The Johnnie Walker Classic, Asia-Pacifics best known golf tournament and a fixture on The European Tour International Schedule since 1992, will return to Perth, Australia, next season after an absence of three years. The 14th Johnnie Walker Classic will be played at The Vines Resort and Country Club in Western Australia from February 9-12. Western Australia Tourism Minister Mark McGowan said the return of the event was a real coup for Perth.
The 2009 Johnnie Walker Classic will also be played in Perth.
Since its inaugural staging in 1992, the Johnnie Walker Classic has been played in Australia on three occasions. In 1997, Ernie Els won at Hope Island, Queensland; in 2002, Retief Goosen won at Perths Lake Karrinyup Country Club and the following year, also at Lake Karrinyup - and the first time the tournament had been played at the same venue in consecutive years - Els won again. This year at the Pine Valley Golf Resort and Country Club in Beijing, Adam Scott, currently the leading Australian golfer on the World Golf Ranking, won from a truly international field that included four of the top ten players in the world.