The ANZ Championship was a men's 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, co-sanctioned by the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

and the

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

, that was played in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

between 2002 and 2004. The event had been played as a 72-hole stroke-play tournament on the Australasian tour from 1998 to 2001 as the ANZ Tour Championship. Uniquely for both tours, it was played using a

modified stableford Stableford is a scoring system used in the sport of golf. Rather than counting the total number of strokes taken, as in stroke play, it involves scoring points based on the number of strokes taken at each hole. Unlike traditional scoring methods, ...

scoring system, similar to the former

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

event The International. This departure from the usual

stroke play Stroke play, also known as medal play, is a scoring system in the sport of golf in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In stroke play, the winner is the player who has taken the fewest strokes over the ...

format, designed to encourage more attacking play, was not received with universal approval as the perception was that it would penalise the steadier players. In the final event in 2004,

Laura Davies Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English female professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the first non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA ...

became the first female golfer to compete on either the Australasian or European Tour, but failed to make an impact, missing the cut and finishing in next to last place on −13 points.

Venues

The event has been played at the following venues: *1998–2000:

Royal Canberra Golf Club The Canberra Golf Club, later known as the Royal Canberra Golf Club, was formed in 1926. Its original grounds were behind the Hotel Canberra on the river flats on both sides of the Molonglo River. History The club's Club House was on a site n ...

*2001:

Concord Golf Club The Concord Golf Club is a golf club in Concord, New South Wales, Australia, a suburb of Sydney. It hosted the Women's Australian Open in 2004 with the champion being Laura Davies from England. The clubhouse was designed by Thomas Pollard Samps ...

*2002:

The Lakes Golf Club The Lakes Golf Club is one of Australia's premier golf courses, located in the Sydney suburb of Eastlakes in New South Wales. Founded in 1928, this prestigious private golf course is approximately a 10-minute drive from Sydney central business ...

*2003:

New South Wales Golf Club The New South Wales Golf Club is a links-style golf course designed by Alister MacKenzie in December 1926. It consists of 18 holes, two of which are beside the Tasman Sea and Botany Bay. The course is situated in La Perouse, New South Wales, a s ...

*2004: Horizons Golf Resort

Winners

Notes

References

External links

Coverage on the European Tour's official site
Former PGA Tour of Australasia events Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in Australia Recurring sporting events established in 1998 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2004 1998 establishments in Australia 2004 disestablishments in Australia {{golf-tournament-stub