The Ballantine's Championship (known as The Championship at Laguna National in its final year) was a
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 ...
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 which was played from 2008 to 2014. It was the first European Tour event to be staged in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
.
From 2008 to 2010, the tournament was played at
Pinx Golf Club on the island of
Jeju. From 2011 to 2013, the tournament was played at Blackstone Golf Club. In 2014, the event has moved to
Laguna National Golf & CC in
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
and titled as The Championship at Laguna National.
The tournament was announced in July 2007 by the European Tour in partnership with the Korean PGA, marking a continuation of the European Tour's expansion into Asia. 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 ...
, which had not been offered the co-sanctioning rights to which it felt it was entitled, responded by calling the event an "invasive" action that "colonised" Asia in "blatant disregard" of the "principles of the
International Federation of PGA Tours
Professional golf tours are the means by which otherwise unconnected professional golf tournaments are organized into a regular schedule. There are separate tours for men and women; most are based in a specific geographical region, although some to ...
", but six months later it agreed terms to co-sanction the event.
The prize fund in the first year was
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
2 million (circa
US$
The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
2.9 million).
Winners
See also
*
Korea Open (golf)
*
World Classic Championship
Notes
References
External links
Coverage on European Tour's official siteCoverage on Asian Tour's official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballantines Championship
Former Asian Tour events
Former European Tour events
Korean Tour events
Golf tournaments in South Korea
Golf tournaments in Singapore
Recurring sporting events established in 2008
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2014