History
The Dunlop Masters was first held in 1946 at Stoneham Golf Club in Southampton, and was a continuation of the Dunlop-Metropolitan Tournament which had been held before World War II. Like the Dunlop-Metropolitan, the Dunlop Masters was a 72-hole end-of-season event with a restricted field. The Dunlop-Metropolitan had been first played in 1934, the same year as The Masters. The event was sponsored by Dunlop from 1946 to 1982, during which time it continued to have a small field with no 36-hole cut. There were 50 competitors in the final Dunlop-sponsored event in 1982.[1]
During the 1980s the British Masters was one of the most lucrative events on the European Tour with a prize fund that was as high as third among the tournaments on the schedule, but its status, or at least its relative level of prize money, has declined considerably in recent years.
The tournament has been played at many different venues; twice in the "Dunlop Masters" era it was held in the Republic of Ireland. When the Quinn Group took over as sponsors in 2006, the event was moved again, this time to the Group owned Belfry.
The deal with the Quinn Group ended in 2008, and when attempts to find another sponsor were unsuccessful, the British Masters was removed from the European Tour schedule for 2009.[2]
Tournament hosts
The event returned in 2015 with a leading British golfer choosing the golf course and hosting the event. Since then the editions have been hosted by:
