The tournament is the brainchild of schoolteacher David Inglis. The Australian Masters was intended to be, in the words of Inglis, "an unashamed copy" of the
Masters Tournament, the famous tournament in the United States. The event would be played at the same course every year and a ceremonial jacket would placed on the champion. In this case, the course would be
Huntingdale Golf Club. In 1989 the
International Management Group took control of the management of the tournament. Though the Australian Masters usually was part of the
PGA Tour of Australasia's calendar, the event was not on the Order of Merit in 1992. The
PGA Tour of Australasia requested that the field expand from 100 players to a full-field of 120 players.
International Management Group (IMG), which ran the event, rejected the request. Frank Williams, an employee of IMG, justified the decision by stating, "The sponsors expect the Masters to be different from other Australian tournaments and it was sold to them as a limited-field special event." The announcement caused a minor public backlash due to 50% of Woods' A$3 million appearance fee being paid by taxpayer funds. Woods' appearance was tipped to generate close to A$20 million for the Victorian economy via tourism and other related areas. The event is owned by
IMG. The event was not played in 2016 and its future is reported to be in doubt. The tournament's iconic broadcast theme music used during the 1980s and 1990s was "Send Them Victorious" by Graham De Wilde, with tournament's tagline "The Tradition Continues" in use for the duration of its existence. Greg Norman won the Masters a record six times. The final event featured 56-year-old
Peter Senior as the champion. It was his third win in this event and became the first player to win the
Australian Open, the
Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Masters all in his fifties. Future major winner who was an amateur at the time
Bryson DeChambeau finished tied in second place. ==Venues==