Mercedes-Benz Championship (European Tour)

Mercedes-Benz Championship

Tournament information
Location	Pulheim, Germany
Established	1987
Course(s)	Gut Lärchenhof
Par	72
Length	7,289 yards
Tour(s)	European Tour
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	€ 2,000,000
Month played	September
Final year	2009
Tournament record score
Aggregate	262 K.J. Choi (2003)
To par	-26 (as above)
Final champion
James Kingston

The Mercedes-Benz Championship was a European Tour men's professional golf tournament played in Germany and hosted and promoted by Germany's most successful golfer Bernhard Langer and his brother Erwin.

Founded as the German Masters in 1987, the tournament was originally played in Stuttgart, moving to Berlin in 1994, and since 1998 it has been held played at Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof in Pulheim near Cologne. The prize fund had climbed to €3 million by 2005, making the German Masters was one of the richer events, outside of the major championships and the three individual World Golf Championships, on the European Tour at that time.

After a one year break in 2006 the tournament returned to the European Tour schedule in 2007, renamed as the Mercedes-Benz Championship. Played as a no-cut event, it had a maximum field of 78, consisting primarily of players who had either won tournaments on the European Tour in 2007 or were in the top 75 of the Official World Golf Rankings or in the top 60 of the European Order of Merit. It was played in mid-September, a slot created by the rescheduling of the HSBC World Match Play Championship to October. However, as it clashed with the PGA Tour's Tour Championship, many leading players were unavailable, and so the prize fund on its return had dropped to €2 million, one third less than it was in 2005.

Winners

Year	Winner	Score
Mercedes-Benz Championship
2009	James Kingston	275 (-13)PO
2008	Robert Karlsson	275 (-13)
2007	Søren Hansen	271 (-17)
Linde German Masters
2006	No tournament
2005	Retief Goosen	268 (-20)
2004	Pádraig Harrington	275 (-13)
2003	K.J. Choi	262 (-26)
2002	Stephen Leaney	266 (-22)
2001	Bernhard Langer	266 (-22)
2000	Michael Campbell	197 (-19)*
1999	Sergio García	277 (-11)PO
1998	Colin Montgomerie	266 (-22)
1997	Bernhard Langer	267 (-21)
1996	Darren Clarke	264 (-24)
Mercedes German Masters
1995	Anders Forsbrand	264 (-24)
1994	Seve Ballesteros	270 (-18)PO
1993	Steven Richardson	271 (-17)
1992	Barry Lane	272 (-16)
1991	Bernhard Langer	275 (-13)PO
1990	Sam Torrance	272 (-16)
German Masters
1989	Bernhard Langer	276 (-12)
1988	José María Olazábal	279 (-9)
1987	Sandy Lyle	278 (-10)PO

* - The final round of the 2000 event was cancelled because of bad weather

External links

• Official site
• Coverage on the European Tour's official site