Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008
International Golf Tournament

 July 24 through July 27 will see the staging of the Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 in the suburban Moscow village of Nakhabino. The tournament has been held for 13 years and for the third successive year will be awarding the highest prize money of any Russian tournament, being a full-fledged stage of the PGA European Tour – one of the world’s major golf tournaments.

Since 1993, the tournament has been routinely organized by the Main Administration for Services to the Diplomatic Corps (GlavUpDK) under the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation, represented by administration chief Ivan Ivanovich Sergeyev. It is in large part thanks to his efforts and enthusiasm that the Russian Open has been elevated to such a high level over a short stretch of time.

“For our country, this championship represents the largest golf event of the year,” Ivan Ivanovich Sergeyev says. “GlavUpDK under the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation considers it a great honor and responsibility to be staging a tournament at Russia’s best professional course, and will strive to meet the PGA’s high standards.”

By tradition, the Inteco Russian Open will be held at the Le Meridien Moscow Country Club, which is an affiliate of the Main Administration for Services to the Diplomatic Corps under the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. It is Russia’s only championship-level 18-hole golf course (par 72; 7,015 yards / 6,390 meters), whose signature hole is No. 5. Rated among the top 100 courses of the world, the course was designed by golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. The heart of the author’s concept rests in a classical strategy, with unexpected hazards created to add an element of risk and match unpredictability that grips any player – both amateurs and professionals alike.

On July 23, the competition will open with the annual Pro-Am tournament between professional and amateur players, whose guests will include stars from the worlds of sports and culture, politics and business. The competition will also be attended by invited international stars. Last year, the US actor Don Johnson flew in for the Moscow match, with the leading man of such shows as Miami Vice and Nash Bridges taking part as an amateur player.

This year, the Russian championship will welcome players immediately after the completion of The Open Championship (British Open), one of golf’s major events, and not overlap with any of the other PGA tournaments. This means that many of the world’s elite athletes may be seen among the golfers. The competition, whose prize fund stands at $2,000,000, will be joined by 160 players from 30 countries, including past winners of professional stages of the European Tour, as well as Russian golfers. The tournament will be staged over four rounds (72 holes), with players who make the final cut eliminated after the first two rounds (36 holes).

In various years, the Russian stage of the PGA championship has included such elite golfers as Marcus Fraser (Austria), Jamie Donaldson (Wales), Mikael Lundberg (Sweden) and Per-Ulrik Johansson (Sweden). For some players, victory at the Russian Open was their first professional triumph and marked the launching point for the rest of their careers.

Organizers expect that more than 10,000 people will come out to see the world-class display of golf. Set amidst birch groves and picturesque lakes on a fully protected 120-hectare territory, the Le Meridien Moscow Country Club is the perfect retreat. The live television broadcast, which will be aired by the Russian national Sport channel as well the foreign Eurosport, Sky and Golf Channel broadcasters, will be available to one billion viewers across the world.

Besides the competition, the Russian Open Golf Championship’s program by tradition will also include golf lessons for the guests, a test drive from the tournament’s official automobile partner, as well as social events: a reception in honor of the Pro-Am tournaments in one of Moscow’s luxurious establishments, a Cut Party at the Le Meridien Moscow Country Club on the night of the final round qualification, and a festive Gala Supper on the eve of the closing ceremony, presented by Title Sponsor – Inteco.

The Title Sponsor Inteco, a Russian development group, is a dynamically expanding multiple-profile company that entered the construction business in the 1990s. It actively diversified its operations in this sector, developing along the following fields: development of modern finishing materials and technologies for facade works, cement production, panel and cast-in-place building construction, architectural designing and the real estate business. Currently, the organization’s strategic priorities include the creation and management of mutual funds. Last year, Inteco acted as the Russian Open’s official partner, and this year it became its Title Sponsor.

“First of all, the staging of such tournaments is very important to golf’s development in Russia, helping improve the professional level of Russian players and attracting young, talented Russian players to golf courses,” observed Inteco CJSC President Yelena Baturina. “And second of all, the Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 – which may be seen live by more than a billion television viewers across the world – will represent an important element in the creation of a new image for Russia as a world power that has enormous potential in sports, whose development will enable our country to assume a worthy place on the world’s map of golf.”

The event will also be supported by Imperatorkaya Kollektsiya (Imperial Collection), a manufacturer of super-premium class traditional Russian vodka which is packaged in the style of the great Russian jeweler Carl Faberge, and Danone – a global leader in cultured milk foods. The tournament’s precise time will continue to be told by the famed Swiss luxury brand watchmaker Rolex.

Tickets for the Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 may be purchased at the golf club entrance, or the Internet sites of the www.kassir.ru and www.concert.ru ticket operators. The price of each tickets is 1,000 rubles.
Tournament address: Moscow District, Krasnogorsky Region, the village of Nakhabino, Le Meridien Moscow Country Club.
Directions: by car – along the Volokolamskoye Shosse highway to Krasnogorsk and past the village of Novo-Nikolskoye until the “Moscow Country Club – 2.6 km” indicator; road directions are available on the tournament’s official site. Visitors may also take a special bus that runs according to schedule from the Tushinskaya metro station throughout the tournament.
Official tournament site: www.russianopen.ru
Le Meridien Moscow Country Club site: www.lemeridien-mcc.ru

Additional information and accreditation available at: +7 (495) 961 2420, +7 (926) 353 3861 (Yana Tudvaseva – tudvaseva@kushnir.ru, Kushnir Productions)

Tournament history:

September 1996. Sovereign Russian Open 1996. The first international golf tournament ever to be staged in Russia, the Sovereign Russian Open ’96 became a stage of the PGA European Challenge Tour. Players from 24 countries competed for a prize fund of $100,000. The tournament was won by England’s Carl Watts, who set a course record with a round of 65. Meanwhile Alexander Strunkin, who represented the Moscow Country Club, emerged from the tournament with the distinction of becoming Russia’s first professional golf player.

September 1997. Sovereign Russian Open 1997. The Moscow Country Club once again welcomed the PGA European Challenge Tour. Germany’s Heinz Peter Thul set a new course record with a round of 64. The tournament winner was determined after a two-hole playoff between Italy’s Michele Reale – who became the eventual winner – and Heinz Peter Thul, who was caddied by his wife. Moreover, the Moscow event had the largest prize fund of any of the Challenge’s 50 stages.

August 1998. Moscow Country Club Russian Open 1998. The club once again welcomed player from across the world, including the top 30 professional tour players who competed for a stake of the prize fund. England’s Warren Bennett, with a course record of 18 under par, won the event, which was supported by the Moscow Country Club.

August 1999. BMW Russian Open 1999. The last Russian Open Golf Championship of the century again gathered players from around the world. Securing the first victory of his career, Britain’s Iain Pyman took home the main prize, while Holland’s Niels Kraay made the tournament memorable by scoring a hole-in-one on hole No. 8, which won him a new BMW car worth $70,000.

August 2000. BMW Russian Open 2000. The first Russian Open Golf Championship of the new millennium assembled 142 players, including 16 of the Tour’s top 20 golfers. Breaking the Club record by finishing 19 under par, the championship was won by Italy’s Marco Bernardini, for whom the BMW Russian Open 2000 marked the first professional victory of his career.

August 2001. BMW Russian Open 2001. Some 156 players from the most far-flung corners of the world took part in the event: South African native Andre Bossert broke the course record with a round of 63. But James Donaldson of Wales took home the main prize, fishing the tournament 18 under par.

August 2002. BMW Russian Open 2002. England’s Iain Pyman won the tournament by finishing 19 under par and beating out his countrymen Benn Barham and Guido Van der Valk. English golfer David Salisbury, who scored a hole-in-one, took home a $100,000 prize presented by competition partner MILD SEVEN.         

August 2003. BMW Russian Open 2003. A tournament with a “paired” status that for the first time in Russian golf history was played by professionals from the “major” PGA European Tour. Austria’s Martin Wiegele and Australia’s Marcus Fraser became the championship’s top finishers. Australia’s Marcus Fraser won the BMW Russian Open title and took home the 66,000-euro prize. Russian junior Dmitry Vinogradov (two under par) fell just one stroke short of making it into the final round, but his result set a new bar for Russian golfers.   

August 2004. BMW Russian Open 2004. Tournament participants included three past winner: Britain’s Iain Pyman and Italy’s Marco Bernardini and Michel Reale. Brtain’s Gary Emerson won with a par round of 68, recording his first top finish on the European tour. He beat out Australia’s Markus Brier by just two strokes.

August 2005. Cadillac Russian Open 2005. The tournament marked its 10-year anniversary of being a part of the European Challenge Tour. Mikael Lundberg of Sweden beat England’s Andrew Butterfield in a gripping sudden-death four-hole playoff, winning the title of champion of the double-rated Cadillac Russian Open 2005 tournament. The victory secured him a top prize of 67,599 euros and a priceless pass to the European Tour in 2006.

August 2006. The Imperial Collection Russian Open 2006. The tournament became a full-fledged stage of the PGA European Tour, with its prize fund reaching $1,000,000. The open was won by Spain’s Alejandro Canizares, who took home the tournament’s main prize – a check for $166,660.

August 2007. The Russian Open Golf Championship 2007. The championship’s prize fund doubled to reach $2,000,000. Some 117 golfers from 23 countries, including five Russian players, took part in the Tournament. The Russian Open title and a check for $333,330 went to Sweden’s Per-Ulrik Johansson.