The Singapore Open is a golf tournament in Singapore that is part of the Asian Tour schedule. The event has been held at Sentosa Golf Club since 2005 and since 2017 has been part of the Open Qualifying Series, giving up to four non-exempt players entry into The Open Championship. The Singapore Open was founded in 1961 and was one of the tournaments on the first season of the Far East Circuit the following year. It remained part of the Asia circuit until 1993 when it became a fixture on the Australasian Tour. After just 3 seasons, it left the Australasian Tour to join the fledgling Asian Tour for that tour's second season in 1996. The event was also co-sanctioned with the European Tour from 2009 to 2012, and with the Japan Golf Tour since 2016.
History
The Singapore Open was founded in 1961 and was staged annually until 2001, when it was won by Thaworn Wiratchant. Other winners in the years leading up to this included American Shaun Micheel in 1998, who went on to win the 2003 PGA Championship. In 2002 the event was cancelled because of lack of sponsorship. It was not revived until 2005, when sponsorship was secured from the Sentosa Leisure Group. The 2005 prize fund was $2 million, which made the Singapore Open by far the richest tournament exclusive to the Asian Tour that was not co-sanctioned by the European Tour, a status it retained until the European Tour first co-sanctioned the event in 2009. Asian Tour chief executiveLouis Martin claimed when the revival of the tournament was announced, "Competing for a prize purse of two million US dollars will give our playing membership a huge boost and elevate the Asian Tour to a new level." The 2005 event was played in September. The 2006 Singapore Open offered a purse of US$3 million with a winner's share of US$475,000. In May 2006 it was announced that Barclays Bank would sponsor the event for five years from 2006 and that the prize fund will be increased to US$4 million in 2007 and US$5 million in 2008. In 2011, the purse was US$6,000,000. The 2013 edition was cancelled due to lack of sponsorship. After a three-year absence, the tournament returned in January 2016. The event is co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour. It features Sumitomo Mitsui Bank as title sponsor and has a US$1 million purse.
