English Open
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The English Open was an annual European Tour golf tournament. Most countries where golf is played have a national open, but in England this role was effectively filled by The Open Championship, otherwise known as the "British Open" and the English Open only existed from 1988 to 2002. It had several different title sponsors over the years. In its last year it had a prize fund of €1,273,320, which was below average for a European Tour event at that time.
Two players won the tournament more than once; Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland won it three times and Englishman Mark James won it twice.
The cancellation of the English Open was part of a long term trend for the European Tour to reduce the number of tournaments held in the United Kingdom while increasing the number held elsewhere, especially outside of Europe. In the tour's first official season in 1972 12 out of 20 events were staged in the UK, but by 2005 this was down to 8 out of 47.
[edit] Winners
- 2002 Darren Clarke - Northern Ireland
- 2001 Peter O'Malley - Australia
- 2000 Darren Clarke - Northern Ireland
- 1999 Darren Clarke - Northern Ireland
- 1998 Lee Westwood - England
- 1997 Per-Ulrik Johansson - Sweden
- 1996 Robert Allenby - Australia
- 1995 Philip Walton - Republic of Ireland
- 1994 Colin Montgomerie - Scotland
- 1993 Ian Woosnam - Wales
- 1992 Vicente Fernandez - Argentina
- 1991 David Gilford - England
- 1990 Mark James - England
- 1989 Mark James - England
- 1988 Howard Clark - England