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 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 in the

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

. It was founded in 1980, and was an event on the

Safari Circuit The Safari Circuit, or Safari Tour, was a small professional golf tour based in West and East Africa that ran from the 1970s through into the 1990s. From 1977, the tour was organised by the PGA European Tour and from 1991 the tournaments were incl ...

the following year. It was an event on the European-based

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour, currently titled as the HotelPlanner Tour for sponsorship reasons and also sometimes referred to as the European Challenge Tour, is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European To ...

schedule in 1990 and 1991, and from 1996 to 1999. It has been held at President Golf Club,

Yamoussoukro Yamoussoukro (; , locally ) is the capital city of Ivory Coast and an autonomous district. As of the 2014 census, Yamoussoukro is the fifth most populous city in the Ivory Coast, with a population of 212,670. Located north-west of Abidjan, the ...

and Ivoire Golf Club,

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

. The title has been won by some of the world's top golfers, including

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 ...

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 (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 tour and nine ...

. The most successful player is

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

's Gordon J. Brand, who recorded three victories between 1981 and 1988.Challenge in the Ivory Coast
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,

. 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 an Ivorian politician and physician who served as the first List of heads of state of Ivory Coast, pr ...

, who attended the event.

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

History

Winners

See also

Notes

References

External links