Celebrating 20 years, the annual Gold Coast World Masters Golf Championship starts on the Gold Coast this Sunday. Over the past 20 years 13,972 golfers from 23 countries have participated and 700 more have started arriving on the Gold Coast for this year’s tournament.

This is a tournament with some amazing stats. Tournament host Peter McCarthy from Gold Coast based Go Golfing has shared some fun facts about the events’ 20 year history.

–       60,811 rounds played on the Gold Coast’s resort courses

–       An estimated 183,000 golf balls hit into the water

–       $1.72 million in prizes including 8 new cars and 30 overseas holidays

–       4 weddings and no funerals – 4 couples who met at the tournament have got hitched

–       2 lawsuits resulting from golfers running down other golfers in golf carts (reportedly by accident)

–       3 participants have come all 20 years – Dennis and Lorraine Chidlow from Brisbane and Glenn Dodds from the Sunshine Coast

Now this event is big, it has $120,000 in prizes, but surprisingly the players are mostly grandparents. You have to be over 35 to participate in the World Masters and the average age of the participants is 59. The oldest participant is 97 year old Wal Edwards from Sydney.

The twentieth edition of the Gold Coast World Masters starts with a glamorous dinner under the stars at Mercure Resort. The four round competition will see golfers playing Sanctuary Cove, Hope Island, The Glades and Royal Pines. Every night there are cocktail parties with the beach party, country and western and beer and wine tasting nights being most popular.

Twenty year event veteran Dennis Chidlow said he wouldn’t miss the event for quids. He’s back in town just to play the tournament before resuming his trip around Australia. “It’s a fantastic week. We catch up with friends, many we haven’t seen since the last event. We golf by day and party at nigh – it’s loads of fun,” says Dennis.

Dennis has saved his event polo from every year and his shirt collection is part of a display at Mercure Resort to commemorate the event’s twentieth year.

You can even have a bet on where you think the winner of the Gold Coast World Masters will come from. Major sponsor Ladbrokes has odds on what state or country the winner will come from. A NSW or VIC victory is the favorite, followed by Queensland and there’s juicy odds for the winner to come from other states or overseas.

Locals can get involved with the World Masters Golf with a free event at Palm Meadows Driving Range this Sunday from 10am to 3pm. You can have a hit with the latest Srixon golf equipment and take home prizes in the long drive, nearest the pin and chipping competitions. Launch monitor technology will compare the performance of your golf clubs against Srixon drivers and irons.