AN ENGLISHMAN WINS RUSSIAN OPEN TITLE
FOR SECOND YEAR IN A ROW

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
For the second year in a row, an Englishman has won the Russian open amateur international men's championship at Pestovo Golf & Leisure Resort, about 25 miles north of Moscow.
Last year it was Seve Benson, this week it was Christopher Wood (Long Ashton) who, the week before, lost in the quarter-finals of the British men's amateur championship at Royal Lytham.
Wood shot rounds of 70, 70, 73 and 72 for a three-under-par total of 285.
In a tournament marked by some sudden "lurches" in the standard of scoring - for whatever reason - Wood won by seven shots from a Russian, Andrey Pavlov, who scored 73, 72, 70 and 77.
Dale Whitnell (Forrester Park) finished third on 295 and the other lads sent by the English Golf Union did not too badly. Sam Hutsby from Liphook, last year's winner of The Duke of York Young Champions' Trophy tournament, finished joint fourth with - and here's what I mean by lurches in scoring - 71, 81, 75 and 69 for 296.
Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale) shared sixth place on 297.
The Russian rules permit professionals to play in what is ostensibly an "amateur" tournament which explains why Yorkshire's Gordon Brand, a European Seniors Tour player, tied for eighth place on 304 in a field of 41 of whom three or four were professionals.
Germany's Nina Holleder won the women's championship with scores of 72, 72, 72 and 78 for six-over-par 294. Russian Galina Rotmistrova was second on 298 and Stephanie Doering from Germany third on 307.
Lizzie Brand finished fifth in a female field of 14 despite having a horrendous total of 328, made up on 82, 75, 86 and 85.
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
MEN (par 288: 4 x 72)
285 Christopher Wood (Long Ashton) 70 70 73 72.
292 Andrey Pavlov (Russia) 73 72 70 77.
295 Dale Whitnell (Forrester Park) 72 68 77 78.
296 Dmity Vinogradov (Russia) 75 77 71 73, Sam Hutsby (Liphook) 71 81 75 69.
297 Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale) 74 74 79 70, Philipp Mejow (Germany) 72 77 75 73.
304 Gordon Brand (Yorkshire) (pro) 79 75 73 77, Mikhail Morozov (Russia) 79 76 72 77.
WOMEN (par 288: 4 x 72)
294 Nina Holleder (Germany) 772 72 72 78.
298 Galina Rotmistrova (Russia) 75 77 69 77.
307 Stephanie Doering (Germany) 76 76 81 74.
322 Elizaveta Nikulina (Russia) 81 83 80 78.
327 Lizzie Brand (Ilkley) 82 75 86 85.