Johnnie Walker Classic

Johnnie Walker Classic
Tournament information
Location	Perth, Australia
Established	1990
Course(s)	The Vines
Par	72
Length	7,103 yards (6,495 m)
Tour(s)	European Tour ; PGA Tour of Australasia ; Asian Tour
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	£1,250,000
Month played	February
Final year	2009
Tournament record score
Aggregate	259 Ernie Els (2003)
To par	−29 as above
Final champion
	Danny Lee
Location map
	The Vines Location in Australia The Vines Location in Western Australia

Last updated May 09, 2024

The Johnnie Walker Classic was a European Tour golf tournament which was played in the Asia-Pacific region. Johnnie Walker is a brand name and the owners have a long history of tournament sponsorship. They also sponsored the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles which was a European Tour event played in Scotland.

History

In 1989 Johnnie Walker sponsored the Hong Kong Open, and it was decided to establish an additional tournament which it would sponsor on an ongoing basis. This tournament was called the Johnnie Walker Asian Classic, and was first staged in Hong Kong in 1990. It later evolved into a traveling event that was primarily utilized by its sponsor as a marketing strategy in the Asia Pacific region. In 1992 it became the first event to be sanctioned by the European Tour in East Asia (the Dubai Desert Classic was the first in Asia as a whole).

In 1993 the word Asian was dropped from the title. In 2005 the tournament was held in China for the first time, as part of the European Tour's push into China, which saw four events held in mainland China and one in Hong Kong in the 2005 season. The location of the tournament changes every year.

The tournament was co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour of Australasia from 1996,^[1] and by the Asian Tour from 1999.^[2]

In 2005 the tri-sanctioned event had a field consisting of 60 European Tour players, 60 Asian Tour players, 28 PGA Tour of Australasia players, and 8 sponsors' invitees. The prize fund was £1,250,000. This amount is large by Asian and Australasian Tour standards, but not by European Tour or PGA Tour standards. However the tournament attracts a number of the World's leading players each year by paying them large appearance fees.

Nine of the first fourteen editions were won by players who have topped the Official World Golf Ranking at some point in their career (Faldo, Els and Woods twice each; Woosnam, Norman and Couples once each).

Winners

Year	Tour(s)^{[lower-alpha 1]}	Winner	Score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up	Venue
Johnnie Walker Classic
2009	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Danny Lee (a)	271	−17	1 stroke	Felipe Aguilar Hiroyuki Fujita Ross McGowan	The Vines, Australia
2008	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Mark Brown	270	−18	3 strokes	Greg Chalmers Taichiro Kiyota Scott Strange	DLF, India
2007	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Anton Haig	275	−13	Playoff	Richard Sterne Oliver Wilson	Blue Canyon, Thailand
2006	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Kevin Stadler	268	−20	2 strokes	Nick O'Hern	The Vines, Australia
2005	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Adam Scott	270	−18	3 strokes	Retief Goosen	Pine Valley, China
2004	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	271	−17	2 strokes	Thomas Bjørn Jyoti Randhawa	Alpine Golf, Thailand
2003	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Ernie Els (2)	259	−29	10 strokes	Stephen Leaney Andre Stolz	Lake Karrinyup, Australia
2002	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Retief Goosen	274	−14	8 strokes	Pierre Fulke	Lake Karrinyup, Australia
2001: No tournament due to rescheduling from November to January
2000	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Tiger Woods (2)	263	−25	3 strokes	Geoff Ogilvy	Alpine Golf, Thailand
1999	ANZ, ASA, EUR	Michael Campbell	276	−12	1 stroke	Geoff Ogilvy	Tashee, Taiwan
1998	ANZ, EUR	Tiger Woods	279	−9	Playoff	Ernie Els	Blue Canyon, Thailand
1997	ANZ, EUR	Ernie Els	278	−10	1 stroke	Peter Lonard Michael Long	Hope Island, Australia
1996	ANZ, EUR	Ian Woosnam	272	−16	Playoff	Andrew Coltart	Tanah Merah, Singapore
1995	EUR	Fred Couples	277	−11	2 strokes	Nick Price	The Orchard, Philippines
1994	EUR	Greg Norman	277	−11	1 stroke	Fred Couples	Blue Canyon, Thailand
1993	EUR	Nick Faldo	269	−11	1 stroke	Colin Montgomerie	Singapore Island, Singapore
Johnnie Walker Asian Classic
1992	EUR	Ian Palmer	268	−20	1 stroke	Bernhard Langer Brett Ogle Ronan Rafferty	Pinehurst, Thailand
1991: No tournament
1990		Nick Faldo	270	−14	4 strokes	Ian Woosnam	Royal Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Notes

↑ ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia; ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.

Related Research Articles

The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour and the developmental Challenge Tour; the second tier of men's professional golf in Europe. The tour's headquarters are at the Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. The European Tour was established by the British-based Professional Golfers' Association through the 1970s, and responsibility was transferred to an independent PGA European Tour organisation in 1984.

The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf tour in Asia except for Japan. It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on the tour count for Official World Golf Ranking points.

The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points. The tour is recognised as being founded in 1973 when the PGA of Australia instituted an Order of Merit. Despite always including at least one tournament in New Zealand, the tour was known as the PGA Tour of Australia until it adopted its current name in 1991 following the inclusion of three events in Asia.

The Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles was a European Tour golf tournament which was played at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. The tournament was founded in 1999 as the Scottish PGA Championship, and despite maintaining the same sponsor, has since changed name on several occasions, as Diageo has looked to promote different brands. It was last contested over the PGA Centenary Course, formerly called the Monarch's Course, venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup matches. It was last played in 2013

The Hong Kong Open is a golf tournament which is played on the Asian Tour, and formerly on the European Tour. It was founded in 1959 and in 1962 was one of the five tournaments that made up the inaugural Far East Circuit, later known as the Asia Golf Circuit. It remained part of the circuit until 1996, before joining the Asian Tour, then known as the Omega Tour, in 1997. It became co-sanctioned by the European Tour in 2001, as part of the 2002 season.

The WGC-HSBC Champions was a professional golf tournament, held annually in China. Inaugurated in 2005, the first seven editions were played at the Sheshan Golf Club in Shanghai, then moved to the Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen for a single year in 2012. It returned to Sheshan Golf Club in 2013.

The Heineken Classic was a men's professional golf tournament played in Australia from 1990 to 2005 as part of the PGA Tour of Australasia. From 1990 to 1992 it was called the Vines Classic.

Rodney Pampling is an Australian professional golfer. He currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions, and was a three-time winner on the PGA Tour.

Andrew Dodt is an Australian professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, Asian Tour, and PGA Tour of Australasia. He has won twice on the European Tour, in India and Thailand, both events co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour.

The Greg Norman Holden International was a men's professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. It was founded by Greg Norman in 1993, replacing the Johnnie Walker Australian Classic on the tour schedule, and was held until 2001. It was also co-sanctioned with the European Tour in 2000 and 2001. It was known as the Greg Norman's Holden Classic from 1993 to 1996.

Mark Brown is a New Zealand professional golfer. He was particularly successful in 2007 and 2008. In early 2008, he won the SAIL Open Golf Championship and the Johnnie Walker Classic in successive weeks and was in the world top 100 for much of 2008. He played on the European Tour from 2008 to 2011.

Danny Jin-Myung Lee is a New Zealand professional golfer. Lee was born in Incheon, South Korea, and emigrated to New Zealand at the age of eight. He became a New Zealand citizen on 2 September 2008 in Rotorua, where he attended Rotorua Boys' High School.

Michael Richard Long is a New Zealand professional golfer who has played on a number of tours, including two seasons on the PGA Tour and three seasons on the European Tour. He won four times on the PGA Tour of Australasia between 1996 and 2018 and twice on the Nationwide Tour. He won the 2020 European Senior Tour Q-School.

The OneAsia Tour was a men's professional golf tour based in the Asia-Pacific region. The tour was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA. The Japan Golf Tour was invited to participate in the project in 2012 and had co-sanctioned the Indonesia Open, Indonesia PGA Championship and Thailand Open. The OneAsia Tour was seen as a rival to the longer established Asian Tour, with which it had poor relations. From 2010 to 2017, tournaments on the OneAsia Tour were awarded Official World Golf Ranking points.

The 1999 European Tour, titled as the 1999 PGA European Tour, was the 28th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.

The Johnnie Walker Australian Classic was a golf tournament held in Australia from 1988 to 1992. It was first played as the Bicentennial Classic to celebrate the Australian Bicentenary. From 1989 it was sponsored by United Distillers, using their Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky brand, and officially titled as the Johnnie Walker Australian Classic, and then the Johnnie Walker Classic from 1991.

The 2020 European Tour was the 49th season of the European Tour, the main professional golf tour in Europe since its inaugural season in 1972.

The 2020–21–22 Asian Tour was the 26th season of the modern Asian Tour, the main professional golf tour in Asia since it was established in 1995.

The 1992 PGA Tour of Australasia was the 21st season on the PGA Tour of Australasia, the main professional golf tour in Australia and New Zealand since it was formed in 1973.

References

↑ Stone, Peter (10 May 1995). "Move to a global tour revealed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. p. 73 – via Newspapers.com.
↑ Happell, Charles (10 November 1999). "Australians get a chance to topple Tiger". The Age. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. p. 59 – via Newspapers.com.

External links

Coverage on the European Tour's official site

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[3] ANZ − PGA Tour of Australasia; ASA − Asian Tour; EUR − European Tour.

[1] Stone, Peter (10 May 1995). "Move to a global tour revealed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. p. 73 – via Newspapers.com.

[2] Happell, Charles (10 November 1999). "Australians get a chance to topple Tiger". The Age. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. p. 59 – via Newspapers.com.

[1]

[2]

[lower-alpha 1]