The Betfred British Masters is a professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

tournament. It was founded in 1946 as the Dunlop Masters and was held every year up to 2008, except for 1984. Dunlop's sponsorship ended in 1982, and the name sponsor changed frequently thereafter, with the words "British Masters" usually also in the tournament's official name. The tournament was not held from 2009 to 2014 but returned to the schedule in 2015.

History

The Dunlop Masters was first held in 1946 at Stoneham Golf Club in Southampton, and was a continuation of the

Dunlop-Metropolitan Tournament The Dunlop-Metropolitan Tournament was an invitation professional golf tournament played in South East England. It was founded in 1934. The tournament was played towards the end of the season and was played over 72 holes of stroke play. The event ...

which had been held before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Like the Dunlop-Metropolitan, the Dunlop Masters was a 72-hole end-of-season event with a restricted field. The Dunlop-Metropolitan had been first played in 1934, the same year as The Masters. The event was sponsored by Dunlop from 1946 to 1982, during which time it continued to have a small field with no 36-hole cut. There were 50 competitors in the final Dunlop-sponsored event in 1982. During the 1980s the British Masters was one of the most lucrative events on the European Tour with a prize fund that was as high as third among the tournaments on the schedule, but its status, or at least its relative level of prize money, has declined considerably in recent years. The tournament has been played at many different venues; twice in the "Dunlop Masters" era it was held in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

. When the Quinn Group took over as sponsors in 2006, the event was moved again, this time to the Group owned Belfry. The deal with the Quinn Group ended in 2008, and when attempts to find another sponsor were unsuccessful, the British Masters was removed from the European Tour schedule for 2009. The event returned in 2015 with a leading British golfer choosing the golf course and hosting the event. Since then the editions have been hosted by: *2015:

Ian Poulter Ian James Poulter (born 10 January 1976) is an English professional golfer who plays in the LIV Golf League. He has previously been ranked as high as number 5 in the world rankings. The highlights of Poulter's career to date have been his two ...

at Woburn Golf Club *2016: Luke Donald at The Grove *2017: Lee Westwood at Close House Golf Club *2018:

Justin Rose Justin Peter Rose, (born 30 July 1980) is an English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He won his first major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf C ...

at Walton Heath Golf Club *2019: Tommy Fleetwood at Hillside Golf Club *2020: Lee Westwood at Close House Golf Club *2021: Danny Willett at The Belfry *2022: Danny Willett at The Belfry The 1967 event was notable for providing British television with its first live

hole in one In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one (also known as an ace, mostly in American English) occurs when a ball hit from a tee to start a hole finishes in the cup. A ball hit from a tee following a lost ball, out-of-bounds, or water hazard is not a ho ...

, as Tony Jacklin aced the 16th hole at

Royal St George's The Royal St George's Golf Club located in Sandwich, Kent, England, is a golf club in the United Kingdom and one of the courses on The Open Championship rotation and is the only Open rota golf course to be located in South East England. It has ...

. The 2021 event was also notable, as Richard Bland at age 48, claimed his first European Tour victory in his 478th start on the tour.

Winners

Multiple winners

*2 wins:

Seve Ballesteros Severiano Ballesteros Sota (; 9 April 1957 – 7 May 2011) was a Spanish professional golfer, a World No. 1 who was one of the sport's leading figures from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. A member of a gifted golfing family, he won 90 inte ...

, Harry Bradshaw, Bernard Gallacher,

Bernard Hunt Bernard John Hunt, MBE (2 February 1930 – 21 June 2013) was an English professional golfer. Hunt was born in Atherstone, Warwickshire. He turned professional in 1946 and was a leading player on the European circuit in the 1950s and 1960s. He ...

, Tony Jacklin,

Cobie Legrange Cobie Legrange (born 1942) is a South African professional golfer. He was one of the best South African golfers of the 1960s and reached a peak ranking of #15 in the world. Professional career Legrange was born in Boksburg, South Africa. He pl ...

, Bobby Locke, Greg Norman,

Christy O'Connor Snr Patrick Christopher "Christy" O'Connor (21 December 1924 – 14 May 2016) was an Irish professional golfer. He was one of the leading golfers on the British and Irish circuit from the mid-1950s. O'Connor won over 20 important British and Irish t ...

, Dai Rees, Peter Thomson, Harry Weetman, Ian Woosnam

References

External links

Coverage on the European Tour's official website
{{coord, 54.986, -1.804, display=title, region:GB_scale:10000_type:event European Tour events Golf tournaments in England Recurring sporting events established in 1946 1946 establishments in England