The Vic Open is an annual

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 held in Australia. It was founded in 1957 and is the

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

state open championship for men. It is run by Golf Victoria and is a

Golf Australia Golf Australia is the governing body for the sport of golf in Australia, formed in 2006 after the Australian Golf Union (AGU) and Women's Golf Australia (WGA) agreed to merge.

national ranking event. The event is held concurrently with the

Women's Victorian Open The Women's Victorian Open is an annual golf tournament held in Australia. It was founded in 1988 and played annually through 1992. After a 20-year hiatus it returned in 2012 as a tournament on the WPGA Tour of Australasia. This was the first ...

and offers equal prize pool for the two events. The tournament's tag line is: "Men and women. On the same course. At the same time. For equal prize money." The men and women play on the same course at the same time in alternating groups.

History

The first Victorian Open was played at Riversdale in 1957, replacing the

Victorian Close Championship The Victorian Close Championship was an annual golf tournament held in Victoria, Australia. It was founded in 1948. It was superseded by the Victorian Open which was first held in 1957, but was reintroduced the following year and continued until ...

which had been first held in 1948. It was won by

Ossie Pickworth Horace Henry Alfred "Ossie" Pickworth (17 January 1918 – 23 September 1969) was a leading Australian professional golfer of the 1940s and 1950s, winner of three successive Australian Open titles from 1946 to 1948, the last of which came in ...

who finished 10 strokes ahead of the field. Prize money was £250 but only one competitor, amateur Harry Hattersley, was from outside the state. Three of the first four editions were won by Victorians with

Gary Player Gary James Player DMS, OIG (born 1 November 1935) is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tou ...

winning 1959. However professionals from New South Wales won 9 of the 10 events from 1961 to 1970 with only

Peter Thomson Peter Thomson may refer to: * Peter Thomson (golfer) (1929–2018), Australian golfer * Peter Thomson (diplomat) (born 1948), Fiji's Permanent Representative to the United Nations * Peter Thomson (footballer) (born 1977), English footballer * Peter ...

from Victoria breaking their run of success in 1968. From 2004 to 2007 the tournament was part of the second-tier

Von Nida Tour 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 ...

. It was not played in 2008 but from 2009 to 2016 it was a Tier 2 event on 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 ...

schedule. In 2017 it became a Tier 1 event. Since 2012, it has been held concurrently with the

, being held at 13th Beach Golf Links in Barwon Heads, Victoria since 2013. When the tournament moved to 13th Beach Golf Links in 2013 the combined prize pool was $300,000, with $150,000 on offer for each of the men's and women's fields. In six years, the total prize pool has increased ten-fold. In 2019, the men's and women's Victorian Open fields played for a total purse of $3 million, $1.5 million for each event. In 2019 and 2020, the event was 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 ...

. The event continues to be played alongside the

, now co-sanctioned by the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

. The event features a double cut, 65 players will remain after the first cut, then 35 players after the Saturday cut. In February 2019,

James Nitties James Evangelo Nitties (born 23 October 1982) is an Australian professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and now plays on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Amateur career Nitties was born in Melbourne, Australia. He suffered from juvenile a ...

matched the world record of nine consecutive birdies in the Victorian Open. His birdie run from the 15th to the fifth in the first round set a European Tour record and matched

Mark Calcavecchia Mark John Calcavecchia (born June 12, 1960) is an American professional golfer and a former PGA Tour member. During his professional career, he won 13 PGA Tour events, including the 1989 Open Championship. He plays on the Champions Tour as well ...

's feat in the 2009 Canadian Open. David Law won the first co-sanctioned European Tour edition of the event. He won by a one stroke margin after entering the final three holes three strokes behind. Law birdied the 16th and eagled the final hole, this coupled with Wade Ormsby double bogeying his penultimate hole, led to Law claiming victory. No event was played in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The event returned in 2022 as a sole-sanctioned PGA Tour of Australasia event and had a reduced prize fund.

Winners

Source:

Notes

References

External links

*
Coverage on PGA Tour of Australasia's official siteCoverage on European Tour's official site
{{Former European Tour Events PGA Tour of Australasia events Former European Tour events Golf tournaments in Australia Golf in Victoria (Australia) Recurring sporting events established in 1957 1957 establishments in Australia