The Open de Andalucia was a

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

men's professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

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

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

region of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

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 most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

champion and World Number 1

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( ; born 22 February 1963) is a Fijians, Fijian professional golfer. In 1982, Singh turned professional and played on the local Asia Golf Circuit. However, his early career met with controversy, as he was accused of numerous rules ...

, 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, holds the records for the most starts on the European Tour and being the first player over 50 to win on the Euro ...

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

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

'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 ...

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 there ...

, 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. The first two events were staged at the

Aloha Golf Club Aloha Golf Club is a golf club, located 3 kilometres inland from Puerto Banús and 8 kilometres west of Marbella, Andalusia, Spain. It hosted the Andalucian Open on the European Tour in 2007, 2008 and 2012, and the Spanish Women's Open on the ...

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 re ...

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

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

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, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

veteran

Colin Montgomerie Colin Stuart Montgomerie (born 23 June 1963) is a Scottish professional golfer. He has won a record eight European Tour PGA European Tour#Order of Merit winners, Order of Merit titles, including a streak of seven consecutive ones from 1993 to 1 ...

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 Panum Kjeldsen (; born 17 May 1975) is a Danish golfer who currently plays on PGA Tour Champions. Professional career Kjeldsen turned professional in 1995. Kjeldsen's success on the second tier Challenge Tour in 1997, which included his f ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. 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 Scottish people or Scots (; ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded the Kingdom of Scotland (or ...

David Drysdale David Stuart Drysdale (born 19 March 1975) is a Scotland, 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 o ...

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