The Singapore Open was a

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 in Singapore that was predominantly part of the

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf professional golf tours, tour in Asia except for Japan (which has its own Japan Golf Tour). It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on ...

schedule. The event was held at Sentosa Golf Club since 2005 and since 2017 had been part of the Open Qualifying Series, giving up to four non-exempt players entry into

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

. The Singapore Open was founded in 1961 and was one of the tournaments on the first season of the Far East Circuit (later the

Asia Golf Circuit The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 196 ...

) the following year. It remained part of the Asia circuit until 1993 when it became a fixture on the

Australasian Tour The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

. After just 3 seasons, it left the Australasian Tour to join the fledgling Asian Tour for that tour's second season in 1996. The event was also co-sanctioned with 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 ...

from

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

to 2012, and with the

Japan Golf Tour The Japan Golf Tour () is a prominent professional golf tour. It was founded in 1973 and as of 2006, it offered the third-highest annual prize fund out of the regular (that is not for seniors) men's professional tours after the PGA Tour and the ...

since 2016.

History

The Singapore Open was founded in 1961 and was staged annually until 2001, when it was won by

Thaworn Wiratchant Thaworn Wiratchant (born 28 December 1966) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the Asian Tour where he holds the record for most victories, with 18 total wins. Professional career Wiratchant's biggest win came in March 2005 when he won the ...

. Other winners in the years leading up to this included American

Shaun Micheel Shaun Carl Micheel (born January 5, 1969) is an American professional golfer who is best known for his surprise victory at the 2003 PGA Championship. Career Micheel was born in Orlando, Florida. He attended Christian Brothers High School in Mem ...

in 1998, who went on to win the

2003 PGA Championship The 2003 PGA Championship was the 85th PGA Championship, held from August 14–17 at the East Course of Oak Hill Country Club near Rochester, New York. Shaun Micheel won his only major title, two strokes ahead of runner-up Chad Campbell. It wa ...

. Other notable winners of the event who went on to win majors, include

Ángel Cabrera Ángel Leopoldo Cabrera (; born 12 September 1969) is an Argentine professional golfer who has played on both the European Tour and PGA Tour. He is known affectionately as ''"El Pato"'' in Spanish ''("The Duck")'' for his waddling gait. He is a ...

, Adam Scott and

Sergio García Sergio García Fernández (; born 9 January 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He turned professional in 1999 and played on the European Tour and PGA Tour prior to joining LIV Golf in 2022. García has won 36 international tournaments as ...

. In 2002 the event was cancelled because of lack of sponsorship. It was not revived until 2005, when sponsorship was secured from the

Sentosa Leisure Group Sentosa Island ( ), known mononymously as Sentosa, is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's Singapore Island, main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the Keppel Harbour, a ...

. The 2005 prize fund was $2 million, which made the Singapore Open by far the richest tournament exclusive to the Asian Tour that was not co-sanctioned by the European Tour, a status it retained until the European Tour first co-sanctioned the event in 2009. 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 Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

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. In 2011, the purse was US$6,000,000. The 2013 edition was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship. After a three-year absence, the tournament returned in January 2016. The event was co-sanctioned by the

and

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is a Japanese multinational banking financial services institution owned by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, which is also known as the SMBC Group. It is headquartered in the same building as SMBC Group in Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. ...

also became the new title sponsor of the event.

Song Young-han Song Young-han (; born 12 July 1991), also known as Younghan Song, is a South Korean professional golfer. Song plays on the Korean Tour and the Japan Golf Tour. On the Korean Tour he has three runner-up finishes and finished 11th on the 2013 mon ...

won the revived event, beating current world number one

Jordan Spieth Jordan Alexander Spieth (; born July 27, 1993) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour and former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is a three-time major winner and the 2015 FedEx Cup champion. Spieth's first m ...

by one shot in the weather-delayed event.

Matt Kuchar Matthew Gregory Kuchar (born June 21, 1978) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and formerly the Nationwide Tour. He has won nine times on the PGA Tour. Kuchar briefly enjoyed success in the early 2000s before suffering a ...

won the 2020 event, beating

Justin Rose Justin Peter Rose (born 30 July 1980) is an English professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first reaching that position in 2018. Rose came to prominen ...

by three shots. The tournament was not played in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Venues

The following venues have been used since the founding of the Singapore Open in 1961.

Winners

Notes

References

External links