The Ivory Coast Open or Open de Côte d'Ivoire was a
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
tournament in the
Ivory Coast. It was founded in 1980, and was an event on the
Safari Circuit the following year. It was an event on the European-based
Challenge Tour
The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe.
History
T ...
schedule in 1990 and 1991, and from 1996 to 1999. It has been held at President Golf Club,
Yamoussoukro
Yamoussoukro (; , locally ) is the ''de jure'' capital of Ivory Coast and an autonomous district. As of the 2014 census, Yamoussoukro is the fifth most populous city in Ivory Coast with a population of 212,670. Located north-west of Abidjan, th ...
and Ivoire Golf Club,
Abidjan
Abidjan ( , ; N’ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the economic capital of the Ivory Coast. As of the 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of overall population of the country, making it the sixth most populous city p ...
.
The title has been won by some of the world's top golfers, including
Vijay Singh
Vijay Singh ( hif, विजय सिंह ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two ...
,
Ian Poulter
Ian James Poulter (born 10 January 1976) is an English professional golfer who plays in the LIV Golf League. He has previously been ranked as high as number 5 in the world rankings. The highlights of Poulter's career to date have been his two ...
, and
Gary Player
Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...
. The most successful player is
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
's
Gordon J. Brand, who recorded three victories between 1981 and 1988.
[Challenge in the Ivory Coast](_blank)
European Tour, 13 April 1999
The tournament was revived in 2017 after an 18-year hiatus and was won by the Ghanaian golfer Vincent Torgah.
History
The first event in 1980 was to inaugurate the President Golf Club,
Yamoussoukro
Yamoussoukro (; , locally ) is the ''de jure'' capital of Ivory Coast and an autonomous district. As of the 2014 census, Yamoussoukro is the fifth most populous city in Ivory Coast with a population of 212,670. Located north-west of Abidjan, th ...
. It was an invitation event with 27 professionals competing. Yamoussoukro was the birthplace of the President,
Félix Houphouët-Boigny
Félix Houphouët-Boigny (; 18 October 1905 – 7 December 1993), affectionately called Papa Houphouët or Le Vieux ("The Old One"), was the first president of Ivory Coast, serving from 1960 until his death in 1993. A tribal chief, he wo ...
, who attended the event.
Gary Player
Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...
and
Peter Townsend tied at 265, 23 under par and nine strokes ahead of the rest of the field. Townsend was bunkered on the first playoff hole and took a bogey 5 to Player's par 4.
In 1981 the event became the Ivory Coast Open and was added to the Safari Circuit schedule. It was won by
Gordon J. Brand, who beat
Martin Poxon at the first hole of a sudden-death playoff, after the two had tied on 271.
Winners
:''This list is incomplete. The 1999 event was advertised as the 18th edition.''
Notes
References
{{reflist
External links
Coverage on the Challenge Tour's official site
Former Challenge Tour events
Safari Circuit events
Golf in Ivory Coast
Sport in Abidjan
Sport in Yamoussoukro
Recurring sporting events established in 1980