SINGAPORE – Golf’s Singapore Open, the national men’s professional competition, will return to the Republic when it tees off at the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) from Nov 6 to 9. 

Last played in 2022, the Singapore Open will be sanctioned by the Singapore Golf Association (SGA) and Asian Tour, with Kweichow Moutai, a Chinese liquor company, coming on board as the new title sponsor in 2025.

Staged at the SICC’s New Course, the Moutai Singapore Open will offer a prize purse of US$2 million (S$2.59 million) – an increase from the US$1.25 million for the 2022 edition – as one of 10 events on the International Series.

The International Series, which was launched in 2022, provides a pathway to the LIV Golf League. 

Singaporean professional golfer James Leow welcomed the return of the event, which the 28-year-old has watched as a spectator and played in four times.

The 2019 SEA Games gold medallist said: “It’s nice to have the event back after three years – everyone is constantly asking about it and it’s such a special event.

It became a fixture on the Australasian Tour for three seasons from 1993, before it joined the Asian Tour in 1996.

The event was co-sanctioned with the European Tour from 2009 to 2012, and later with the Japan Golf Tour from 2016 to 2022, which marked its most recent edition.

Past champions of the tournament include Australia’s former world No. 1 Adam Scott (2005, 2006, 2010) and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia (2018) from Spain.

With the tournament part of the International Series this year, Leow relishes testing himself against the best on the Asian Tour and LIV Golf League.

“With the International Series, which are the elevated events on the Asian Tour, there’s more prize money, the winner gets more ranking points, and you’re competing against a deeper field of players including the LIV guys,” said world No. 1,417 Leow, who currently has full status on China Tour and Asian Development Tour, and conditional status on the Asian Tour.&nb...