There will be no winner of the Gold Jacket this year.
The Australian Masters, which along with the Australian Open and the Australian PGA Championship comprise the Australian Triple Crown, has been canceled for 2016.
IMG, management company of the tournament which has been played since 1979, said the event is undergoing changes and plans for the future will be announced when they are complete.
“As part of IMG’s ongoing evolution of its golf events business, the company is in the process of reimagining its Australian Masters event to ensure the delivery of a world-class experience,” said David Rollo, the vice president-director of golf for IMG Australia and New Zealand.
“To best execute a change of this scale, IMG today announced that the Australian Masters will not be played in 2016. IMG will unveil its new plans for the event in the coming months.”
Rollo added that the 2016 golf calendar, which includes the return of golf to the Olympic Games in August at Rio de Janeiro, and the return of the World Club of Golf to Kingston Heath in Australia contributed to the cancellation.
Smaller crowds also influenced the decision, as attendance has been down at the Australian Masters since Tiger Woods played in 2009 and 2010.
Barry Vivian of Australia won the first playing of the tournament in 1979, followed by Gene Littler the next year. Greg Norman claimed the first of his six titles in the event in 1981.
Other winners of the tournament include Woods, Bernhard Langer of Germany, Mark O’Meara, Justin Rose of England, Colin Montgomerie of Scotland, Ian Poulter of England, Michael Campbell of New Zealand and Australians Adam Scott, Ian Baker-Finch, Craig Parry, Stuart Appleby, Aaron Baddeley, Graham Marsh, Robert Allenby and Peter Lonard.
Peter Senior of Australia won it for the third time last year at the age of 56.
