On this day in 2008 Graeme McDowell clinched the inaugural Ballantine’s Championship at Pinx Golf Club on the island of Jeju in South Korea. It was the first European Tour event to be staged in Korea.
From 2008 to 2010, the tournament was played at Pinx Golf Club. Since 2011, the tournament has been played at Blackstone Golf Club. The tournament was announced in July 2007 by the European Tour in partnership with the Korean PGA, marking a continuation of the European Tour’s expansion into Asia. The Asian Tour, which had not been offered the co-sanctioning rights to which it felt it was entitled, responded by calling the event an “invasive” action that “colonised” Asia in “blatant disregard” of the “principles of the International Federation of PGA Tours”, but six months later it agreed terms to co-sanction the event.
McDowell birdied the third playoff hole against India’s Jeev Milkha Singh to win the title.
