Just like the iconic Striding Man on the label, the Johnnie Walker Classic has not stopped walking. After 16 tournaments in seven countries and 12 venues, it remains Asia Pacific’s premier luxury golf event albeit of no fixed abode. Robin Barwick looks back on its incredible journey.

More than just a golf tournament, the Johnnie Walker Classic is a bold adventure, marching between the most exotic destinations of the Oriental world, rising up to Beijing and dipping down to Perth, and always leading a trail of the world’s finest golfers.

In December 1990 the inaugural Johnnie Walker Classic was played at the Royal Hong Kong Golf Club but the star attraction, the reigning Masters and Open champion Nick Faldo, nearly pulled out with injury.

“At one point I thought I would have to withdraw,” remembers Faldo, “but as they say, 'beware the injured golfer'! I remember the tournament as if it were only last year, probably because I shot a 62 - it always pays to remember the few you win rather than the many that get away!” So Faldo became the first name, legendary at that, on the Johnnie Walker Classic’s roll of honour.

In January 1992 the tournament was included on the European Tour schedule for the first time. Played at Bangkok’s Pinehurst Golf & Country Club, the trophy was lifted by South Africa’s Ian Palmer, a Tour absentee for seven years, yet he held his nerve and defied enormous odds to beat Germany’s Bernhard Langer by a stroke.

At Singapore Island Country Club in 1993 Faldo secured his second Johnnie Walker Classic title, before what was the strongest field of golfers ever seen in Asia came together for the first Johnnie Walker Classic to be held at Phuket’s Blue Canyon Country Club in 1994. Six of the world ranking’s top seven golfers were in Thailand, with defending champion Faldo joined by Greg Norman, Langer, Nick Price, Fred Couples and Ian Woosnam. The honours went to Norman on this occasion, who vocalised the enormity of the win with the words, “The leaderboard looked like The Open Championship”.

The Johnnie Walker Classic landed in the Philippines in 1995, at Manila’s Orchard Golf & Country Club, and it was the turn of the previous year’s runner-up and former US Masters champion Fred Couples to clinch the title, and at Singapore’s Tanah Merah Country Club in 1996 another golfer with a Green Jacket, Ian Woosnam, won at the third hole of the tournament’s first ever play-off, against Scotland’s Andrew Coltart.

In 1997 the Striding Man threw down his hat in Queensland, Australia, when the Johnnie Walker Classic was played outside Asia for the first time. Ernie Els was a popular first-time winner before the event moved back to Blue Canyon in 1998.

Playing in a Tour event in his mother’s homeland at the start of his pro career, the 1998 Johnnie Walker Classic was dominated by the new star of world golf, 22-year-old Tiger Woods, who held his nerve in front of a huge gallery of swarming, adoring fans. It looked as though Els was going to successfully defend his title until a late surge by Woods forced a play-off, and the new hero of Thailand went on to seize the silverware.

Woods returned to defend his title in November 1999 when the Johnnie Walker Classic rolled into Taiwan, at the Westin Ta Shee Resort, but the young Kiwi Michael Campbell showed for the first time on Tour that when he finds his groove, he could beat anyone. “I really remember that it was just one of those weeks when everything came together,” recalls Campbell of his first major Tour win. “There was Tiger, Ernie and Vijay [Singh], but once I'm in my bubble I am pretty hard to stop.”

The tournament returned to the land of Woods’ forefathers at the end of 2000, to Bangkok’s Alpine Golf & Sports Club. The world number one arrived in Thailand having won the previous three majors and he was an irresistible force. Scores of 68-65-65-65 gave Woods his 10th victory of the year by three shots over a valiant Geoff Ogilvy of Australia.

"I wanted to shoot 65 on the final day and it went exactly to plan,” remembers Woods. “It's special to win in my mother's home country - it is part of my heritage.”

"I have never started the weekend being two behind, gone on to shoot 67, 64 and still lose by three,” said Australia’s Ogilvy, now a major winner himself. “It's ridiculous. That was as good as I could have played, but all credit to Tiger, he is the best.”

There was another display of jaw-dropping golf at Lake Karrinyup in Perth, Australia, in January 2002 when reigning US Open champion Retief Goosen left the rest of the field spluttering in his wake. He defied high winds to shoot a course record 63, 9 under par, and open up an astonishing 13-shot gap between him and the nearest challengers, Els and Sergio Garcia.

“That 63 in the wind was the best round I have ever played,” said Goosen, who went on to win by eight shots. “I think it was the best round of the day by about five shots [ed: exactly right]. I remember I was in the zone and I made the putts. The course was playing hard and fast and I played every shot the way it needed to be played.”

The Johnnie Walker Striding Man paused at the idyllic nature reserve of Lake Karrinyup just long enough to let the 2003 tournament take place at the same venue in consecutive years - for the first and only time this has happened. On this occasion Els became the first wire-to-wire winner of the tournament, in the process setting an incredible European Tour record for the lowest score over 72 holes: 259, 29 under par. Playing the golf of his career Els shot 64-65-64-66 to win by a magnificent 10 shots.

In 2004 the tournament returned to Bangkok’s Alpine Golf & Sports Club where Spain’s unshakable Miguel Angel Jimenez continued what has become a Johnnie Walker tradition of seeing its winners produce a calibre of golf usually reserved for fiction. “Miguel played golf like I’ve not seen for many years. Really magnificent,” says Thomas Bjorn, who tussled with Jimenez down the closing stretch and was eventually vanquished by the inspired Spaniard. “It was out of this world and you could tell how much it meant to him. He’s a tough competitor.”

Mainland China welcomed the Johnnie Walker Classic for the first time in 2005, when Australia’s rising star Adam Scott attracting keenly devoted galleries at Beijing’s Pine Valley Golf Resort & Country Club. Scott started his week with a course record 63, 9 under par, and never looked back.

In the 15th Johnnie Walker Classic at The Vines Resort & Country Club in Perth’s Swan Valley in 2006, young American Kevin Stadler – whose famous father is Craig Stadler - became the first wildcard invitee to overcome the tournament’s world-class field and lift the title. Local favourite Nick O’Hern finished an agonising two shots shy when Stadler eagled the final hole for his third consecutive eagle on 18.

Most recently another unknown golfer, South Africa’s Anton Haig, announced his arrival on the international stage in 2007, defeating Richard Sterne and Oliver Wilson at the first hole of a sudden-death play-off at Blue Canyon – the first venue to hold the tournament three times and the tournament’s spiritual home.

The Johnnie Walker Classic has been an incredible journey that just keeps walking and, like the Striding Man, it is still walking tall, very tall indeed.