- Russian Open Golf Championship
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Russian Open Tournament information Location 
Moscow, RussiaEstablished 1993 Course(s) Moscow Country Club Par 72 Length 7,154 yards Format Stroke play Prize fund $ 2,000,000 Month played July Tournament record score Aggregate 265 Per-Ulrik Johansson (2007) To par -23 (as above) Current champion 
Mikael LundbergThe Russian Open Golf Championship was an annual golf tournament on the PGA European Tour, and the only one on the tour's schedule that was played east of the former Iron Curtain. The event was established in 1993, and was held at the Moscow Country Club in Nakhabino, just outside Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast, Russia.
Originally contested over the first nine holes at the Moscow Country Club as an amateur tournament while the rest of the course was still under construction, the Russian Open became Russia's first professional golf tournament in 1995. It became an event on the second-tier Challenge Tour the following year, and was added to the European Tour schedule from 2003. Between 2003 to 2005, it was an official money event on both tours, and from 2006 to 2008, it was solely an event on the European Tour calendar.
Through 2006, it was held on the same weekend in August as the PGA Championship, one of professional golf's four majors, which automatically made it a secondary event. In 2007, was held the weekend before the PGA Championship, but remained an alternate event, this time to the Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championships event. In 2008, it was held the week after The Open Championship.
The 2005 prize fund of $500,000 was around a tenth of those of the leading events on the European Tour, even leaving aside the major championships and World Golf Championships. However, it was one of the richest tournaments of the season on the Challenge Tour. In 2006, when it became a European Tour only event, the prize fund doubled to $1 million, doubling again the following year, to $2 million.
The tournament is not on the 2009 European Tour schedule.
Winners
European Tour
Year Winner Score Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 Mikael Lundberg 267 (-21) Russian Open Golf Championship 2007 Per-Ulrik Johansson 265 (-23) Imperial Collection Russian Open 2006 
Alejandro Cañizares 266 (-22) European Tour & Challenge Tour
Year Winner Score Cadillac Russian Open 2005 Mikael Lundberg 273 (-15)PO BMW Russian Open 2004 
Gary Emerson 272 (-16) 2003 
Marcus Fraser 269 (-19)PO Challenge Tour
Year Winner Score BMW Russian Open 2002 Iain Pyman 269 (-19) 2001 
Jamie Donaldson 270 (-18) 2000 
Marco Bernardini 269 (-19) 1999 Iain Pyman 273 (-15) Moscow Country Club Russian Open 1998 Warren Bennett 270 (-18) Sovereign Russian Open 1997 Michele Reale 280 (-8)PO 1996 Carl Watts 203 (-13) Pre European & Challenge Tour involvement
Year Winner Score General Motors Russian Open 1995 
Simon Clough [1]294 (+6) Phillips Russian Open 1994 
Steve Schroeder Russian Open 1993 Konstantin Lifanov Notes
- ^ "Briton Wins Russian Open". The Moscow Times. September 5, 1995. http://internal.moscowtimes.ru/indexes/1995/09/05/01.html. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
External links
Categories:- Former European Tour events
- Former Challenge Tour events
- Golf tournaments in Russia
- Sport in Moscow
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