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Johnnie Walker Classic

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This article is about the European Tour golf tournament held in Asia and Australia from 1990 to 2009. For the golf tournament held in Australia from 1988 to 1992, see Johnnie Walker Australian Classic.
Johnnie Walker Classic
Tournament information
LocationVarious
Established1990
Tour(s)European Tour (from 1992)
PGA Tour of Australasia (from 1996)
Asian Tour (from 1999)
FormatStroke play
Prize fund£1,250,000
Month playedFebruary
Final year2009
Tournament record score
Aggregate259 Ernie Els (2003)
To par−29 (as above)
Final champion
New Zealand Danny Lee

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. The event was originally called the Johnnie Walker Asian Classic. There was a tournament already called the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia, but when that event ceased in 1992, the word Asian was dropped from the name.

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. Subsequently, it became a touring event, essentially used by its sponsor as a marketing exercise 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

European Tour event (1992–2009)
Year Winner Country Venue Location Score To par Margin
of victory		 Runner(s)-up
Johnnie Walker Classic
2009 Danny Lee (a)  New Zealand The Vines Perth, Australia 271 −17 1 stroke Chile Felipe Aguilar
Japan Hiroyuki Fujita
England Ross McGowan
2008 Mark Brown  New Zealand DLF Gurgaon, India 270 −18 3 strokes Australia Greg Chalmers
Japan Taichiro Kiyota
Australia Scott Strange
2007 Anton Haig  South Africa Blue Canyon Phuket, Thailand 275 −13 Playoff South Africa Richard Sterne
England Oliver Wilson
2006 Kevin Stadler  United States The Vines Perth, Australia 268 −20 2 strokes Australia Nick O'Hern
2005 Adam Scott  Australia Pine Valley Beijing, China 270 −18 3 strokes South Africa Retief Goosen
2004 Miguel Ángel Jiménez  Spain Alpine Golf Bangkok, Thailand 271 −17 2 strokes Denmark Thomas Bjørn
India Jyoti Randhawa
2003 Ernie Els (2)  South Africa Lake Karrinyup Perth, Australia 259 −29 10 strokes Australia Stephen Leaney
Australia Andre Stolz
2002 Retief Goosen  South Africa Lake Karrinyup Perth, Australia 274 −14 8 strokes Sweden Pierre Fulke
2001 No tournament due to rescheduling from November to January
2000
(2001)		 Tiger Woods (2)  United States Alpine Golf Bangkok, Thailand 263 −25 3 strokes Australia Geoff Ogilvy
1999
(2000)		 Michael Campbell  New Zealand Westin Resort Taipei, Taiwan 276 −12 1 stroke Australia Geoff Ogilvy
1998 Tiger Woods  United States Blue Canyon Phuket, Thailand 279 −9 Playoff South Africa Ernie Els
1997 Ernie Els  South Africa Hope Island Queensland, Australia 278 −10 1 stroke Australia Peter Lonard
New Zealand Michael Long
1996 Ian Woosnam  Wales Tanah Merah Tanah Merah, Singapore 272 −16 Playoff Scotland Andrew Coltart
1995 Fred Couples  United States The Orchard Manila, Philippines 277 −11 2 strokes Zimbabwe Nick Price
1994 Greg Norman  Australia Blue Canyon Phuket, Thailand 277 −11 1 stroke United States Fred Couples
1993 Nick Faldo  England Singapore Island Singapore 269 −11 1 stroke Scotland Colin Montgomerie
Johnnie Walker Asian Classic
1992 Ian Palmer  South Africa Pinehurst Bangkok, Thailand 268 −20 1 stroke Germany Bernhard Langer
Australia Brett Ogle
Northern Ireland Ronan Rafferty

The years in brackets represent the European Tour seasons. In 2000 and 2001, the Johnnie Walker Classic was held in November, and as such, it fell into the following year's European season.

Unofficial money event (1990)
Year Winner Country Venue Location Score To par Margin
of victory		 Runner-up
Johnnie Walker Asian Classic
1991 No tournament
1990 Nick Faldo  England Royal Hong Kong Hong Kong 270 −14 4 strokes Wales Ian Woosnam

References

  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.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Johnnie_Walker_Classic&oldid=941353564"