Rose said. "Walmart helps me, and millions of other people, save money and live better every day. In today's times, that means a lot, so it's easy to represent a company like Walmart."

No stranger to quality and performance, 18-year FLW Tour veteran David Dudley will compete in FLW competition in a Walmart-wrapped Ranger boat for the first time this season. A three-time FLW Tour Angler of the Year winner, Dudley has 39 career top-10 finishes and seven career wins in FLW competition, giving him career earnings of more than $3.3 million dollars – the highest total in FLW history.

"With a family of five children to support, we definitely do a lot of our shopping at Walmart," Dudley said. "I believe in the company, and that's extremely important to me in a title sponsor. I look forward to representing the Walmart brand in 2015."

Newcomer Nicole Jacobs will represent Walmart in the FLW Tour co-angler ranks during her first season on the FLW Tour. A well-respected angler in the Midwest, Jacobs is looking to take the next step in her professional angling career and is excited to represent Walmart around the country.

"It's an honor to have been selected to represent Walmart," Jacobs said. "I am going to do my best to be a positive role model for all anglers – men, women and children."

Walmart began its relationship with FLW in 1997, as title sponsor of the FLW Tour then added title sponsorship of the Bass Fishing League (BFL) in 2001. The partnership offers both companies a wide variety of marketing and promotional opportunities including Walmart in-store promotions and retailtainment linked to FLW tournaments.

ABOUT FLW
FLW is the industry's premier tournament-fishing organization, providing anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money nationwide in 2015 over the course of 240 tournaments across five tournament circuits, four of which provide an avenue to the sport's richest payday and most coveted championship trophy – the Forrest Wood Cup. FLW tournament fishing can be seen on the Emmy-nominated "FLW" television show and is broadcast to more than 564 million households worldwide, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoors-sports television show in the world. For more information about FLW visit FLWFishing.com and look for FLW on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

ABOUT WALMART
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better -- anytime and anywhere -- in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, more than 250 million customers and members visit our 11,156 stores under 71 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With fiscal year 2014 sales of over $473 billion, Walmart employs approximately 2 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart.

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SOURCE FLW