The Kolon Korea Open, as it is currently known for sponsorship reasons, is 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 that has been held annually in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

since 1958. The Korea Open was an event on 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 1962 ...

from 1970 until 1981. The

Maekyung Open The GS Caltex Maekyung Open, as it is known for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tournament that takes place in Seoul, South Korea. It was established in 1982, replacing the Korea Open as the South Korean event on the Asia Golf Circuit ...

was founded in 1982 to replace it on the circuit, which allowed rescheduling of the Korea Open to later in the year. It became a stop on the

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

from 1998 to 2008, except for 2005, and then part of the

OneAsia Tour The OneAsia Tour was a men's professional golf tour based in the Asia-Pacific region. The tour was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the China Golf Association, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA. T ...

schedule from 2009 to 2017, before returning to the

in 2018. In 2019, the total purse is KRW1,200,000,000 with KRW300,000,000 to the winner. The event has been played at Woo Jeong Hills since 2003. In 2017, the winner and runner-up were eligible to compete in the

2017 Open Championship The 2017 Open Championship was a major golf championship and the 146th Open Championship, held 20–23 July at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. It was the tenth Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, which held its first in 1954. J ...

. Neither the winner,

Chang Yi-keun Chang may refer to: People Surname * Chang (surname), the romanization of several separate Chinese surnames * Chang or Jang (Korean name), romanizations of the Korean surname Given name * Chang Bunker () (1811–1874), one of the original ...

, nor runner-up,

Kim Gi-whan Kim or KIM may refer to: Names * Kim (given name) * Kim (surname) ** Kim (Korean surname) *** Kim family (disambiguation), several dynasties **** Kim family (North Korea), the rulers of North Korea since Kim Il-sung in 1948 ** Kim, Vietnamese f ...

, had already qualified for the Open Championship so both took their places at the event. It was the first time either had played in the event. In 2018 the tournament became part of the Open Qualifying Series with two places available for the leading players not already qualified for the Open Championship.

Winners

Notes

References

External links

*
Coverage on the Asian Tour's official sitePast champions
{{Asian Tour Events Korean Tour events Asia Golf Circuit events Asian Tour events Golf tournaments in South Korea Recurring sporting events established in 1958 1958 establishments in South Korea Spring (season) events in South Korea