The Belgian Open (name owned by the Royal Belgian Golf Federation) is a men's

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

. 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 Thomas Pieters (born 27 January 1992) is a Belgian professional golfer who currently plays on the European Tour. Early life Pieters was born in Geel, Belgium in 1992. He started playing golf at the age of five, learning the game at the Witbos G ...

. 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, 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 ...

rounds.

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. Early life Massy was born in Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. Th ...

, 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 majors is third behind Jack Nicklaus (18) and Tiger ...

, Henry Cotton,

José María Olazábal José María Olazábal Manterola (, ; born 5 February 1966) is a Spanish professional golfer from the Basque region who has enjoyed success on both the European Tour and the PGA Tour, and has won two major championships, both at The Masters. ...

Nick Faldo Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. A top player of his era, renowned for his dedication to the game, he was ranked No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking for ...

and

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

. Belgium's most successful 20th century golfer,

Flory Van Donck Flory Van Donck (23 June 1912 – 14 January 1992) was a Belgian professional golfer. Van Donck is widely regarded as the greatest ever Belgian golfer. During his career, he won more than fifty tournaments worldwide, including many of the mo ...

, 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 municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With ...

, Antwerp. In the final, the Spaniard

Adrián Otaegui } Adrián Otaegui Jaúregui (born 21 November 1992) is a Spanish professional golfer from San Sebastián who currently plays on the European Tour and also the LIV Golf Invitational Series. He has won four times on the European Tour. Amateur car ...

won against Frenchman

Benjamin Hébert Benjamin Hébert (born 19 February 1987) is a French professional golfer. Early life Hébert was born in Brive, France. His parents are Jean-Luc, a former pentathlete, and Françoise, a former swimmer, both of whom now work as teachers. He al ...

after four match days.

David Drysdale David Stuart Drysdale (born 19 March 1975) is a Scottish professional golfer. Career Drysdale was born in Edinburgh. He turned professional in 1995. He married his childhood sweetheart Victoria in 2004. Drysdale currently competes on the Eur ...

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 Soudal is a Belgian company whose headquarters is located in Turnhout (Belgium). The company has developed into one of the most important independent producers of silicone and caulks (silicone, polyurethane, marine sealants, acrylics), polyu ...

, 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

Coverage on the European Tour's official site
{{coord, 51.2807, N, 4.5737, E, type:event, display=title European Tour events Golf tournaments in Belgium Recurring sporting events established in 1910 1910 establishments in Belgium