Australian Masters

The Australian Masters was an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia held in Victoria, Australia from 1979 to 2015.

Australian Masters

Tournament information
Location	Melbourne, Australia
Established	1979
Course(s)	2015 - Huntingdale Golf Club
Organized by	IMG
Tour(s)	PGA Tour of Australasia European Tour (2006–09)
Format	Stroke play
Prize fund	A$750,000
Month played	November
Tournament record score
Aggregate	268 Bradley Hughes (1998)
To par	−24 (as above)
Final champion
Peter Senior
Location Map
Huntingdale GC Location in Australia Show map of Australia Huntingdale GC Huntingdale GC (Victoria) Show map of Victoria

The tournament was co-sanctioned by the European Tour from 2006 to 2009, with a significant 20% increase in the prize fund. Because the tournament is played late in the calendar year, in November or December, it formed part of the following year's European Tour schedule from 2006 through 2008. With the European Tour's decision to realign its schedule with the calendar year for 2010, the 2009 event was the first to be part of the current calendar year's tour schedule. The co-sanctioning with the European Tour was dropped after the 2009 event.

Until 2008, the Australian Masters was always held at the Huntingdale Golf Club in South Oakleigh. From 2009, a rotation system was introduced and the event was staged at different courses in the Melbourne area.[1]

Home golfers have dominated the event, with former world number one Greg Norman having the most success, winning the Gold Jacket on six occasions. Two other Australians have also won three times – Craig Parry and Peter Senior. Overseas players to have taken the title include European Ryder Cup stars, Bernhard Langer and Colin Montgomerie.

Since 2007, the Official World Golf Ranking awarded at least 20 points to Australian Masters winners. Some editions have had top American and European players, which increased the points to 32 in 2011, 30 in 2010 and 28 in 2009.

On 18 March 2009 the Victorian State Government announced a major coup, confirming that then World Number 1 Tiger Woods would play in the 2009 event at its new venue, Kingston Heath.[2] The announcement caused a minor public backlash due to 50% of Woods' A$3 million appearance fee being paid by taxpayer funds. Woods' appearance was tipped to generate close to A$20 million for the Victorian economy via tourism and other related areas.[3]

The event is owned by IMG.[4] The event was not played in 2016 and its future is reported to be in doubt.[5]

The tournament's iconic broadcast theme music used during the 1980s and 1990s was "Send Them Victorious" by Graham De Wilde, with tournament's tagline "The Tradition Continues" in use for the duration of its existence.