The Kazakhstan Open is a men's professional golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

 tournament on the Challenge Tour

Challenge Tour

The Challenge Tour is the second tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and as with on the main European Tour and the European Seniors Tour, some of the events are played outside of Europe...

, the official developmental tour of the PGA European Tour

PGA European Tour

The PGA European Tour is an organization which operates the three leading men's professional golf tours in Europe: the elite European Tour, the European Seniors Tour and the developmental Challenge Tour. Its headquarters are at Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England...

. First played in 2005, it was held at the Nurtau Golf Club in Almaty

Almaty

Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...

, Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

 for the first four editions before moving to the Zhailjau Golf Resort, also in Almaty. It moved back to the Nurtau GC in 2011.

In 2007 the Kazakhstan Open has a prize fund of €330,000, which made it the second richest event on the tour after the Open de Saint-Omer, which is also an official money European Tour event. In 2008, it was the only Challenge Tour event in the former Soviet Union, with the Russian Open, which was the first, having been promoted to the main European Tour; however the Russian Challenge Cup has since become a Challenge Tour event.

Winners

Year	Winner	Score
2011	Tommy Fleetwood Tommy Fleetwood Tommy Fleetwood is an English professional golfer.Fleetwood was born in Southport, Merseyside, near Liverpool. He had a distinguished amateur career with included wins in the 2009 Scottish Amateur Stroke Play Championship and the 2010 English Amateur, and runner-up finishes in the 2008 Amateur...	273 (-15)
2010	Álvaro Velasco Álvaro Velasco (golfer) Álvaro Velasco Roca is a Spanish professional golfer.Velasco was born in Barcelona and attended Coastal Carolina University on a golf scholarship where he graduated with a degree in Business Administration...	267 (-21)
2009	Edoardo Molinari Edoardo Molinari Edoardo Molinari is an Italian professional golfer. He is a two-time winner on the European Tour, 2005 U.S. Amateur champion, 2009 Challenge Tour Rankings leader, winner, with his brother Francesco, of the 2009 World Cup and a member of the 2010 European Ryder Cup team...	268 (-20)
2008	Gary Lockerbie Gary Lockerbie Gary Lockerbie is an English professional golfer.Lockerbie was born in Penrith, Cumbria. He had a successful amateur career, including wins in the English Amateur and the Lytham Trophy, before turning professional after representing Great Britain and Ireland in the 2005 Walker Cup.In his first...	273 (-15)
2007	Leif Westerberg Leif Westerberg Leif Westerberg is a Swedish professional golfer.Westerberg was born in Stockholm and turned professional in 1997. He has played predominantly on Europe's second tier Challenge Tour where he has won two tournaments. He has graduated from the Challenge Tour twice, in 2004 and 2007, when he finished...	279 (-9)
2006	Mark Pilkington	272 (-16)
2005	Stephen Browne	273 (-15)

External links

• Coverage on the Challenge Tour's official site