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

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.

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)^[a]	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.

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.