The Russian Open Golf Championship 2009

Press

Pro-Am Tournament
23 July 2008

Pro-Am tournament started at Le Meridien Moscow Country Club and by tradition gave a start to Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 (13th Russian Open Golf Championship among professionals).

Press conference took place before the tournament. Among the speakers there were Ivan Ivanovich Sergeev (the head of the Main Administration for Service to the Diplomatic Corps at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs GlavUpDK), Jose Maria Zamora (tournament director of Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 (European PGA Tour)), Hans Koeleman (president of AMS, organizer and promoter of Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008), Konstantin Edel (vice-president of finances ZAO “Inteco”) and Christian Kremer (president of BMW Russia – the official Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 car partner). Golf expert, Aleksei Nikolov (head editor assistant of “Russia Today” channel, chef editor of Golf Digest magazine), by tradition was the presenter of the event. The speakers expressed their gratitude to all sponsors: BMW, Inteco, “Imperial Collection”, AMS, GlavUPDK, Danone, Evian and others.
During the press-conference Christian Kremer promised to present the player who makes hole-in one at the Hole 16, with a new sport model BMW M5 (507 l), the engine of which has many times been awarded in its class as “The best engine of the year”. Also BMW Russia provided cars of M-Series and others for test drive and exhibition.

There were more pleasant surprises to come. To one of the question “why do you call Hole №5 a special one”, Aleksei Nikolov answered: “There is always a “favorite hole”. The 5th hole combines exquisite design and exceptional beauty. If you reach it, you will see that it is surrounded by forest and the ball needs to be putted 3 times through water. There is a precept - “what is the difference between a good golf designer and world class golf architect?” When world class golf-architect projects it, there is a feeling as if it always has been here, as if it was created by nature. Le Meridien Moscow Country Club was designed by Robert Trent Johns Junior. His 5th Hole was recognizes as one of 10 most beautiful holes in Europe. If you ever play golf, you will understand what it means to hit the green in two and one putted for eagle. If you do it, I will kneel down in front of you.”

Jose Maria Zamora shared official information with the journalists: “At the end of the week, the winner of Inteco Russian Open Golf Championship 2008 will receive 333 330 dollars, a Tour player card for the next 2 years and a lot of scores for the “Riders” in order to get in to European National Team this year. Rider Cup is the most prestigious team contest in world golf, match of American and European National Teams that get chosen by a specific rating and are held once in 2 years”.

Ivan Ivanovich Sergeev underlined that Russian Open Golf Championship 2008, as well as year 2008 itself, is dedicated to family: “This year we celebrate 15 years of our club. During this time 7 golf families grew up here: the Kostevs, the Afanas’evs, the Bondarenkos and others well-known in Russia as well as abroad. By the way, the winner of Russian Cup was a family too! It’s such kind of sport that doesn’t have sex or age limit! ”
Pro-Am Ceremony started straight after the press- conference on Le Meridien Moscow Country Club golf course, followed by great weather. As it was planned, at 1pm one of the two Inteco teams approached Hole №1A. The team consisted of Head of ZAO “Inteco” Elena Baturina, the winner of Junior Faldo Series 2008 tournament Elizaveta Nikulina, prize-holder Russia Championship 2008 Margarita Zakareishvili and professional golfer Nikolai Afanas’ev – the winner of Open Golf Championship in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and Baltic States.

“The main figure of this tournament is legendary John Daly, nicknamed “Long John” – says Ivan Ivanovich Sergeev – He is considered to be second after Tiger Woods (1st player in world golfers rating). In 1990 he started playing in National Tour, in 1991 wins PGA USA, and in 1995 becomes British Open Champion. He is also the founder of charity fund for orphans. John Daly attracts attention as a person and as a great golfer. He will play here today and following days of the tournament”.

The winner of Russian Open Golf Championship 2007 Per-Ulrik Johansson from House Loft side and famous Russian sportsmen: Rinat Shamsytov from Imperial Collection team, Olympic Champion Vera Shimanskaya and three times Russian Golf champion Grigoriy Bondarenko played for the second Inteco team in Pro-am tournament.

Price- giving took place during Pro-Am party at the end of the day. Third place was awarded to the team representing Autolocator company with the result of 57 (Gary Murphy, Dan Vigdor, Filip Kegels, Gleb Fetisov). Second place was taken by Super Micro with the same score 57 (Jose Manuel Lara, Dmitriy Garanov, Aleksandr Gryzdov, Sveta Haikina). The first place was awarded to European Tour with result of 54 (Robert Jan Derksen, Paolo Ligresti, Primo Maronatti, Andrea Chiaravalli).