The Australian Masters will not be held in 2016.
Event owner IMG today declared the iconic Australian golf tournament will be shelved next summer and that its future beyond 2016 is yet to be determined.
“As part of IMG’s ongoing evolution of its golf events business, the company is in the process of reimagining its Australian Masters event to ensure the delivery of a world-class experience,” IMG golf vice-president David Rollo said in a statement.
“To best execute a change of this scale, IMG has announced that the Australian Masters will not be played in 2016.”
“IMG will unveil its new plans for the event in the coming months.”
The tournament was first held at Huntingdale in 1979 when it was won by little-known New Zealander Barry Vivian.
But over the ensuing 36 years, its honour roll became one of modern golf’s most envied with major winners Greg Norman (six times), Tiger Woods, Bernhard Langer, Mark O’Meara, Ian Baker-Finch and Adam Scott (twice) all donning the gold jacket.
The Masters shifted to a Sandbelt rotation policy in 2009 when Woods saluted at Kingston Heath in one of Australian golf’s most successful tournaments.
The 2015 event returned to Huntingdale for the first time since and was won by evegreen Peter Senior for the third time.