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| Tournament information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Pulheim,Germany |
| Established | 1987 |
| Course | Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof |
| Par | 72 |
| Length | 7,289 yards (6,665 m) |
| Tour | European Tour |
| Format | Stroke play |
| Prize fund | €2,000,000 |
| Month played | September |
| Final year | 2009 |
| Tournament record score | |
| Aggregate | 262K. J. Choi (2003) |
| To par | −26as above |
| Final champion | |
 James Kingston | |
| Location map | |
TheGerman Masters was aEuropean Tour men's professionalgolf tournament played inGermany, and hosted and promoted by Germany's most successful golferBernhard Langer and his brother Erwin.
Founded in 1987,[1] the tournament was originally played inStuttgart, moving toBerlin in 1994. Since 1998, it has been held atGolf Club Gut Lärchenhof inPulheim nearCologne. The prize fund had climbed to €3 million by 2005, making the German Masters one of the richer tournaments on thePGA European Tour at that time outside of themajor championships and the three individualWorld Golf Championships.
After a one-year break in 2006, the tournament returned to the European Tour schedule in 2007, renamed as theMercedes-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 theOfficial 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 theHSBC World Match Play Championship to October. However, as it clashed with thePGA Tour'sTour Championship, many leading players were unavailable, and so the prize fund had dropped to €2 million on its return, one third less than it was in 2005.
