The Kazakhstan Open has an incredible history on the European Challenge Tour, with its large prizefund – traditionally the highest of the season – tending to draw big performances from the top players on the Road to Oman.
Here we quickly look at some of the interesting stats before we return to Almaty next week and visit Zhailjau Golf Resort for the 12th staging of the tournament.
The winning road to the European Tour
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the points on offer – the winner will take away 72,000 points next week – victory in Kazakhstan is a massive boost in anyone’s bid to secure European Tour graduation through the Road to Oman Rankings.
In fact, in the 11 previous editions of the event, all 11 winners have subsequently finished high enough in the Rankings to secure European Tour cards for the following season, so whoever is successful next week will feel they have made a significant step towards the 2017 Race to Dubai.
That quality rises to the top was especially clear 12 months ago, when six of the top ten – Bjӧrn Åkesson, Rhys Davies, Jens Fahrbring, winner Sebastien Gros, Thomas Linard and Callum Shinkwin – all ultimately finished in the top 15 in the Road to Oman Rankings.
That winning habit
Kazakhstan Open success can also be used as a springboard towards the very top of the Rankings, with four past champions going on to finish the season at the top of the class.
Last year’s winner Gros was only edged into second spot on the Road to Oman by the record-breaking exploits of Ricardo Gouveia, aided by victory in the NBO Golf Classic Grand Final.
Tommy Fleetwood – winner in 2011 – 2010 champion Alvaro Velasco, 2009’s winner Edoardo Molinari and Mark Pilkington, who won in 2006, all topped the Challenge Tour Rankings that same year.
Horses for courses
The Kazakhstan Open has been played at two different courses over its history, starting off at Nurtau Golf Club before moving to Zhailjau Golf Resort in 2009, with the pair then alternating hosting duties since 2010.
Zhailjau has historically seen lower scoring, with 19 under par winning on each of the past two tournaments there and scores of 21 and 20 under par before that – by contrast the lowest winning score at Nurtau was 18 under par in 2013.
Returning to a happy hunting ground this year will be the past three winners at Zhailjau, Sam Hutsby from 2014, 2012 winner Scott Henry and Velasco, who won in 2010 and followed it up with a fourth place four years later.
Beef and Ben
Two of the Challenge Tour’s most recent success stories both showed their class when it mattered in Kazakhstan in 2014, with Andrew Johnston coming second and Byeong Hun An finishing third in Almaty just two years ago.
Johnston went on to top the Rankings at the end of the season and has since become one of golf’s most recognisable and popular figures, taking a maiden European Tour title this season at the Real Club Valderrama Open de España, hosted by the Sergio Garcia Foundation.
An was even quicker to enter the winner’s circle, triumphing at last year’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to help secure both the Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year and the Graduate of the Year awards for 2015.
Easy Ryders
As a happy coincidence, this year’s Kazakhstan Open falls in the same week as The Ryder Cup, since many players who have previously excelled in Almaty have gone on to make history in golf’s greatest team event.
Jamie Donaldson, who secured the winning point for Team Europe two years ago at Gleneagles, was third in Kazakhstan in 2007 on his way to fourth place in the Rankings.
A year earlier, Martin Kaymer – set to play in his fourth Ryder Cup next week in Minnesota – was also in the top three, and the German, who won the decisive point in the ‘Miracle of Medinah’ four years ago, has proven to be a lucky omen for the Europeans, winning on all three of his appearances so far.
Molinari’s rise from Challenge Tour contender to Ryder Cup winner was meteoric – within a year of his victory in Almaty he was lining up alongside his brother Francesco as part of Colin Montgomerie’s successful 2010 side at Celtic Manor.
And alongside Kaymer in this year’s team will be two other veterans of Kazakhstan Opens past, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Matthew Fitzpatrick – both of whom are making their Ryder Cup debuts this year.
Cabrera Bello teed it up twice in Almaty, missing the cut in 2006 before finishing 64thin 2008, but Fitzpatrick fared better on his sole appearance, coming eighth in 2014.
Five years after representing Europe in the 2008 edition, Oliver Wilson finished fifth in the Kazakhstan Open, while Ross Fisher – part of the 2010 team – was tied 12thin 2005.
Nicolas Colsaerts – whose compatriot, good friend and fellow Challenge Tour alumnus Thomas Pieters is part of the 2016 European side – missed the cut in Almaty in 2009 before forming part of the victorious 2012 team.
Brooks Koepka will be part of the American team for the first time this year, though his only visit to Kazakhstan, in 2013, resulted in a missed cut.
