DID YOU KNOW – OMEGA EUROPEAN MASTERS
• Danny Willett will be looking to make a successful defence of the Omega European Masters he won in 2015. Should he be victories again he would become the first player to achieve this feat since Seve Ballesteros (1977-78). He will also be looking for an Omega double, having already won the 2016 Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
• Should the Masters Tournament Champion win for a second season in a row, he would become the first Englishman to win the same European Tour event in back-to-back years since Luke Donald (2011-2012 BMW PGA Championship).
• In 2010 Miguel Angel Jiménez won his first Omega European Masters title at the 22nd attempt in 2010. This was a then European Tour record for a player competing in the same event the most times before winning it for the first time. He then broke his own record, winning the Open de España this year at the 27th time of asking in 2014.
• One of the 17 different players to shoot an official 60 since The European Tour’s first season in 1972, was Jamie Spence, in winning the 1992 European Masters. Beginning the final round ten shots behind the third round leader, Colin Montgomerie, Spence compiled a 12 under par score of 60, to tie Anders Forsbrand after 72 holes, before winning at the second extra play-off hole. This represents the largest final round winning comeback in European Tour history. This was since equalled by Paul Lawrie at The 1999 Open Championship.
• Spence in 1992 is one of only three players to win a European Tour event, while shooting 60 in the final 18 holes. The other two were Ian Woosnam (1990 Torras Monte Carlo Open) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (2009 Austrian Golf Open).
• The Omega European Masters, staged at Crans-sur-Sierre, has the distinction of being the only venue to hold a European Tour event in every season since 1972. The 2016 edition will be the 45th since 1972, the Tour’s first season. The venue has hosted the tournament every year it has been played since 1939.
• Crans-sur-Sierre will be staging the tournament for the 70th successive time. Only Augusta National (80 times for the Masters Tournament), has held the same event more times than the Swiss venue.
• The Omega European Masters is the only European Tour event staged in Europe which is jointly-sanctioned. The tournament has become part of the Asian Tour schedule since 2009.
• Mads Vibe-Hastrup’s albatross in the 2008 Omega European Masters was the fifth in the event since The European Tour’s first season in 1972. This tournament jointly holds the record for most albatrosses with five, along with The Open Championship.
