The Open de Andalucia was a

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

men's professional

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 wi ...

tournament which was played from 2007 to 2012. The event was held in the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

region of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

History

Between 1992 and 1995, and again in 1999, former European Tour event, the Turespana Masters, was held in the Andalusia region and titled as the Turespana Masters Open de Andalucia, with winners including future

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

champion and World Number 1

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 ...

, and local favourite

Miguel Ángel Jiménez Miguel Ángel Jiménez Rodríguez (born 5 January 1964) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has won 21 times on the European Tour and has been a member of two victorious Ryder Cup teams. Early years Born in Málaga in southern Spain, Jiménez ...

. This incarnation of the Open de Andalucia owes its origins indirectly to the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

's decision to reschedule

The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as The PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The P ...

from March to May. In response, the European Tour decided to move the

British Masters The Betfred British Masters is a professional golf tournament. It was founded in 1946 as the Dunlop Masters and was held every year up to 2008, except for 1984. Dunlop's sponsorship ended in 1982, and the name sponsor changed frequently therea ...

, which is one of its higher profile tournaments, from that same week in May to a September slot when more top players would be available. The Valle Romano Open de Andalucia was created to fill the gap in the schedule this move created. It has been promoted by the personal companies of the Spanish European Tour members Miguel Ángel Jiménez and

Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño (born 13 October 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has played on the European Tour, winning seven times, and on the PGA Tour. Early life Fernández-Castaño was born in Madrid. He started playing golf at t ...

. The first two events were staged at the Aloha Golf Club near

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the r ...

, before the tournament was moved to the Real Club de Golf de Sevilla near

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

for the 2009 season at the request of sponsors. At the 2009 Open de Andalucia, European

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States. The competition is contested every two years with the venue alternating between courses in the United States and Europe. The Ryder Cup is named af ...

veteran

Colin Montgomerie Colin Stuart Montgomerie, Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 23 June 1963) is a Scotland, Scottish professional golfer. He has won a record eight European Tour PGA European Tour#Order of Merit winners, Order of Merit titles, including a stre ...

became the 18th player to reach the 500 appearance mark on the European Tour. He started the tournament impressively with a five under par 67, for a share of second place after the first round. His challenge faded however, and he finished tied for 31st place at level-par, 14 strokes behind the winner,

Søren Kjeldsen Søren Kjeldsen (; born 17 May 1975) is a Danish golfer who plays on the European Tour. Professional career Kjeldsen turned professional in 1995. Kjeldsen's success on the second tier Challenge Tour in 1997, which included his first victory as a ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. Kjeldsen had broken the course record with a 10-under-par 62 on Saturday to move into the lead, and a level-par final round of 72 on Sunday was enough to see off the challenge of

Scot The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

David Drysdale David Stuart Drysdale (born 19 March 1975) is a Scottish professional golfer. Career Drysdale was born in Edinburgh. He turned professional in 1995. He married his childhood sweetheart Victoria in 2004. Drysdale currently competes on the Eur ...

by three strokes.

Winners

References

External links

*
Coverage on European Tour's official siteLaunch announcement from europeantour.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Open de Andalucia Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in Spain Recurring sporting events established in 2007 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2012 Defunct sports competitions in Spain