The opening ceremony of the VTB Russian Open Golf Championship (Senior) and the 23rd International Charity Tournament has taken place at the Moscow Country Club (an affiliate of GlavUpDK under the MFA of Russia).
PJSC VTB Bank is the titular sponsor of this year’s tournament, which involves 55 legendary golfers from all over the world. The prize fund amounts to $ 500,000.
The VTB Russian Open Golf Championship (Senior) is the only international professional golf tournament hosted by Russia in 2018.
The opening ceremony was attended by State Duma First Deputy Chairman and Honorary President of the Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Property Management Department Director Vadim Makarov, GlavUpDK Head Elena Zaritskaya, Staysure Tour head David McLaren, and representatives of charity funds, including actor and founder of the children’s charity Shag Vmeste Gosha Kutsenko and actor Yevgeny Stychkin representing the Vera fund. The Courage Theater company gave a performance.
“Golf, a wonderful game, has an increasing number of admirers in Russia. It has become an Olympic sport and increased its popularity in Russia. It is wonderful that the tournament has not just gathered together golf masters but also became a charity event,” Zhukov said. He wished success to the contestants, and conveyed the gratitude of amateur participants for the chance to play on the same field with high-class professionals.
Twenty-six teams of professional golfers participating in the VTB Russian Open Golf Championship (Senior), juniors, and amateurs – a total of 103 players – took part in the 23rd International Charity Tournament held at the Moscow Country Club.
A team of Irish golfer Brendan McGovern, Kirill Merzlyak, Alexei Filatov, Gennady Sokolov, and Irina Vashchennko scored -46 par and won bronze. Silver went to Australian golfer Peter Fowler, Ruslan Gafarov, Jeff Combs, Alexander Smirnov, and Oleg Pukhov who scored -50 par. Australian golfer Mike Harwood, Mikhail Kolobkov, Sergei Morozov, Kirill Afanasyev, and Anastasia Vysotkina won gold with -62 par.
The best diplomatic team comprised Argentine’s Jose Coceres, Shedrek Luvita, Kazi Mohammad Halilullah, Nguyen Man Hung, and Sofia Stefanovich (see the results).
Elena Zaritskaya and head of PJSC VTB Bank Department for Premium Clients and Senior Vice-President Dmitry Breitenbikher presented cups to the tournament winners.
The X-Fit chain of fitness clubs, the SkyEng English language school, and the SweetMi company presented gift certificates to the winners of the 23rd International Charity Tournament.
The money raised this year was donated to Gosha Kutsenko’s Shag Vmeste fund helping patients with cerebral palsy, Konstantin Khabensky’s charity, the Vera hospice charity fund, the boarding school of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Krasnogorsk Kindergarten No. 8, and the Preodolei-ka fund supporting people with musculoskeletal disabilities. The Sogaz insurance group provided some of the funds for targeted donations as part of the International Charity Tournament.
The first day of the tournament included a press conference where the organizers and participants answered questions of journalists.
David McLaren said he had fallen in love with Russia and the Moscow Country Club. “It is crucial to Staysure Tour to hold this event here: a short time ago the Moscow Country Club joined the prestigious chain European Tour Destinations, which unites the best golf resorts of the world. This is Russia’s only club that received such a status and one of the best golf venues in the world,” McLaren said. He and another speaker at the press conference, English golfer and tournament participant Gary Wolstenholme, thanked GlavUpDK and the Moscow Country Club for the perfect preparation of the field, good governance, and hospitality of the Country Club’s employees.
Representatives of the charity funds thanked the tournament’s organizers and told reporters about how the donations were spent. “It is wonderful that the tournament has been supporting charity initiatives for so long; it was one of the first sports to back up charity. We have been working together for four years: raised funds have been spent on targeted assistance, cancer treatment and other systemic projects. You were amongst pioneers, we remember that, and we are grateful,” Alyona Meshkova, the Director of the Konstantin Khabensky Charity Fund, said at the press conference.
The tournament was a real treat to the children. They gave a concert at the Moscow Country Club. Young guests were invited to master classes and animation. Ryder Cup participant and Irish professional golfer Ronan Rafferty gave a master class to the juniors.
The VTB Russian Open Golf Championship (Senior) will end on August 19. The award ceremony will take place on Sunday.
The event is organized by the Moscow Country Club, the largest golf club in Russia. A professional 18-hole golf field of 7,174 yards was built in the early 1990s and harmoniously combined the remarkable landscape with international standards. The golf field was created by the exclusive design of the U.S. architectural dynasty of Trent Jones and is deemed to be one of the best in Europe.
The Russian Open Tournament was founded in 1993. The Moscow Country Club hosted the first event.
This is the third Senior tournament held here (the two previous events took place in 2013 and 2014).
The tournament traditionally attracts keen attention of golf fans, as it involves professional golfers who gained universal recognition with their career in U.S. and European tours and the Ryder Cup.
PJSC VTB Bank is the titular sponsor of the tournament. The RESO Garantia insurance company, the Ginza Project international restaurant holding, the Klyushkaand Klyushkin Plyazh restaurants located at the Moscow Country Club, the AVIS international car rental company, and the Titleist golf equipment manufacturer.
The tournament’s information partners are MATCH TV, Golf.RU, the television channel 360, the international news agency Rossiya Segodyna, the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, the magazines Esquire, Golfdigest, City Magazine, and Sport Business Consulting, the golf portal Golf MIR, and the Internet portals Mir Vpechatleniy, and sobytiye.ru.