pga tour schedule senior

About the PGA of America

Spectator championships, member championships, junior championships, collegiate championships, spectator championships, pga professional championship, pga works collegiate championship, pga championship, kitchenaid senior pga championship, kpmg women's pga championship, junior pga championships, senior pga professional championship, women's pga cup, pga jr league championship, pga university championship, national car rental assistant pga professional championship, junior ryder cup, collegiate championships.

Copyright © 2023 PGA of America. All rights reserved.

2024 Senior PGA Professional Championship Starts Thursday at Sunriver Resort

September 24, 2024, greg dillard.

Top 35 finishers earn place on the Corebridge Financial Team at the 2025 Senior PGA Championship

Click here to view the field.

SUNRIVER, Oregon (Sept. 24, 2024) - The 2024 Senior PGA Professional Championship heads to Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Oregon, this week as 264 of the top PGA of America Golf Professionals 50 years of age and older will compete for the Leo Fraser Trophy.

The Senior PGA Professional Championship supported by Golf Channel annually features many of the finest senior players in the Association. The four-day, 72-hole Championship begins Thursday, Sept. 26, and concludes Sunday, Sept. 29.

The top 35 finishers will earn a spot on the Corebridge Financial Team to compete in the 2025 Senior PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club, Blue course, in Bethesda, Maryland, May 19-25.

Bob Sowards, the 2023 Senior PGA Professional Champion, is one of nine past Champions in the field. The PGA Director of Instruction at Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club in Powell, Ohio, shot a final round 6-under-par 66 to win by six and finish at 15-under-par 272 on PGA Golf Club’s Wanamaker course last October. It marked Sowards’ second Senior PPC title as he became the seventh PGA of America Golf Professional to win the event twice.

“I did everything well,” said Sowards. “To win by six, you’ve got to be on top of your game. Being mentally focused and not giving away shots is the main thing. I felt like I did really well on that and trying to stay in the present. Hopefully I can duplicate that this year.”

Sowards, a five-time winner of the Senior PGA Professional Player of the Year award, plans to arrive early to familiarize himself with the Meadows and Woodlands courses. He has competed at Sunriver Resort before, finishing 8th and T-22 in the 2013 and 2007 PGA Professional Championships.

In addition to the Leo Fraser Trophy, named after the 16th president of the PGA of America, players are competing for a $335,000 purse, including the winner’s share of $29,800.

Exemptions also in play include:

• The top five finishers gain an exemption into the final stage of the 2025 PGA Tour Champions Qualifying School - Final Stage 2024 (providing they have entered).
• The top eight finishers, including ties, will automatically qualify for the 2025 Senior PGA Professional Championship at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, next October.

Each player will compete on Sunriver’s Meadows and Woodlands courses on Thursday and Friday before a cut to the low 90 scorers and ties. The third and final rounds will be played exclusively on the Meadows course. A second cut following Saturday’s round will be made to the low 70 scorers and ties.

Sunriver Resort, one of the country’s most scenic golf destinations, has previously hosted five PGA of America member championships, including the 2024 PGA Cup and 50th PGA Professional Championship in 2017.

The Meadows course, designed by John Fought, features seven holes that border the Sun River and pays tribute to the great American golf courses from the 1920s and ‘30s. Meadows has hosted numerous USGA and NCAA championships including the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Championship.

The Woodlands course was designed by renowned golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. and features dense forests of ponderosa and lodgepole pine, prominent lava rock formations and an abundance of water.

For more about the Senior PGA Professional Championship, visit here .

About the PGA of America

The PGA of America is one of the world’s largest sports organizations, composed of more than 30,000 PGA of America Golf Professionals who love the game, are expert coaches, operators and business leaders, and work daily to drive interest, inclusion and participation in the sport. The PGA of America owns and operates numerous championships and events, including major championships for men, women, seniors and the Ryder Cup, one of the world’s foremost sporting events. For more information, visit PGA.com and follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter , Instagram and Facebook .

About Sunriver Resort

Located near the breathtaking Cascade Mountain range, just 15 miles south of Bend, OR, Sunriver Resort offers a unique Oregon vacation for all ages. The resort boasts 245 guestrooms and 275 rental homes and condos. The resort offers a number of amenities for all four seasons, including an indoor/outdoor pool, biking on over 40 miles of paved trails, a marina with kayaking and stand up paddle boarding, horseback riding, fitness classes, stargazing, tennis, a nature center, four golf courses with a total of 63 holes of world-class golf,  Sage Springs Club and Spa, a private airport (the only private resort airstrip in the Pacific Northwest) and a children's program and more. ‍

Media Contact

Greg Dillard, PGA of America, 561-308-8013, [email protected]

Press Releases

September 19, 2024, ryan ogle named championship director for 2026 pga championship at aronimink golf club, september 18, 2024, 2025 pga show registration opens with new timelines in place, september 17, 2024, pga of america studios to host pregame and postgame dallas stars coverage on victory+, september 12, 2024, pga of america golf professional dr. eric chun earns pga master professional designation, september 10, 2024, united states hosts great britain & ireland in 31st pga cup.

5 Major Tournaments of The Senior Golf Tour | Tour Champions

Our website is supported by our readers. We may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. For more details see our disclaimers page .

Table of Contents

The PGA Tour Champions (commonly known as the Champions Tour) is a senior golf tour specifically made for golfers above the age of 50. The Professional Golfers Association officially founded the tour over 40 years ago in 1980.

The beauty of golf is that it ages like fine wine. You’re never too old to play golf! Even if you want to play in a USGA Senior Amateur Championship .

This article goes in-depth about the senior golf tour five major tournaments. It highlights renowned championships, golfer stats, and a few fun facts.  However, for a more detailed review of the PGA TOUR Champions, you’ll want to read our ultimate guide .

Origin & History of the Senior Golf Tour

The Senior PGA Championship has been unofficially active since 1937 as a high-profile tournament. It was exclusive for golfers above the age of 50. 

However, in 1978, a profitable tournament between teams of the best senior golfers called the ‘Legends of Golf’ gave birth to the idea of an official senior golf tour.

The PGA formally established the ‘Senior PGA Tour’ in 1980. This senior tour was designed for golfers aged 50 and above to showcase their talent. 

The 1980 tour consisted of only four events. For comparison, the 2021 tour consisted of 25 events. A lot has changed over the years!

The total prize money in 1980 was $475,000, which would be worth $1,707,901 today.

The next ten years, from 1980-1990, saw a considerable increase in the popularity of the senior tournament. The 1990 season consisted of thirty-eight official events with four major tournaments. 

The entire prize money for the 1990 season was a whopping $17.8 million. In 2022, this prize money would be worth around $40,349,753.63 ! 

Fun Fact: Lee Trevino won 7 tournaments in the 1990 senior golf tour season. The most during the season.

Evolution of the PGA Tour Champions Name

In 2002, the tour was renamed the ‘Champions Tour’ till the 2015 season. The name PGA Tour Champions was adopted for the 2016 tour and onwards. 

Qualifying & Playing on the Senior Golf Tour

Competitors in the senior golf tour have to play multiple tournaments throughout the season. These events are usually played over three rounds or 54 holes. 

However, the five major championships of the tour are played over four rounds (72 holes) and have a 36-hole cut. Playing an additional round ensures bringing the best talent to the top of the standings.

Fun Fact: The average male golfer is estimated to hit a 219-yard drive. While the Senior Golf Tour’s average driving distance in 2022 was 282.0 yards . The longest drive of the tour was 308.8 yards by Padraig Harrington.

Senior Tour Age

With age comes wisdom. And the opportunity to qualify for the senior golf tour!

Here are a few requirements to qualify for the PGA Tour Champions:

• The Senior Tour age requirement is 50 years old minimum.
• Compete and qualify in the 72-hole Regional Qualifying Stage.
• All successful qualifiers and exempt players must come in the top 12 of the Final Qualifying Stage between 78 golfers.

Spots in the Senior Golf Tour

Understanding the qualification system of the PGA Tour Champions is complicated, and hardly anyone understands it, according to Bobby Clampett , a professional Golf player, and analyst.

PGA Champions from previous years make up 30 of the 81 players on the field. Another 30 spots are given to players in the top 70 of the PGA Tour and Tour Champions.

The rest of the players include the World Golf Hall of Fame members and winners of previous PGA tours. 

Players competing in the qualifying sessions also have a few spots reserved for them.

The 5 Senior Major Golf Championships & Their Winners

The Senior Major championships are a big deal in the tour. The best of the best golfers participate in Majors. Meaning that only players that meet certain criteria are given a spot in the Major tournament.

Major champions have their names go down in history books. This is one of the reasons why golfers praise Major events.  

There are five major championships in the PGA Tour Champions. These championships differ from the other tours as they are played over four rounds (as opposed to 3 in the standard events). 

Here are the five majors of the PGA Tour Champions, along with their relevant winners.

Read Next: The 34 Best Arnold Palmer Quotes on Golf, Life, & Success

1. Senior PGA Championship 

The Senior PGA Championship is the oldest of the five senior major championships. The Championship was established in 1937. 

It was first played at the Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia, United States. 

The event was one of the four events in the inaugural of the PGA Tours Championship in 1980. The Championship event was played in Florida in 1980. Over the next 42 years, the event has taken place on 17 different courses in various cities.

The eligibility criteria for the Senior PGA Championship are slightly different. The criterion includes:

• The previous winners of the Senior PGA Championship. 
• Winners of other major tournaments are also eligible.  
• Members of the Ryders Cup team and top European and Japanese Senior Tour players can also qualify.

2022 Senior PGA Championship Winner: Steven Alker won the 2022 Championship held in Michigan.

Most wins in the Senior PGA Championship: Since 1980, the record number of wins in this championship is held by Hale Irwin . Irwin claimed the trophy in 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2004. 

2. The Tradition

The Tradition, or the Regions Tradition , is one of the five senior major championships. This championship was established in 1989 in Arizona. In 2003 the event relocated to Oregon and has since moved to Alabama. 

The event is now hosted at the Greystone Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. where players complete four rounds on the course and play 72 holes. 

The most recent event was held in 2022, marking its 30th year of play.

2022 Regions Tradition Winner: Steve Stricker took the trophy for the 2022 Tradition championship. The winner earned $375,000 for his victory in the tour. 

Most wins in the Regions Tradition: The record for the most number of wins in the Tradition is held by Jack Nicklaus . Nicklaus won the championship four times: in 1990, 1991, 1995, and 1996. 

3. U.S. Senior Open

The U.S. Senior Open is one of the most renowned five major championships in the PGA Tour Champions. The championship is administered by the United St ates Go lf Association . The PGA has recognized it as a major championship since its establishment.  

The championship was introduced in 1980 and was one of the four events in the first PGA Tour Champions in New York. It is currently played at the Saucon Valley Country Club in Pennsylvania.

The US Senior Open is open for both amateurs and professionals. However, experienced players tend to dominate the championship, like any other. 

2022 U.S. Senior Open Winner: The most recent champion is Padraig Harrington . He received  $720,000 for his winning share.

Most wins in the U.S. Senior Open: The record for most wins in the event is held by Mille r Barber , who won 3 events in 1982, 1984, and 1985. 

Read Next: The 10 Best & Craziest Animal Golf Head Covers for Gifts

4. Senior Players Championship

The Senior Players Championship is currently known as the Kaulig Companies Championship. It is also recognized as a major championship in the PGA Tour Champions. 

The Championship was first held in 1983, 3 years after the establishment of the PGA Senior Golf Tour. It was most recently held at the Firestone Country Club in Ohio. 

2022 Senior Players Championship Winner: The 2022 champion was Jerry Kelly , who received $450,000 for his victory in the event. 

Most wins in the Senior Players Championship: Bernhard Langer holds the record for winning the most trophies in the Senior Players Championship. He won the majors consecutively in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

5. The Senior Open Championship

The Senior Open Championship was recognized as a major in the PGA Tour Champions much later in 2003. 

The Championship was established in 1987 in the United Kingdom. Currently, it’s known as the Senior Open Championship by Rolex for sponsorship reasons.

Fun Fact: The Senior Open Championship i s the only senior major championship in the PGA seniors tour held outside the United States.

2022 Senior Open Championship by Rolex Winner: The 2022 champion for the Senior Open Championship is Darren Clarke. He earned $432,080 for winning the major title.

Most wins in the Senior Open Championship by Rolex: Bernhard Langer also holds the title for most wins in Senior Open Championship. He won the tournaments in 2010, 2014, 2017, and 2019.

Other Noteworthy Senior Tours

Everyone deserves to play competitive golf. At every stage and age. 

Let’s have a look at some well-known senior tours. 

Legends of the LPGA (Women’s Senior Golf Tour)

Legends of the LPGA is a women’s senior golf tour. It’s a tour of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) for women over the age of 45.

The tour was established in 2000 by 25 retired LPGA players who modeled it after the men’s senior tour. 

From its initial days, the tour grew from two annual events to eleven events in 2013. 

In 2017, the Senior LPGA Championship was also inaugurated. This tournament is an annual tour event alongside the Senior Women’s Open. 

2022 Senior LPGA Winner: Karrie Webb won the 2022 Senior LPGA championship. She got prize money of $60,000 for her win.

Most wins in the Senior LPGA Championship: Trish Johnson holds the most wins in the Senior LPGA Championship. She won the championship twice in 2017 and 2021.

⛳️ Related: Top 25 PGA Tour Champions to Watch This Year

Senior Amateur Golf Tour

The Senior Amateur Golf Tour was established in 1999 for amateur players above the age of 50. 

It’s open to play for golfers of all skill levels. The only requirement is to be above the age of 50 and get a membership.

Players can get a membership to play in their local flights. Membership cards cost between $85 to $100 annually. The price variation depends on your location.

Moreover, you’ll need to pay a tournament fee to enter each tournament. The price again varies on your location but ranges from $65 to $100. 

Note: This price includes your green fee, golf cart, and range balls. The winning prize is also calculated from the tournament fee.

Players earn points by regularly playing in their local flights. 

Players can then compete in stroke-play tournaments locally. The tour concludes with a National Tour Championship. 

Top amateur players from across the country can compete with each other for the title. The golfers need a set number of points to qualify for the National Championship.

The Sunbelt Senior Golf Tour

The Sunbelt Senior Golf Tour was one of the most recognized golf tours to prepare yourself for the PGA Tour Champions or the European Senior Tour. Although no longer active, this Senior Golf Tour allowed golfers ages 49 and above to experience a competitive senior golf tournament beforehand.

⛳️ Read Next: The Amazing Ben Hogan Golf Story: 5 Lessons to Inspire You

Senior Golf Tour Final Thoughts

So that’s a wrap on Senior Golf Tour Major Tournaments. This series of tournaments is truly an incredible offering for golfers above 50.

If you enjoy reading about the senior golf tour events, you may also enjoy reading some of our “what’s in the bag” articles listed below.

What are the 5 senior majors?

The five senior majors on the PGA Tour Champions are the Senior PGA Championship, The Tradition (Regions Tradition), U.S. Senior Open, The Senior Players Championship, and the Senior Open Championship.

What Age for the Senior PGA Tour?

The Senior Tour age requirement is to be at least 50 years old.

What age is senior LPGA?

Legends of the LPGA is the official senior tour of the Ladies Professional Golf Association. You must be 45 years old at a minimum to be eligible.

Related Senior Golf Articles

Mike Weir WITB 2023 | The 2003 Masters Champion’s Clubs

The 10 Best Golf Clubs for Senior Women [Expert Review]

The 58 Greatest Golf Quotes of All Time

Who is Bernhard Langer? Remarkable Rags to Riches Golf Story

8 Best Tips for Speeding up Your Pace of Play in Golf

Trish Johnson: The Long Bumpy Road to Golf Success

Erin has spent over 17 years as a healthcare executive working with seniors in nursing homes, skilled nursing, assisted living, and independent living communities. She also holds a Masters Degree in Social Work and other advanced degrees related to seniors.

Erin grew up playing golf in a family of golf fanatics. She started this site to help others add more enjoyment to the game of life through golf.

X (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | Pinterest

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

© 2024 Senior Golf Source

Constellation FURYK & FRIENDS

Latest golf videos, couples scores a birdie on 13.

• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Disney Ad Sales Site
• Work for ESPN
• Corrections

Bland Claims Title in KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship Debut

Future Sites

• Christopher Crawford ,

• Ryan Lavner ,

Trending Teams

Golf air times.

• Golf Channel Podcast
• College Golf Talk
• Presidents Cup

• SI SWIMSUIT
• SUBSCRIBE NOW

TV Times: How to Watch Charles Schwab Challenge and Senior PGA Championship

John schwarb | may 21, 2024.

PGA Tour: Charles Schwab Challenge

Site: Fort Worth, Texas.

Course: Colonial CC. Yardage: 7,289. Par: 70.

Field size: 133 players .

Prize money: $9.1 million. Winner’s share: $1,638,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS).

Defending champion: Emiliano Grillo.

FedEx Cup leader: Scottie Scheffler.

Last week: Xander Schauffele won the PGA Championship .

Notes: Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is in the field after his wild week at the PGA Championship. The arraignment on his arrest for not following police orders was postponed until June 3 , the week of Memorial. ... Scheffler has finished in the top 10 in all but one tournament this year. That was a tie for 17th in The American Express. ... Colonial has gone through a course renovation led by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner that was completed in about 11 months. ... Colonial is the longest-running host course of a regular PGA Tour event dating to 1950. The 1949 tournament was canceled by historic rain. ... Ben Hogan (1946-47 and 1952-53) is the only player to repeat. Jordan Spieth finished second, won and finished second from 2015 through 2017. ... The top 50 in the world ranking after this week are exempt from British Open qualifying. ... Club pro Michael Block received another sponsor exemption after missing the cut last week in the PGA Championship. ... The field features four of the top 10 in the world.

GCSAA Fact Sheet: Click here .

Next week: RBC Canadian Open.

PGA Tour Champions: Senior PGA Championship

Site: Benton Harbor, Michigan.

Course: Harbor Shores Resort. Yardage: 6,852. Par: 71.

Prize money: $3.5 million. Winner’s share: $630,000.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-4 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 3-4 p.m. (Golf Channel), 4-6 p.m. (NBC).

Defending champion: Steve Stricker.

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Steven Alker.

Last tournament: Doug Barron won the Regions Tradition.

Notes: Steve Stricker, who decided to withdraw from the PGA Championship last week because of a crammed schedule, is back to defend his title. ... Hale Irwin, Sam Snead and Eddie Williams are the only players to successfully defend since the Senior PGA Championship began in 1937. ... This is the sixth time the Senior PGA has been held at Harbor Shores. Players from Britain have won three of the previous five — Roger Chapman, Colin Montgomerie and Paul Broadhurst. ... The field includes 40 club professionals 50 or older. ... Tracy Phillips of Cedar Ridge Golf Club in Tulsa, Okla., is the only club pro to compete in the PGA Championship and the Senior PGA this week. ... Padraig Harrington, Rich Beem, John Daly, Shaun Micheel and Y.E. Yang also competed at Valhalla last week as past PGA champions. None made the cut. ... This is the first of five majors on the PGA Tour Champions schedule.

Next week: Principal Charity Classic.

DP World Tour: Soudal Open

Site: Antwerp, Belgium.

Course: Rinkven International GC. Yardage: 6,940. Par: 71.

Prize money: $2.5 million. Winner’s share: $416,667.

Television: Thursday-Friday, 7 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel); Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel); Sunday, 7 a.m. to noon (Golf Channel).

Defending champion: Simon Forsstrom.

Race to Dubai leader: Rory McIlroy.

Last week: Xander Schauffele won the PGA Championship.

Notes: The tournament starts the continental European part of the schedule. Except for the U.S. Open in North Carolina next month, the European tour won’t leave the continent again until October. ... The Belgian players in their national open include Thomas Pieters, who is now with LIV Golf, and Nicolas Colsaerts, a Ryder Cup assistant captain. Thomas Detry is playing on the PGA Tour this week, fresh off his tie for fourth in the PGA Championship that got him into the U.S. Open and next year’s Masters. ... The field includes Adrian Otaegui, who narrowly missed the cut in the PGA Championship. He is three spots behind LIV’s David Puig in the race for the final spot in the Olympics for Spain. Otaegui won the tournament in 2018. ... The tournament dates to 1910 and features past champions Henry Cotton and Walter Hagen, the only American to win the Belgium Open.

Next week: European Open.

Korn Ferry Tour: Visit Knoxville Open

Site: Knoxville, Tennessee.

Course: Holston Hills CC. Yardage: 7,222. Par: 70.

Prize money: $1 million. Winner’s share: $180,000.

Television: None.

Previous winner: Rico Hoey.

Points leader: Tim Widing.

Last tournament: Harry Higgs won the AdventHealth Championship.

Next week: UNC Health Championship.

Last week: Nelly Korda won the Mizuho Americas Open.

Next week: U.S. Women’s Open.

Race to CME Globe leader: Nelly Korda.

LIV Golf League

Last tournament: Brooks Koepka won LIV Golf Singapore.

Next tournament: LIV Golf Houston on June 7-9.

Points leader: Joaquin Niemann.

Other Tours

Japan Golf Tour: Mizuno Open, JFE Setonaikai GC, Okayama, Japan. Defending champion: Kensei Hirata.

Challenge Tour: Danish Golf Challenge, Odense Eventyr Golfc, Odense, Denmark. Previous winner: Matteo Manassero.

Ladies European Tour: Jabra Ladies Open, Evian Resort GC, Evian-les-Baines, France. Previous winner: Linn Grant.

Sunshine Tour: KitKat Cash & Carry Pro-Am, Irene CC, Centurion, South Africa. Defending champion: Louis Albertse.

Japan LPGA: ResortTrust Ladies, Kansai GC, Hyogo, Japan. Defending champion: Miyuu Yamashita.

Korea LPGA: E1 Charity Open, Ferrum GC, Yeoju-gun, South Korea. Defending champion: Shinsil Bang.

John Schwarb is a senior editor for Sports Illustrated covering golf. Prior to joining SI in March 2022, he worked for ESPN.com, PGATour.com, Tampa Bay Times and Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He is the author of The Little 500: The Story of the World's Greatest College Weekend. A member of the Golf Writers Association of America, Schwarb has a bachelor's in journalism from Indiana University.

Follow johnschwarb

36th Senior PGA Professional Championship

The 2024 Senior PGA Professional Championship heads to Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Oregon, as 264 of the top PGA of America Golf Professionals 50 years of age and older will compete for the Leo Fraser Trophy.

The Senior PGA Professional Championship supported by Golf Channel annually features many of the finest senior players in the Association. The four-day, 72-hole Championship begins Thursday, Sept. 26, and concludes Sunday, Sept. 29.

The top 35 finishers will earn a spot on the Corebridge Financial Team to compete in the 2025 Senior PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club, Blue course, in Bethesda, Maryland, May 19-25.

Eight PGA Professionals from the Pacific Northwest will be representing our Section: Jeff Gove of the Idaho Club, David Lebeck of Portland Golf Club, Mitch Lowe of Glendoveer Golf Club, Jeff Marsh of Vancouver, WA, Ryan Malby of Kalispell, MT, Brent Murray of Oswego Lake CC, Birk Nelson of Orange Whip and Christopher Smith of Eugene CC. Jeff Coston is exempt to the event, but will not be playing this year.

Scoring link

• Board of Directors
• Committee Chairs
• Section Staff
• ForeWord Press
• Friends of the PNWPGA Newsletter
• Section News
• Merchandise Show
• New to Golf
• PNW PGA Hall of Fame
• Special Awards
• Central Washington
• Inland Empire
• Western Montana
• Western Washington
• Tournament Rules
• 2024 Tournament Schedule
• Future Tournaments
• Player of the Year Points
• 100-Hole Marathon
• 2024 Champions Tour Qualifier
• Junior Golf Programs
• PNW PGA Junior Championship
• Drive, Chip and Putt
• PGA Jr. League
• Membership Q&A
• PDR Information
• Meetings & Education
• Career Services
• “Fore the Best” Podcast
• Player Development Committee
• Player Development Articles
• Player Development Best Practices Wiki
• PNW PGA Orientation Committee
• Guide to Mentoring Associates
• Online EFT Form
• Club EFT Form
• PNW PGA Mastercard® Credit Cards
• Online Member Handbook (ForeTees Login)
• 2024 PAT Schedule
• PNWPGA Callaway Golf Challenge
• Farmers/Jared Bouchey Agency Hole-In-One Challenge
• Garmany Majors Shootout
• Friends of the PNWPGA Perks
• Allied Associations
• PNWPGA Junior Golf Fund
• PNWPGA JAM Program
• Grants Best Practices
• PGA HOPE Pacific Northwest
• FREDDY Initiative

• Visit Our Blog about Russia to know more about Russian sights, history
• Check out our Russian cities and regions guides
• Follow us on Twitter and Facebook to better understand Russia
• Info about getting Russian visa , the main airports , how to rent an apartment
• Our Expert answers your questions about Russia, some tips about sending flowers

Russian regions

• Chelyabinsk oblast
• Khanty-Mansi okrug
• Kurgan oblast
• Sverdlovsk oblast
• Nizhny Tagil
• Tyumen oblast
• Yamalo-Nenets okrug
• Map of Russia
• All cities and regions
• Blog about Russia
• News from Russia
• How to get a visa
• Flights to Russia
• Russian hotels
• Renting apartments
• Russian currency
• FIFA World Cup 2018
• Submit an article
• Flowers to Russia
• Ask our Expert

Yekaterinburg city, Russia

The capital city of Sverdlovsk oblast .

Yekaterinburg - Overview

Yekaterinburg or Ekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk in 1924-1991) is the fourth most populous city in Russia (after Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk), the administrative center of the Ural Federal District and Sverdlovsk Oblast.

This city is one of the country’s largest transport and logistics hubs, as well as an important industrial center. It is unofficially called the “capital of the Urals.”

The population of Yekaterinburg is about 1,493,600 (2022), the area - 468 sq. km.

The phone code - +7 343, the postal codes - 620000-620920.

Ekaterinburg city flag

Ekaterinburg city coat of arms.

Ekaterinburg city map, Russia

Ekaterinburg city latest news and posts from our blog:.

26 May, 2020 / Unique Color Photos of Yekaterinburg in 1909 .

2 December, 2018 / Yekaterinburg - the view from above .

21 November, 2018 / Abandoned Railway Tunnel in Didino .

4 December, 2017 / Stadiums and Matches of the World Cup 2018 in Russia .

3 January, 2017 / Ekaterinburg, the Capital of the Urals: Then and Now .

More posts..

News, notes and thoughts:

4 April, 2011   / Free travel on new high-speed trains should allay fans' fears about long journey to Ekaterinburg - the most far-flung city on Russia's list of sites for 2018 World Cup. Let's hope the train will not break down in the middle of nowhere.

1 February, 2011   / Today is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia. President Medvedev today unveiled a monument to Yeltsin in his home city Ekaterinburg. First one in Russia.

History of Yekaterinburg

Foundation of yekaterinburg.

The territory along the Iset River, which served as a convenient transport route from the Ural Mountains deep into Siberia, has long attracted settlers. The oldest of the currently discovered settlements on the territory of present Yekaterinburg was located next to the Palkinsky Stone Tents rock massif and dates back to the 6th millennium BC.

From the 7th-3rd centuries BC, ancient metallurgists who mastered the smelting of copper lived in this settlement. Copper figures of birds, animals, people, arrowheads, various household items were found here. Later they learned how to make iron products. All discovered settlements were destroyed as a result of fires, possibly during raids of the conquerors.

The territory occupied by present Yekaterinburg became part of Russia in the middle of the 17th century. At that time, it had practically no permanent population. The first Russian settlements were founded in the second half of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century, the first ironworks were built here.

In the spring of 1723, by decree of Emperor Peter I, the construction of the largest iron-making plant in Russia began on the banks of the Iset River. Construction began on the initiative of Vasily Tatishchev (a prominent Russian statesman). He was supported by Georg Wilhelm de Gennin (a German-born Russian military officer and engineer), on the initiative of which the fortress plant was named Yekaterinburg in honor of Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina in Russian), the wife of Peter I.

More Historical Facts…

The historic birthday of Yekaterinburg is November 18, 1723. On this day, a test run of the plant equipment was carried out. Its main products included iron, cast iron, and copper. In 1725, the Yekaterinburg Mint began production on the territory of the fortress and became the main producer of copper coins in the Russian Empire. Until 1876, it produced about 80% of the country’s copper coins. In the 1720s, the population of Yekaterinburg was about 4,000 people.

Yekaterinburg - one of the economic centers of the Russian Empire

In the middle of the 18th century, the first ore gold in Russia was discovered in this region, which was the beginning of the gold industry in the country. As a result, Yekaterinburg became the center of a whole system of densely located plants and began to develop as the capital of the mining region, which spread on both sides of the Ural Range.

In 1781, Catherine II granted Yekaterinburg the status of a county town in the Perm Governorate. The population of the town was about 8,000 people. In 1783, the town received a coat of arms depicting an ore mine and a melting furnace, which symbolized its mining and metallurgical industries (similar images are depicted on the current coat of arms and flag of Yekaterinburg).

In 1783, the Great Siberian Road was opened - the main road of the Russian Empire that passed through Yekaterinburg. It served as an impetus for the transformation of Yekaterinburg into a transport hub and a center of trade. Thus, Yekaterinburg, among other towns of the Perm Governorate, became the key town for the development of the boundless and rich Siberia, the “window to Asia”, just as St. Petersburg was the Russian “window to Europe.”

In 1808, the Yekaterinburg plant was closed, and the history of the town entered a new stage related to the development of a large regional center with a diversified economy. At the beginning of the 19th century, the gold mining industry flourished. At the same time, deposits of emeralds, sapphires, aquamarines, diamonds, and other precious, semiprecious, and ornamental stones were discovered in the Urals. Yekaterinburg became one of the world centers for their artistic processing.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the mining industry of the Urals experienced a severe crisis, a number of plants were closed. In 1878, the first railway was constructed across the Urals and connected Yekaterinburg with Perm. In 1888, the Yekaterinburg-Tyumen railway was built, and in 1897 - the railway to Chelyabinsk, which provided access to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Yekaterinburg became a major railway junction, which contributed to the development of the local food industry, especially flour milling. In 1913, the population of Yekaterinburg was about 69,000 people.

Yekaterinburg in the first years of Soviet power

On November 8, 1917, Soviet power was established in Yekaterinburg. On April 30, 1918, the last Russian emperor Nicholas II and his family members with a few servants were transported from Tobolsk to Yekaterinburg. They were placed in the “House of Special Purpose”, the mansion of engineer Nikolai Ipatiev requisitioned for this purpose, and transferred under the supervision and responsibility of the Ural Regional Soviet.

In July 1918, units of the White Siberian army approached Yekaterinburg, under this pretext the leadership of the Ural Regional Soviet decided to shoot the imperial family. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, it was done in the basement of the Ipatiev House.

10 days later, units of the Czechoslovak Legion entered Yekaterinburg. Over the next 12 months, it was under the control of anti-Bolshevik forces. On July 14, 1919, the Red Army reoccupied the city. Soviet authorities and the Yekaterinburg Province with a center in Yekaterinburg were restored. In 1920, the population of the city was about 94,400 people.

The political center of the Urals moved from Perm to Yekaterinburg. In 1923, Yekaterinburg became the administrative center of the vast Ural Oblast, which in size exceeded the territory of the present Ural Federal District of Russia. In 1924, the city council decided to rename the capital of the new region to Sverdlovsk - in honor of Yakov Sverdlov, a Bolshevik party administrator and chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.

Sverdlovsk - a Soviet industrial giant

During the years of Stalin’s industrialization, Sverdlovsk was turned into a powerful industrial center. The old factories were reconstructed and new large factories were built, including giant machine-building and metal processing plants. In 1933, the construction of the future flagship of Soviet engineering (Uralmash) was completed. The population of Sverdlovsk grew by more than 3 times, and it became one of the fastest growing cities in the USSR.

January 17, 1934, Ural Oblast was divided into three regions - Sverdlovsk Oblast with a center in Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk Oblast with a center in Chelyabinsk, and Ob-Irtysh Oblast with a center in Tyumen. By the end of the 1930s, there were 140 industrial enterprises, 25 research institutes, 12 higher educational institutions in Sverdlovsk. In 1939, the population of the city was about 425,500 people.

Along with other Ural cities, Sverdlovsk made a significant contribution to the victory of the USSR in the Second World War. In total, more than 100,000 residents of the city joined the Red Army. 41,772 people didn’t return from the war: 21,397 - killed in battles, 4,778 - died from wounds in hospitals, 15,491 - went missing, 106 - died in prisoner of war camps.

Sverdlovsk became the largest evacuation point, more than 50 large and medium enterprises from the western regions of Russia and Ukraine were evacuated here. During the war years, industrial production in Sverdlovsk grew 7 times.

After the war, this city became the largest center for engineering and metalworking in Russia. During the Cold War, Sverdlovsk, as a key center of the defense industry, was practically closed to foreigners. In 1960, in the sky above the city, Soviet air defense shot down the U-2 spy plane of the US manned by Francis Gary Powers.

On January 23, 1967, a millionth resident was born in the city and Sverdlovsk became one of the first Russian cities with a population of more than 1 million people. In 1979, Sverdlovsk was included in the list of historical cities of Russia.

On October 4, 1988, a serious accident occurred at the Sverdlovsk railway station. The train carrying almost 100 tons of explosives rolled downhill and crashed into a coal freight train. An explosion occurred, aggravated by the proximity of a large warehouse of fuels and lubricants. The funnel at the site of the explosion had a diameter of 40-60 meters and a depth of 8 meters, the shock wave spread 10-15 kilometers. The explosion killed 4 people at the station and injured more than 500 people. About 600 houses were severely damaged.

Yekaterinburg - one of the largest cities of the Russian Federation

On September 4, 1991, the Sverdlovsk City Council of People’s Deputies decided to return the city its original name - Yekaterinburg. The population of the city was about 1,375,000 people. The restrictions on foreign visitors to the city were also lifted, and soon the first consulate general was opened here - the United States of America (in 1994).

The transition to a market economy led to a reduction in production at industrial enterprises, inert giant plant found themselves in a particularly difficult situation. In 1991, the construction of the television tower was stopped. The city was flooded with chaotic small retail trade in temporary pavilions and markets. These years were the heyday of organized crime, Yekaterinburg became one of the “criminal capitals” of Russia. The economic situation began to improve by the end of the 1990s.

In 2000-2003, the Church on Blood in Honour of All Saints Resplendent in the Russian Land was built on the site of the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg. In 2008-2009, the Koltsovo Airport was reconstructed. In June 15-17, 2009, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and BRIC (Brasilia, Russia, India, China) summits were held in Yekaterinburg.

In 2015, the Presidential Center of Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, was opened in Yekaterinburg. On March 24, 2018, the abandoned unfinished television tower was dismantled. It was the tallest building in the city (almost 240 meters) and became one of the symbols of Yekaterinburg. 4 matches of FIFA World Cup 2018 were played in Yekaterinburg.

Today, Yekaterinburg is the largest center of attraction not only of Sverdlovsk Oblast, but also of the surrounding regions. By some socio-economic indicators, this city ranks third in Russia, after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Along with the development of trade and business, the city lost the status of the country’s largest industrial center.

On the streets of Yekaterinburg

Soviet-era apartment buildings in Yekaterinburg

Author: Alex Kolm

In the central part of Yekaterinburg

Author: Serg Fokin

Yekaterinburg street view

Author: Krutikov S.V.

Yekaterinburg - Features

Yekaterinburg is located in the floodplain of the Iset River on the eastern slope of the Middle Urals in Asia, near its border with Europe, about 1,800 km east of Moscow. Since the Ural Mountains are very old, there are no significant hills in the city.

This relief was a favorable condition for the construction of the main transport routes from Central Russia to Siberia (the Siberian Route and the Trans-Siberian Railway) through Yekaterinburg. As a result, it has become one of the most strategically important centers of Russia, which still provides a link between the European and Asian parts of the country.

Yekaterinburg is located in the border zone of temperate continental and continental climates. It is characterized by a sharp variability in weather conditions with well-defined seasons. The Ural Mountains, despite their low height, block the way to the masses of air coming from the west from the European part of Russia.

As a result, the Middle Urals is open to the invasion of cold Arctic air and continental air of the West Siberian Plain. At the same time, warm air masses of the Caspian Sea and the deserts of Central Asia can freely enter this territory from the south.

That is why the city is characterized by sharp temperature fluctuations and the formation of weather anomalies: in winter from severe frosts to thaws and rains, in summer from heat above plus 35 degrees Celsius to frosts. The average temperature in January is minus 12.6 degrees Celsius, in July - plus 19 degrees Celsius.

The city has a rather unfavorable environmental situation due to air pollution. In 2016, Yekaterinburg was included in the list of Russian cities with the worst environmental situation by this indicator. Car emissions account for more than 90% of all pollution.

Yekaterinburg ranks third in Russia (after Moscow and St. Petersburg) in the number of diplomatic missions, while their consular districts extend far beyond Sverdlovsk Oblast, and serve other regions of the Urals, Siberia, and the Volga region.

In terms of economy, Yekaterinburg also ranks third in the country. It is one of the largest financial and business centers of Russia. The main branches of production: metallurgical production and metalworking, food production, production of electrical equipment, electronic and optical equipment, production of vehicles, production of machinery and equipment, chemical production.

Almost all types of urban public transport are presented in Yekaterinburg: buses, trolleybuses, trams, subways, taxis. Yekaterinburg is the third largest transportation hub in Russia: 6 federal highways, 7 main railway lines, as well as Koltsovo International Airport, one of the country’s largest airports. The location of Yekaterinburg in the central part of the region allows you to get from it to any major city of the Urals in 7-10 hours.

Yekaterinburg has an extensive scientific and technical potential, it is one of the largest scientific centers in Russia. The Presidium and about 20 institutes of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 66 research institutes, and about 30 universities are located here.

This city is a relatively large tourist center. A significant part of tourists visit it to honor the memory of the last Russian emperor and his family killed by the Bolsheviks in the basement of the Ipatiev House in 1918.

There are about 50 different museums in Yekaterinburg. One of the world’s largest collections of constructivist architectural monuments has been preserved here. In total, there are over 600 historical and cultural monuments in the city, of which 43 are objects of federal significance. The City Day of Yekaterinburg is celebrated on the third Saturday of August.

Interesting facts about Yekaterinburg

• It was founded by the decree of the first Russian Emperor Peter I and the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II was shot here;
• In 1820, the roof of the UK Parliament building in London was made of roofing iron produced in Yekaterinburg;
• Ural steel was used in the construction of the Eiffel Tower in Paris;
• Ural copper was used in the construction of the Statue of Liberty in New York;
• During the Second World War, Sverdlovsk was the center of broadcasting in the USSR;
• Equipment for the world’s deepest borehole (Kola Superdeep Borehole, 12,262 meters) was produced in Yekaterinburg;
• Boris Yeltsin, the first president of Russia, began his political career in Yekaterinburg;
• Minor planet #27736 Yekaterinburg, discovered by the Belgian astronomer Eric Elst on September 22, 1990, was named in honor of this city;
• Two most northern skyscrapers in the world are located in Yekaterinburg: the Iset residential tower (209 m) and the Vysotsky business center (188 m), they are the tallest buildings throughout Russia east of Moscow.

Pictures of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg city view

Author: Andrey Zagaynov

Modern architecture in Yekaterinburg

Author: Yury Baranov

The territory of the central stadium of Yekaterinburg before reconstruction

Author: Sergey Likhota

Main Attractions of Yekaterinburg

Sevastyanov House - a palace of the first quarter of the 19th century built in the architectural styles of pseudo-Gothic, Neo-Baroque, and Moorish traditions and painted in green, white, and red tones. Today, it is the most beautiful building in Yekaterinburg and one of its symbols. The house stands on the promenade of the Iset River, very close to the city dam. Lenina Avenue, 35.

“Plotinka” - the dam of the city pond on the Iset River built in the 18th century. From an architectural point of view, it is an ordinary bridge. However, it is of particular importance for the residents of Yekaterinburg since the construction of the entire city started from this place. Today, this is the main place for festivities in Yekaterinburg. Lenina Avenue.

Observation Deck of the Business Center “Vysotsky” - an open-air observation deck on the 52nd floor at an altitude of 168 meters. From here you can enjoy the views of all of Yekaterinburg. On the second and third floors of this skyscraper there is the memorial museum of Vladimir Vysotsky - a singer, songwriter, and actor who had an immense effect on Soviet culture. Malysheva Street, 51.

Vaynera Street - the central avenue of Yekaterinburg, the so-called “Ural Arbat”. One of its parts from Kuibysheva Street to Lenina Avenue is a pedestrian street. This is one of the oldest streets in Yekaterinburg laid in the middle of the 18th century. Along it, you can see merchant mansions, shops, administrative buildings, most of which were built in the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

Rastorguev-Kharitonov Palace (1794-1824) - one of the most valuable architectural manor and park ensembles in Yekaterinburg, an architectural monument of federal significance built in the classical style and located in the city center. Karla Libknekhta Street, 44.

Church of the Ascension (1792-1818) - one of the oldest churches in Yekaterinburg located next to the Rastorguev-Kharitonov Palace. This beautiful building combines the features of baroque, pseudo-Russian style, and classicism. Klary Tsetkin Street, 11.

Yeltsin Center - a cultural and educational center dedicated to the contemporary history of Russia, as well as the personality of its first president, Boris Yeltsin. The museum dedicated to his life is one of the best museums in Russia. Borisa Yeltsina Street, 3.

Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts - the largest art museum in the Urals housed in two buildings. This museum is best known for its unique collection of Kasli art castings and the world-famous Kasli cast iron pavilion - a participant in the 1900 Paris World’s Fair.

The following collections can also be found here: Russian paintings of the 18th - early 20th centuries, Russian avant-garde of 1910-1920, Russian porcelain and glass of the 18th - 20th centuries, Russian icon painting of the 16th-19th centuries, Western European art of the 14th-19th centuries, stone-carving and jewelry art of the Urals, Zlatoust decorated weapons and steel engraving. Voevodina Street, 5; Vaynera Street, 11.

Museum of the History of Stone-Cutting and Jewelry Art . A unique collection of this museum consists of gem minerals, works of jewelers and stone-cutters of the Urals, and products created at the Ural lapidary factory. The museum has Malachite and Bazhov halls, the Emerald Room, and several exhibition galleries where visitors can see works made of colored stone and metal created by local artists. Lenina Avenue, 37.

Sverdlovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore . At first, its collection consisted of four departments: mineralogical, botanical, zoological, and paleontological. Later, numismatic, ethnographic, and anthropological sections were added. Today, there are more than 700 thousand exhibits here. Lenina Avenue, 69/10.

Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg . This museum occupies a historic building of the 19th century. In addition to the main exhibition, you can see the wax figures of Peter the Great, Catherine II, Nicholas II, the Ural manufacturers Demidov, and the founders of Yekaterinburg.

Old Railway Station of Yekaterinburg - one of the most beautiful and picturesque buildings in the city built in 1878. In 2003, after a large-scale reconstruction, the Museum of the History of Science and Technology of the Sverdlovsk Railway was opened here. Vokzal’naya Ulitsa, 14.

Yekaterinburg Circus . Visible from a lot of points of the city, the building of the Yekaterinburg Circus is known for its amazing dome consisting of trellised openwork semi-arches, which is not typical for circuses in Russia. 8 Marta Street, 43.

White Tower (1929-1931) - a former water tower 29 meters high located at a certain distance from the center of Yekaterinburg, an architectural monument of Constructivism. Today, it is used as a cultural site. Bakinskikh Komissarov Street, 2?.

Keyboard Monument - a contemporary art object made on a scale of 30:1 in 2005. This 16x4 meter concrete keyboard consists of 104 keys spaced 15 cm apart. From here the famous tourist route “Red Line” begins (a self-guided tour of the historic city center). The monument is located on the embankment of the Iset River next to the House of the Merchant Chuvildin (Gorkogo Street, 14A).

Ekaterinburg city of Russia photos

Places of interest in yekaterinburg.

Sculpture of talking townspeople in Yekaterinburg

Author: Pichugin Mikhail

Old buildings in Yekaterinburg

Author: Andrew Golovin

Wooden Church of the Holy Martyr Arkady in Yekaterinburg

Author: Kutenyov Vladimir

Street transport of Yekaterinburg

Tram in Yekaterinburg

Author: Andrey Permyakov

Bus in Yekaterinburg

Author: Per Heitmann

The questions of our visitors

All 5 questions

The comments of our visitors

• Currently 3.06/5

Rating: 3.1 /5 (288 votes cast)

• Places - European, Western and Northern Russia

YEKATERINBURG: FACTORIES, URAL SIGHTS, YELTSIN AND THE WHERE NICHOLAS II WAS KILLED

Sverdlovsk oblast.

Sverdlovsk Oblast is the largest region in the Urals; it lies in the foothills of mountains and contains a monument indicating the border between Europe and Asia. The region covers 194,800 square kilometers (75,200 square miles), is home to about 4.3 million people and has a population density of 22 people per square kilometer. About 83 percent of the population live in urban areas. Yekaterinburg is the capital and largest city, with 1.5 million people. For Russians, the Ural Mountains are closely associated with Pavel Bazhov's tales and known for folk crafts such as Kasli iron sculpture, Tagil painting, and copper embossing. Yekaterinburg is the birthplace of Russia’s iron and steel industry, taking advantage of the large iron deposits in the Ural mountains. The popular Silver Ring of the Urals tourist route starts here.

In the summer you can follow in the tracks of Yermak, climb relatively low Ural mountain peaks and look for boulders seemingly with human faces on them. You can head to the Gemstone Belt of the Ural mountains, which used to house emerald, amethyst and topaz mines. In the winter you can go ice fishing, ski and cross-country ski.

Sverdlovsk Oblast and Yekaterinburg are located near the center of Russia, at the crossroads between Europe and Asia and also the southern and northern parts of Russia. Winters are longer and colder than in western section of European Russia. Snowfalls can be heavy. Winter temperatures occasionally drop as low as - 40 degrees C (-40 degrees F) and the first snow usually falls in October. A heavy winter coat, long underwear and good boots are essential. Snow and ice make the sidewalks very slippery, so footwear with a good grip is important. Since the climate is very dry during the winter months, skin moisturizer plus lip balm are recommended. Be alert for mud on street surfaces when snow cover is melting (April-May). Patches of mud create slippery road conditions.

Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg (kilometer 1818 on the Trans-Siberian Railway) is the fourth largest city in Russia, with of 1.5 million and growth rate of about 12 percent, high for Russia. Located in the southern Ural mountains, it was founded by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine, it was used by the tsars as a summer retreat and is where tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed and President Boris Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career. The city is near the border between Europe and Asia.

Yekaterinburg (also spelled Ekaterinburg) is located on the eastern slope of the Ural Mountains in the headwaters of the Iset and Pyshma Rivers. The Iset runs through the city center. Three ponds — Verkh-Isetsky, Gorodskoy and Nizhne-Isetsky — were created on it. Yekaterinburg has traditionally been a city of mining and was once the center of the mining industry of the Urals and Siberia. Yekaterinburg remains a major center of the Russian armaments industry and is sometimes called the "Pittsburgh of Russia.". A few ornate, pastel mansions and wide boulevards are reminders of the tsarist era. The city is large enough that it has its own Metro system but is characterized mostly by blocky Soviet-era apartment buildings. The city has advanced under President Vladimir Putin and is now one of the fastest growing places in Russia, a country otherwise characterized by population declines

Yekaterinburg is technically an Asian city as it lies 32 kilometers east of the continental divide between Europe and Asia. The unofficial capital of the Urals, a key region in the Russian heartland, it is second only to Moscow in terms of industrial production and capital of Sverdlovsk oblast. Among the important industries are ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building and metalworking, chemical and petrochemicals, construction materials and medical, light and food industries. On top of being home of numerous heavy industries and mining concerns, Yekaterinburg is also a major center for industrial research and development and power engineering as well as home to numerous institutes of higher education, technical training, and scientific research. In addition, Yekaterinburg is the largest railway junction in Russia: the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through it, the southern, northern, western and eastern routes merge in the city.

Accommodation: There are two good and affordable hotels — the 3-star Emerald and Parus hotels — located close to the city's most popular landmarks and main transport interchanges in the center of Yekaterinburg. Room prices start at RUB 1,800 per night.

History of Yekaterinburg

Yekaterinburg was founded in 1723 by Peter the Great and named after his wife Catherine I. It was used by the tsars as a summer retreat but was mainly developed as metalworking and manufacturing center to take advantage of the large deposits of iron and other minerals in the Ural mountains. It is best known to Americans as the place where the last Tsar and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918 and near where American U-2 spy plane, piloted by Gary Powers, was shot down in 1960.

Peter the Great recognized the importance of the iron and copper-rich Urals region for Imperial Russia's industrial and military development. In November 1723, he ordered the construction of a fortress factory and an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. In its early years Yekaterinburg grew rich from gold and other minerals and later coal. The Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745 created such a huge amount of wealth that one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. By the mid-18th century, metallurgical plants had sprung up across the Urals to cast cannons, swords, guns and other weapons to arm Russia’s expansionist ambitions. The Yekaterinburg mint produced most of Russia's coins. Explorations of the Trans-Baikal and Altai regions began here in the 18th century.

Iron, cast iron and copper were the main products. Even though Iron from the region went into the Eiffel Tower, the main plant in Yekaterinburg itself was shut down in 1808. The city still kept going through a mountain factory control system of the Urals. The first railway in the Urals was built here: in 1878, the Yekaterinburg-Perm railway branch connected the province's capital with the factories of the Middle Urals.

In the Soviet era the city was called Sverdlovsk (named after Yakov Sverdlov, the man who organized Nicholas II's execution). During the first five-year plans the city became industrial — old plants were reconstructed, new ones were built. The center of Yekaterinburg was formed to conform to the historical general plan of 1829 but was the layout was adjusted around plants and factories. In the Stalin era the city was a major gulag transhipment center. In World War II, many defense-related industries were moved here. It and the surrounding area were a center of the Soviet Union's military industrial complex. Soviet tanks, missiles and aircraft engines were made in the Urals. During the Cold War era, Yekaterinburg was a center of weapons-grade uranium enrichment and processing, warhead assembly and dismantlement. In 1979, 64 people died when anthrax leaked from a biological weapons facility. Yekaterinburg was a “Closed City” for 40 years during the Cold Soviet era and was not open to foreigners until 1991

In the early post-Soviet era, much like Pittsburgh in the 1970s, Yekaterinburg had a hard struggle d to cope with dramatic economic changes that have made its heavy industries uncompetitive on the world market. Huge defense plants struggled to survive and the city was notorious as an organized crime center in the 1990s, when its hometown boy Boris Yeltsin was President of Russia. By the 2000s, Yekaterinburg’s retail and service was taking off, the defense industry was reviving and it was attracting tech industries and investments related to the Urals’ natural resources. By the 2010s it was vying to host a world exhibition in 2020 (it lost, Dubai won) and it had McDonald’s, Subway, sushi restaurants, and Gucci, Chanel and Armani. There were Bentley and Ferrari dealerships but they closed down

Transportation in Yekaterinburg

Getting There: By Plane: Yekaterinburg is a three-hour flight from Moscow with prices starting at RUB 8,000, or a 3-hour flight from Saint Petersburg starting from RUB 9,422 (direct round-trip flight tickets for one adult passenger). There are also flights from Frankfurt, Istanbul, China and major cities in the former Soviet Union.

By Train: Yekaterinburg is a major stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Daily train service is available to Moscow and many other Russian cities.Yekaterinburg is a 32-hour train ride from Moscow (tickets RUB 8,380 and above) or a 36-hour train ride from Saint Petersburg (RUB 10,300 and above). The ticket prices are round trip for a berth in a sleeper compartment for one adult passenger). By Car: a car trip from Moscow to Yekateringburg is 1,787 kilometers long and takes about 18 hours. The road from Saint Petersburg is 2,294 kilometers and takes about 28 hours.

Regional Transport: The region's public transport includes buses and suburban electric trains. Regional trains provide transport to larger cities in the Ural region. Buses depart from Yekaterinburg’s two bus stations: the Southern Bus Station and the Northern Bus Station.

Regional Transport: According the to Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT): “Public transportation is well developed. Overcrowding is common. Fares are low. Service is efficient. Buses are the main form of public transport. Tram network is extensive. Fares are reasonable; service is regular. Trams are heavily used by residents, overcrowding is common. Purchase ticket after boarding. Metro runs from city center to Uralmash, an industrial area south of the city. Metro ends near the main railway station. Fares are inexpensive.

“Traffic is congested in city center. Getting around by car can be difficult. Route taxis (minivans) provide the fastest transport. They generally run on specific routes, but do not have specific stops. Drivers stop where passengers request. Route taxis can be hailed. Travel by bus or trolleybuses may be slow in rush hour. Trams are less affected by traffic jams. Trolley buses (electric buses) cannot run when temperatures drop below freezing.”

Entertainment, Sports and Recreation in Yekaterinburg

The performing arts in Yekaterinburg are first rate. The city has an excellent symphony orchestra, opera and ballet theater, and many other performing arts venues. Tickets are inexpensive. The Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater is lavishly designed and richly decorated building in the city center of Yekaterinburg. The theater was established in 1912 and building was designed by architect Vladimir Semyonov and inspired by the Vienna Opera House and the Theater of Opera and Ballet in Odessa.

Vaynera Street is a pedestrian only shopping street in city center with restaurants, cafes and some bars. But otherwise Yekaterinburg's nightlife options are limited. There are a handful of expensive Western-style restaurants and bars, none of them that great. Nightclubs serve the city's nouveau riche clientele. Its casinos have closed down. Some of them had links with organized crime. New dance clubs have sprung up that are popular with Yekaterinburg's more affluent youth.

Yekaterinburg's most popular spectator sports are hockey, basketball, and soccer. There are stadiums and arenas that host all three that have fairly cheap tickets. There is an indoor water park and lots of parks and green spaces. The Urals have many lakes, forests and mountains are great for hiking, boating, berry and mushroom hunting, swimming and fishing. Winter sports include cross-country skiing and ice skating. Winter lasts about six months and there’s usually plenty of snow. The nearby Ural Mountains however are not very high and the downhill skiing opportunities are limited..

Sights in Yekaterinburg

Sights in Yekaterinburg include the Museum of City Architecture and Ural Industry, with an old water tower and mineral collection with emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and other precious stone; Geological Alley, a small park with labeled samples of minerals found in the Urals region; the Ural Geology Museum, which houses an extensive collection of stones, gold and gems from the Urals; a monument marking the border between Europe and Asia; a memorial for gulag victims; and a graveyard with outlandish memorials for slain mafia members.

The Military History Museum houses the remains of the U-2 spy plane shot down in 1960 and locally made tanks and rocket launchers. The fine arts museum contains paintings by some of Russia's 19th-century masters. Also worth a look are the History an Local Studies Museum; the Political History and Youth Museum; and the University and Arboretum. Old wooden houses can be seen around Zatoutstovsya ulitsa and ulitsa Belinskogo. Around the city are wooded parks, lakes and quarries used to harvest a variety of minerals. Weiner Street is the main street of Yekaterinburg. Along it are lovely sculptures and 19th century architecture. Take a walk around the unique Literary Quarter

Plotinka is a local meeting spot, where you will often find street musicians performing. Plotinka can be described as the center of the city's center. This is where Yekaterinburg holds its biggest events: festivals, seasonal fairs, regional holiday celebrations, carnivals and musical fountain shows. There are many museums and open-air exhibitions on Plotinka. Plotinka is named after an actual dam of the city pond located nearby (“plotinka” means “a small dam” in Russian).In November 1723, Peter the Great ordered the construction of an ironworks in the Iset River Valley, which required a dam for its operation. “Iset” can be translated from Finnish as “abundant with fish”. This name was given to the river by the Mansi — the Finno-Ugric people dwelling on the eastern slope of the Northern Urals.

Vysotsky and Iset are skyscrapers that are 188.3 meters and 209 meters high, respectively. Fifty-story-high Iset has been described by locals as the world’s northernmost skyscraper. Before the construction of Iset, Vysotsky was the tallest building of Yekaterinburg and Russia (excluding Moscow). A popular vote has decided to name the skyscraper after the famous Soviet songwriter, singer and actor Vladimir Vysotsky. and the building was opened on November 25, 2011. There is a lookout at the top of the building, and the Vysotsky museum on its second floor. The annual “Vysotsky climb” (1137 steps) is held there, with a prize of RUB 100,000. While Vysotsky serves as an office building, Iset, owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, houses 225 premium residential apartments ranging from 80 to 490 square meters in size.

Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center

The Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center (in the city center: ul. Yeltsina, 3) is a non-governmental organization named after the first president of the Russian Federation. The Museum of the First President of Russia as well as his archives are located in the Center. There is also a library, educational and children's centers, and exposition halls. Yeltsin lived most of his life and began his political career in Yekaterinburg. He was born in Butka about 200 kilometers east of Yekaterinburg.

The core of the Center is the Museum. Modern multimedia technologies help animate the documents, photos from the archives, and artifacts. The Yeltsin Museum holds collections of: propaganda posters, leaflets, and photos of the first years of the Soviet regime; portraits and portrait sculptures of members of Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of various years; U.S.S.R. government bonds and other items of the Soviet era; a copy of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, published in the “Novy Mir” magazine (#11, 1962); perestroika-era editions of books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Vasily Grossman, and other authors; theater, concert, and cinema posters, programs, and tickets — in short, all of the artifacts of the perestroika era.

The Yeltsin Center opened in 2012. Inside you will also find an art gallery, a bookstore, a gift shop, a food court, concert stages and a theater. There are regular screenings of unique films that you will not find anywhere else. Also operating inside the center, is a scientific exploritorium for children. The center was designed by Boris Bernaskoni. Almost from the its very opening, the Yeltsin Center has been accused by members of different political entities of various ideological crimes. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00am to 9:00pm.

Where Nicholas II was Executed

On July, 17, 1918, during this reign of terror of the Russian Civil War, former-tsar Nicholas II, his wife, five children (the 13-year-old Alexis, 22-year-old Olga, 19-year-old Maria and 17-year-old Anastasia)the family physician, the cook, maid, and valet were shot to death by a Red Army firing squad in the cellar of the house they were staying at in Yekaterinburg.

Ipatiev House (near Church on the Blood, Ulitsa Libknekhta) was a merchant's house where Nicholas II and his family were executed. The house was demolished in 1977, on the orders of an up and coming communist politician named Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin later said that the destruction of the house was an "act of barbarism" and he had no choice because he had been ordered to do it by the Politburo,

The site is marked with s cross with the photos of the family members and cross bearing their names. A small wooden church was built at the site. It contains paintings of the family. For a while there were seven traditional wooden churches. Mass is given ay noon everyday in an open-air museum. The Church on the Blood — constructed to honor Nicholas II and his family — was built on the part of the site in 1991 and is now a major place of pilgrimage.

Nicholas and his family where killed during the Russian civil war. It is thought the Bolsheviks figured that Nicholas and his family gave the Whites figureheads to rally around and they were better of dead. Even though the death orders were signed Yakov Sverdlov, the assassination was personally ordered by Lenin, who wanted to get them out of sight and out of mind. Trotsky suggested a trial. Lenin nixed the idea, deciding something had to be done about the Romanovs before White troops approached Yekaterinburg. Trotsky later wrote: "The decision was not only expedient but necessary. The severity of he punishment showed everyone that we would continue to fight on mercilessly, stopping at nothing."

Ian Frazier wrote in The New Yorker: “Having read a lot about the end of Tsar Nicholas II and his family and servants, I wanted to see the place in Yekaterinburg where that event occurred. The gloomy quality of this quest depressed Sergei’s spirits, but he drove all over Yekaterinburg searching for the site nonetheless. Whenever he stopped and asked a pedestrian how to get to the house where Nicholas II was murdered, the reaction was a wince. Several people simply walked away. But eventually, after a lot of asking, Sergei found the location. It was on a low ridge near the edge of town, above railroad tracks and the Iset River. The house, known as the Ipatiev House, was no longer standing, and the basement where the actual killings happened had been filled in. I found the blankness of the place sinister and dizzying. It reminded me of an erasure done so determinedly that it had worn a hole through the page. [Source: Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, August 3, 2009, Frazier is author of “Travels in Siberia” (2010)]

“The street next to the site is called Karl Liebknecht Street. A building near where the house used to be had a large green advertisement that said, in English, “LG—Digitally Yours.” On an adjoining lot, a small chapel kept the memory of the Tsar and his family; beneath a pedestal holding an Orthodox cross, peonies and pansies grew. The inscription on the pedestal read, “We go down on our knees, Russia, at the foot of the tsarist cross.”

Books: The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie (Random House, 1995); The Fall of the Romanovs by Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir Khrustalëv (Yale, 1995);

See Separate Article END OF NICHOLAS II factsanddetails.com

Execution of Nicholas II

According to Robert Massie K. Massie, author of Nicholas and Alexandra, Nicholas II and his family were awakened from their bedrooms around midnight and taken to the basement. They were told they were to going to take some photographs of them and were told to stand behind a row of chairs.

Suddenly, a group of 11 Russians and Latvians, each with a revolver, burst into the room with orders to kill a specific person. Yakob Yurovsky, a member of the Soviet executive committee, reportedly shouted "your relatives are continuing to attack the Soviet Union.” After firing, bullets bouncing off gemstones hidden in the corsets of Alexandra and her daughters ricocheted around the room like "a shower of hail," the soldiers said. Those that were still breathing were killed with point black shots to the head.

The three sisters and the maid survived the first round thanks to their gems. They were pressed up against a wall and killed with a second round of bullets. The maid was the only one that survived. She was pursued by the executioners who stabbed her more than 30 times with their bayonets. The still writhing body of Alexis was made still by a kick to the head and two bullets in the ear delivered by Yurovsky himself.

Yurovsky wrote: "When the party entered I told the Romanovs that in view of the fact their relatives continued their offensive against Soviet Russia, the Executive Committee of the Urals Soviet had decided to shoot them. Nicholas turned his back to the detachment and faced his family. Then, as if collecting himself, he turned around, asking, 'What? What?'"

"[I] ordered the detachment to prepare. Its members had been previously instructed whom to shoot and to am directly at the heart to avoid much blood and to end more quickly. Nicholas said no more. he turned again to his family. The others shouted some incoherent exclamations. All this lasted a few seconds. Then commenced the shooting, which went on for two or three minutes. [I] killed Nicholas on the spot."

Nicholas II’s Initial Burial Site in Yekaterinburg

Ganina Yama Monastery (near the village of Koptyaki, 15 kilometers northwest of Yekaterinburg) stands near the three-meter-deep pit where some the remains of Nicholas II and his family were initially buried. The second burial site — where most of the remains were — is in a field known as Porosyonkov (56.9113628°N 60.4954326°E), seven kilometers from Ganina Yama.

On visiting Ganina Yama Monastery, one person posted in Trip Advisor: “We visited this set of churches in a pretty park with Konstantin from Ekaterinburg Guide Centre. He really brought it to life with his extensive knowledge of the history of the events surrounding their terrible end. The story is so moving so unless you speak Russian, it is best to come here with a guide or else you will have no idea of what is what.”

In 1991, the acid-burned remains of Nicholas II and his family were exhumed from a shallow roadside mass grave in a swampy area 12 miles northwest of Yekaterinburg. The remains had been found in 1979 by geologist and amateur archeologist Alexander Avdonin, who kept the location secret out of fear that they would be destroyed by Soviet authorities. The location was disclosed to a magazine by one his fellow discovers.

The original plan was to throw the Romanovs down a mine shaft and disposes of their remains with acid. They were thrown in a mine with some grenades but the mine didn't collapse. They were then carried by horse cart. The vats of acid fell off and broke. When the carriage carrying the bodies broke down it was decided the bury the bodies then and there. The remaining acid was poured on the bones, but most of it was soaked up the ground and the bones largely survived.

After this their pulses were then checked, their faces were crushed to make them unrecognizable and the bodies were wrapped in bed sheets loaded onto a truck. The "whole procedure," Yurovsky said took 20 minutes. One soldiers later bragged than he could "die in peace because he had squeezed the Empress's -------."

The bodies were taken to a forest and stripped, burned with acid and gasoline, and thrown into abandoned mine shafts and buried under railroad ties near a country road near the village of Koptyaki. "The bodies were put in the hole," Yurovsky wrote, "and the faces and all the bodies, generally doused with sulfuric acid, both so they couldn't be recognized and prevent a stink from them rotting...We scattered it with branches and lime, put boards on top and drove over it several times—no traces of the hole remained.

Shortly afterwards, the government in Moscow announced that Nicholas II had been shot because of "a counterrevolutionary conspiracy." There was no immediate word on the other members of the family which gave rise to rumors that other members of the family had escaped. Yekaterinburg was renamed Sverdlov in honor of the man who signed the death orders.

For seven years the remains of Nicholas II, Alexandra, three of their daughters and four servants were stored in polyethylene bags on shelves in the old criminal morgue in Yekaterunburg. On July 17, 1998, Nicholas II and his family and servants who were murdered with him were buried Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg along with the other Romanov tsars, who have been buried there starting with Peter the Great. Nicholas II had a side chapel built for himself at the fortress in 1913 but was buried in a new crypt.

Near Yekaterinburg

Factory-Museum of Iron and Steel Metallurgy (in Niznhy Tagil 80 kilometers north of Yekaterinburg) a museum with old mining equipment made at the site of huge abandoned iron and steel factory. Officially known as the Factory-Museum of the History of the Development of Iron and Steel Metallurgy, it covers an area of 30 hectares and contains a factory founded by the Demidov family in 1725 that specialized mainly in the production of high-quality cast iron and steel. Later, the foundry was renamed after Valerian Kuybyshev, a prominent figure of the Communist Party.

The first Russian factory museum, the unusual museum demonstrates all stages of metallurgy and metal working. There is even a blast furnace and an open-hearth furnace. The display of factory equipment includes bridge crane from 1892) and rolling stock equipment from the 19th-20th centuries. In Niznhy Tagil contains some huge blocks of malachite and

Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha (180 kilometers east-northeast of Yekaterinburg) has an open air architecture museum with log buildings, a stone church and other pre-revolutionary architecture. The village is the creation of Ivan Samoilov, a local activist who loved his village so much he dedicated 40 years of his life to recreating it as the open-air museum of wooden architecture.

The stone Savior Church, a good example of Siberian baroque architecture. The interior and exterior of the church are exhibition spaces of design. The houses are very colorful. In tsarist times, rich villagers hired serfs to paint the walls of their wooden izbas (houses) bright colors. Old neglected buildings from the 17th to 19th centuries have been brought to Nizhnyaya Sinyachikha from all over the Urals. You will see the interior design of the houses and hear stories about traditions and customs of the Ural farmers.

Verkhoturye (330 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg) is the home a 400-year-old monastery that served as 16th century capital of the Urals. Verkhoturye is a small town on the Tura River knows as the Jerusalem of the Urals for its many holy places, churches and monasteries. The town's main landmark is its Kremlin — the smallest in Russia. Pilgrims visit the St. Nicholas Monastery to see the remains of St. Simeon of Verkhoturye, the patron saint of fishermen.

Ural Mountains

Ural Mountains are the traditional dividing line between Europe and Asia and have been a crossroads of Russian history. Stretching from Kazakhstan to the fringes of the Arctic Kara Sea, the Urals lie almost exactly along the 60 degree meridian of longitude and extend for about 2,000 kilometers (1,300 miles) from north to south and varies in width from about 50 kilometers (30 miles) in the north and 160 kilometers (100 miles) the south. At kilometers 1777 on the Trans-Siberian Railway there is white obelisk with "Europe" carved in Russian on one side and "Asia" carved on the other.

The eastern side of the Urals contains a lot of granite and igneous rock. The western side is primarily sandstone and limestones. A number of precious stones can be found in the southern part of the Urals, including emeralds. malachite, tourmaline, jasper and aquamarines. The highest peaks are in the north. Mount Narodnaya is the highest of all but is only 1884 meters (6,184 feet) high. The northern Urals are covered in thick forests and home to relatively few people.

Like the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, the Urals are very old mountains — with rocks and sediments that are hundreds of millions years old — that were one much taller than they are now and have been steadily eroded down over millions of years by weather and other natural processes to their current size. According to Encyclopedia Britannica: “The rock composition helps shape the topography: the high ranges and low, broad-topped ridges consist of quartzites, schists, and gabbro, all weather-resistant. Buttes are frequent, and there are north–south troughs of limestone, nearly all containing river valleys. Karst topography is highly developed on the western slopes of the Urals, with many caves, basins, and underground streams. The eastern slopes, on the other hand, have fewer karst formations; instead, rocky outliers rise above the flattened surfaces. Broad foothills, reduced to peneplain, adjoin the Central and Southern Urals on the east.

“The Urals date from the structural upheavals of the Hercynian orogeny (about 250 million years ago). About 280 million years ago there arose a high mountainous region, which was eroded to a peneplain. Alpine folding resulted in new mountains, the most marked upheaval being that of the Nether-Polar Urals...The western slope of the Urals is composed of middle Paleozoic sedimentary rocks (sandstones and limestones) that are about 350 million years old. In many places it descends in terraces to the Cis-Ural depression (west of the Urals), to which much of the eroded matter was carried during the late Paleozoic (about 300 million years ago). Found there are widespread karst (a starkly eroded limestone region) and gypsum, with large caverns and subterranean streams. On the eastern slope, volcanic layers alternate with sedimentary strata, all dating from middle Paleozoic times.”

Southern Urals

The southern Urals are characterized by grassy slopes and fertile valleys. The middle Urals are a rolling platform that barely rises above 300 meters (1,000 feet). This region is rich in minerals and has been heavily industrialized. This is where you can find Yekaterinburg (formally Sverdlovsk), the largest city in the Urals.

Most of the Southern Urals are is covered with forests, with 50 percent of that pine-woods, 44 percent birch woods, and the rest are deciduous aspen and alder forests. In the north, typical taiga forests are the norm. There are patches of herbal-poaceous steppes, northem sphagnous marshes and bushy steppes, light birch forests and shady riparian forests, tall-grass mountainous meadows, lowland ling marshes and stony placers with lichen stains. In some places there are no large areas of homogeneous forests, rather they are forests with numerous glades and meadows of different size.

In the Ilmensky Mountains Reserve in the Southern Urals, scientists counted 927 vascular plants (50 relicts, 23 endemic species), about 140 moss species, 483 algae species and 566 mushroom species. Among the species included into the Red Book of Russia are feather grass, downy-leaved feather grass, Zalessky feather grass, moccasin flower, ladies'-slipper, neottianthe cucullata, Baltic orchis, fen orchis, helmeted orchis, dark-winged orchis, Gelma sandwart, Krasheninnikov sandwart, Clare astragalus.

The fauna of the vertebrate animals in the Reserve includes 19 fish, 5 amphibian and 5 reptile. Among the 48 mammal species are elks, roe deer, boars, foxes, wolves, lynxes, badgers, common weasels, least weasels, forest ferrets, Siberian striped weasel, common marten, American mink. Squirrels, beavers, muskrats, hares, dibblers, moles, hedgehogs, voles are quite common, as well as chiropterans: pond bat, water bat, Brandt's bat, whiskered bat, northern bat, long-eared bat, parti-coloured bat, Nathusius' pipistrelle. The 174 bird bird species include white-tailed eagles, honey hawks, boreal owls, gnome owls, hawk owls, tawny owls, common scoters, cuckoos, wookcocks, common grouses, wood grouses, hazel grouses, common partridges, shrikes, goldenmountain thrushes, black- throated loons and others.

Activities and Places in the Ural Mountains

The Urals possess beautiful natural scenery that can be accessed from Yekaterinburg with a rent-a-car, hired taxi and tour. Travel agencies arrange rafting, kayaking and hiking trips. Hikes are available in the taiga forest and the Urals. Trips often include walks through the taiga to small lakes and hikes into the mountains and excursions to collect mushrooms and berries and climb in underground caves. Mellow rafting is offered in a relatively calm six kilometer section of the River Serga. In the winter visitor can enjoy cross-mountains skiing, downhill skiing, ice fishing, dog sledding, snow-shoeing and winter hiking through the forest to a cave covered with ice crystals.

Lake Shartash (10 kilometers from Yekaterinburg) is where the first Ural gold was found, setting in motion the Yekaterinburg gold rush of 1745, which created so much wealth one rich baron of that time hosted a wedding party that lasted a year. The area around Shartash Lake is a favorite picnic and barbecue spot of the locals. Getting There: by bus route No. 50, 054 or 54, with a transfer to suburban commuter bus route No. 112, 120 or 121 (the whole trip takes about an hour), or by car (10 kilometers drive from the city center, 40 minutes).

Revun Rapids (90 kilometers road from Yekaterinburg near Beklenishcheva village) is a popular white water rafting places On the nearby cliffs you can see the remains of a mysterious petroglyph from the Paleolithic period. Along the steep banks, you may notice the dark entrance of Smolinskaya Cave. There are legends of a sorceress who lived in there. The rocks at the riverside are suited for competitive rock climbers and beginners. Climbing hooks and rings are hammered into rocks. The most fun rafting is generally in May and June.

Olenii Ruchii National Park (100 kilometers west of Yekaterinburg) is the most popular nature park in Sverdlovsk Oblast and popular weekend getaway for Yekaterinburg residents. Visitors are attracted by the beautiful forests, the crystal clear Serga River and picturesque rocks caves. There are some easy hiking routes: the six-kilometer Lesser Ring and the 15-kilometer Greater Ring. Another route extends for 18 km and passes by the Mitkinsky Mine, which operated in the 18th-19th centuries. It's a kind of an open-air museum — you can still view mining an enrichment equipment here. There is also a genuine beaver dam nearby.

Among the other attractions at Olenii Ruchii are Druzhba (Friendship) Cave, with passages that extend for about 500 meters; Dyrovaty Kamen (Holed Stone), created over time by water of Serga River eroding rock; and Utoplennik (Drowned Man), where you can see “The Angel of Sole Hope”., created by the Swedish artist Lehna Edwall, who has placed seven angels figures in different parts of the world to “embrace the planet, protecting it from fear, despair, and disasters.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation (official Russia tourism website russiatourism.ru ), Russian government websites, UNESCO, Wikipedia, Lonely Planet guides, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Yomiuri Shimbun and various books and other publications.

Updated in September 2020

•  Facebook
•  Twitter
•  Google+
•  e-mail

 Page Top

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been authorized by the copyright owner. Such material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of country or topic discussed in the article. This constitutes 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If you are the copyright owner and would like this content removed from factsanddetails.com, please contact me.

Five betting lessons from Presidents Cup

Golfbet News

Change Text Size

MONTREAL – Another Presidents Cup, another resounding U.S. Team win.

The dominance in the biennial competition against the International Team continued at Royal Montreal with an 18.5-11.5 hammering, the biggest margin of victory for an away team in the history of the Cup.

They now boast a 13-1-1 record overall since the Cup's inception in 1994 with the lone International win coming in 1998.

Starting as -270 betting favorites, Jim Furyk’s team started like a house on fire, running out to a 5-0 lead Thursday only to be stunned by a 5-0 response from Mike Weir’s team on Friday.

But a 6-2 Saturday turned the tide back before a stoic 7.5-4.5 Singles performance clinched the victory. They were +1200 to win by this exact margin.

As always, there is hindsight for both teams and bettors alike. So let’s take a look at some betting lessons we can take away from this Presidents Cup.

1. Bet on the U.S. Team

Thanks Captain Obvious…right? As morbid as it sounds for International Team fans, the reality is the U.S. is now 13-1-1 in this competition and as such anyone who had bet the U.S pre-tournament, even at -270 odds, is better off now. They racked up 18.5 of the 30 points this time around and there were no ties until Sunday, so chances are you could have just bet them in every match and come out on top.

If you are looking for the opposite, take heed of Ernie Els’ words. He’s the former Captain, now Captain’s Assistant, who bound the Internationals under their shield. He pointed out the lopsided world ranking of the U.S. squad (all players inside the top 25 in the world) but felt change can come.

“We're in the process. These guys may not rank very high in World Ranking, but they're coming. There's a lot of good, great talent here, so we've got to give this a little bit of time,” Els said.

“When they start winning tournaments on the PGA TOUR, their real confidence is going to come through. It was a different animal back in the day, but this thing's coming, I promise you.”

Until they actually do… bet the Americans.

2. Several players may be headed to PGA TOUR winner’s circle soon

When you’re perusing the betting boards for the remainder of the FedEx Fall series and the first few months of the 2025 PGA TOUR season keep the 24 players from the Cup prominent in your thoughts. After the 2019 Presidents Cup six players from the Cup, including the likes of Adam Scott and Sungjae Im, won inside the first two months of the season. Post 2022 it was Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim, Scottie Scheffler and Max Homa doing the same.

“I've seen it many times, going back even to '03 for me with that experience, but I see it with a lot of guys,” veteran Scott said. “They use this experience of these tight matches, coming up the 18th, the pressure of playing, last match on the course, all the teams are watching, all the focus is on you, and the next time you put yourself in that position in a big event, you can lean on this experience.

“So I've seen it many times. I even think of Scottie Scheffler at Whistling Straits to then where he is now. These can do a lot for your confidence and give you a lot of experience. I hope these guys are inspired off the back of this and push to make the next team and rack up victories along the way.”

For the record, Scheffler agreed.

“There's definitely an aspect to that," he said. "I think looking back at that Ryder Cup, one of the coolest things was just getting the vote of the guys to want me to be a part of that team. That really meant a lot to me.”

3. Don’t bank on host country heroes

There is always a push to include International players from the host country but it doesn’t always translate into points on the board. By no means are we suggesting Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes or Taylor Pendrith should have missed the team at Royal Montreal but the fact is the three Canadians combined for a 5-8-0 record, not as beefy as captain Weir would have hoped.

They are not alone as Australians in 2019 and 2011 from events at Royal Melbourne were 4-5-4 and 7-14-3 respectively while Sang Moon Bae, as the lone Korean in 2015 had a 2-1-1 record but his loss was a big one, chunking a chip on the 18th hole to help the U.S. clinch a one-point win.

The lesson is, don’t put too much stock in home guys… perhaps the pressure gets to them a little.

4. Don’t bank on a big comeback

When you see Scottie Scheffler hit +600 in a match like he and Henley did on Saturday the temptation can certainly be there to jump on, especially as it cashed against Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im. That duo was three down through six holes before turning things around to win, 3 and 2. We saw another comeback from two down in Sunday Singles, with Corey Conners two down through four and +475 before blitzing Tony Finau, 5 and 3.

But as awesome as those were, if we look across the board, we see that 26 matches of 30 saw one side take a two-hole lead. Only three times, the two above and a Morikawa/Burns Foursomes turnaround, managed to return a comeback to record victories.

So while riding the rollercoaster of a one-hole lead or deficit can be wise, doing the same once the advantage doubles can be a fool’s errand more often than not.

5. This U.S. Team is ruthless and won’t settle for back-door covers

At the start of the week, the handicap market for the Presidents Cup was -3.5 points for the U.S. Team. There was a train of thought, one that I myself advocated heading into Sunday Singles, that once the Cup was clinched the U.S. players might take the foot off the gas and allow for a backdoor cover. I went as far as expecting the Internationals to win the Singles session because of it.

But turns out this team is ruthless. After being humbled on Friday they returned steeled to not only win, but to leave no doubt. Word is they were chasing the record of reaching 20 points and it meant the likes of Wyndham Clark and Sahith Theegala refused to yield and fought to the death for half points.

Senior Writer, Golfbet Follow Ben Everill on Twitter .