Singapore Open (golf)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Singapore Open is an Asian Tour golf tournament. It was founded in 1961 and was staged annually until 2001, when it was won by Thaworn Wiratchant. It was then cancelled for lack of sponsorship. Other winners in the years leading up to this included American Shaun Micheel in 1998, who went on to win the 2003 PGA Championship.

The Singapore Golf Association initially hoped to revive the event after skipping only one year, but the tournament was not resusitated until 2005, when sponsorship was secured from the Sentosa Leisure Group. The 2005 prize fund was $2 million which made the Singapore Open by far the richest tournament which is exclusive to the Asian Tour, that is not co-sanctioned by the European Tour. Asian Tour chief executive Louis Martin claimed when the revival of the tournament was announced, "Competing for a prize purse of two million US dollars will give our playing membership a huge boost and elevate the Asian Tour to a new level." The 2005 event was played in September.

The 2006 Singapore Open offered a purse of US$3 million with a winner's share of US$475,000. In May 2006 it was announced that Barclays Bank would sponsor the event for five years from 2006 and that the prize fund will be increased to US$4 million in 2007 and US$5 million in 2008.^[1]