The Belgian Open is a men's

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

tournament which has been played intermittently from 1910 to 2000. All editions since 1978 have been part of the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

. After not having been played since 2000, it returned in 2018 as the Belgian Knockout, hosted by PietersProductions, along with its co-founder, Belgian professional golfer Thomas Pieters. With a prize pool set at €1 million, 144 professional golfers start the competition with 36 holes of stroke play, followed by 9-hole

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

for the top 64 finishers from the

stroke play Stroke play is a scoring system in the sport of golf. In the regular form of stroke play, also known as medal play, the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In a regular stroke play competition, the winner is the ...

rounds. After two years of no European Tour international tournament, the Soudal Open came in 2022. Soudal partnered with Rinkven and once again put on a top international event.

History

The first ever Belgian Open was played at the Royal Golf Club of Belgium, featuring 36 holes. It was not until 1928 that the competition format expanded to 72 holes. The first edition of the tournament was won by

Arnaud Massy Arnaud George Watson Massy (; 6 July 1877 – 16 April 1950) was one of France's most successful professional golfers, most notable for winning the 1907 Open Championship. He was the first player from outside Scotland and England to win a major ...

, the only Frenchman to win a major championship. Other distinguished champions included

Walter Hagen Walter Charles Hagen (December 21, 1892 – October 6, 1969) was an American professional golfer and a major figure in golf in the first half of the 20th century. His tally of 11 professional Men's major golf championships, majors is third behin ...

, Henry Cotton,

José María Olazábal José María Olazábal Manterola (, ; born 5 February 1966) is a Spanish Basques, Basque professional golfer from the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country, who has enjoyed success on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour, and has wo ...

Nick Faldo Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he was renowned for his dedication to the game, and was ranked No. ...

and

Lee Westwood Lee John Westwood (born 24 April 1973) is an English professional golfer. He is one of the few golfers who has won tournaments on five continents – Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Oceania – including victories on the European Tour an ...

. Belgium's most successful 20th century golfer, Flory Van Donck, won his home open five times between 1939 and 1956. In 2018, PietersProductions took over the organisation of the Belgian Open. After an absence of 18 years, they brought the Belgian Open back to the

. The Belgian Open was reintroduced under the name Belgian Knockout. The first edition of the Belgian Knockout, which was the 53rd edition of the Belgian Open, took place from 17 to 20 May 2018 at Rinkven International Golf Club,

Schilde Schilde () is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp. The municipality comprises the towns of Schilde proper and . In 2021, Schilde had a total population of 19,925. The t ...

, Antwerp. In the final, the Spaniard

Adrián Otaegui } Adrián Otaegui Jaúregui (born 21 November 1992) is a Spanish-Emirati professional golfer from San Sebastián who plays on the European Tour where he has won five times. He also played in the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series. Amateur ca ...

won against Frenchman Benjamin Hébert after four match days. David Drysdale took third place after winning against James Heath. In 2021, it was announced that the tournament would make a return in 2022 and would revert to a stroke play event. It was sponsored by Soudal, and renamed as the Soudal Open.

Format in 2018 and 2019

There are two rounds of stroke-play on the first two days. The top 64 and ties are credited with prize money and are declared to have advanced under Tour rules. However, in case of a tie for 64th place, there is a playoff if players are tied for 64th place to determine who advances to the knockout stages. Players eliminated in the playoff earn 65th place prize money and are credited with making the cut ("MDF"). In the knock-out stage there are six rounds, each match being over nine holes of stroke-play. Players are seeded based on their position after 36 holes. On the first day of knockout there are three rounds. Half the players use the front nine holes, the other half use the back nine. If the two players are tied after 9 holes there is a sudden-death playoff. There is also a 3rd/4th place playoff. Placings for those who didn't reach the semi-finals are decided firstly by the knockout round reached and, for those who lost in the same round, on their score in the opening 36 holes. Two major changes will be implemented in 2019 for the event. In order to remove a potential advantage/disadvantage that may happen with some groups, the 144 players are now grouped in two sections of 72 players each. One section plays on the first morning and the second afternoon, the other on the first afternoon and second morning. The top 32 players qualify from each section, each section having a separate playoff if required. The second change applies to the first knockout round. The top 16 players will earn an advantage headed to the first knockout round. If their first-round match is tied after nine holes, they automatically advance.

Winners

In 1957 Hunt (137) beat Rees (145) by 8 strokes in a 36-hole playoff. In 1935 Branch (145) beat Van Donck (149) by 4 strokes in a 36-hole playoff. In 1912 Duncan (70) beat Ray (71) and Ball (78) in an 18-hole playoff, played the same evening.

Notes

References

External links