MOSCOW (PA) -- Two players with different reasons to be glad to be away from Royal Birkdale will contest the Inteco Russian Open this week.

Former Open champion John Daly, the winner at St. Andrews in 1995, suffered nightmare rounds of 80 and 89 at Birkdale. For England's Lee Slattery, the nightmare was simply having to watch it all unfold from his home just 300 yards from Birkdale after failing to qualify.

"I was absolutely gutted to miss out by two shots in qualifying," Slattery said. "Being born and raised in Southport I'd been looking forward to this Open ever since they announced it was coming back after a gap of 10 years.

"It was hard to watch it all happen knowing I could have been there so my girlfriend and I went to see her father for a couple of days to get away from it all."

In fact Birkdale has not been kind to Slattery at all recently, his home being flooded last summer causing $60,000 worth of damage.

"I bought it especially for the Open and it got flooded," Slattery added . "A drain overflowed and the water came in through the front door."

Slattery lost his European Tour card at the end of last season by just $128, but regained it via the qualifying school in November. However, the 29-year-old is currently 121st on the Order of Merit and in need of a good finish to the season to avoid an eighth visit to the school.

Meanwhile, Daly is playing his fourth regular European Tour event of the season, having competed in Germany, Italy and Spain. The two-time major winner has made the cut in just one, finishing in a tie for 23rd in the Italian Open in Milan, and has been struggling with injury throughout the season.

"Before the Open I was at home for three or four days and I probably practiced harder than I have in about two years with all the injuries I've had," Daly said.

"It's just been very tough to play at all this year because of the injuries," he added. "My doctor told me I shouldn't play, I've got tendinitis in my left elbow and I had a cyst in my right hand that was a calcium build up that we thought was arthritis. It's just been one thing after another.

"It's pretty much the first time I haven't listened to my doctor in two years. I'm kind of dealing with the pain in the left elbow more than anything now," he explained. "The rib and shoulder have been great for the last six months, or last two and a half months since I had the surgery.

"I'm just looking forward to playing. It would be nice to get in a rhythm to play some golf again and play two, three, four weeks in row like I used to," he said. "It's just been very difficult to do that over the last couple of years."

Also, Sweden's Per-Ulrik Johansson will defend his title this week hoping memories of last year's triumph can re-ignite a lacklustre season.

Last year's event looked to have resurrected Johansson's career when the Swede cruised to a six-shot victory at Le Meridien Moscow Country Club. It was the former Ryder Cup player's first European Tour title in a decade and was never in doubt from the moment he shot a superb second round of 62.

However, the 41-year-old has struggled to repeat that impressive form in 2008, making just five cuts in 12 events and failing to register a single top-10 finish so far to lie 179th on the Order of Merit.

And history is against Johansson successfully defending the title. England's Iain Pyman is the only man to have won the title twice (1999 and 2002) in the event's 12-year history, during which it was first played on the Challenge Tour, then as a dual ranking event before taking the step up to full European Tour status.

Former Ryder Cup players Peter Baker and Jarmo Sandelin will also be looking to take advantage of a tournament missing Europe's big names in the wake of the Open Championship.

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