Both products of regional New South Wales, mentored by the legendary Alex Mercer and regarded as two of the finest ball-strikers golf has witnessed; there are a number of shared traits between Steve Elkington and Peter O’Malley.

The senior of the pair by three years, Elkington’s early development took place on the fairways of Wagga Wagga Country Club, progressing to the NSW State Junior team where he began what would be a career-long association with Mercer.

He attended the University of Houston before turning professional in 1985, his first professional win not coming until his fourth season on the PGA TOUR at the Kmart Greater Greensboro Open courtesy of a brilliant 6-under par 66 in the final round.

It would be the first of 10 PGA TOUR wins for Elkington, highlighted by his victory at the US PGA Championship in 1995 – where he came from six shots back to shoot 64 in the final round and defeat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff – and twin victories at THE PLAYERS Championship in 1991 and 1997, the first Australian to snare the PGA TOUR’s showpiece event.

Elkington’s win at TPC Sawgrass in 1997 was by an astonishing seven strokes and remains to this day the greatest winning margin in the event’s history.

Throughout his career Elkington showed a penchant for winning multiple times at the one venue, twice winning the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua (1992 and 1995) and taming the ‘Blue Monster’ two times in the space of three years to win the Doral-Ryder Open in 1997 and 1999.

In addition to his 1995 PGA Championship win at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles Elkington was a regular contender in golf’s majors with a number of heartbreaking near-misses.

Elkington and fellow Aussie Stuart Appleby finished one shot back of Ernie Els in the four-hole aggregate playoff to decide the winner of the 2002 Open Championship and Elkington recorded further top-five finishes at The Masters (1993 and 1995) and the PGA (1996, 1998, 2005 and 2010).

Elkington’s most significant win in Australia was the 1992 Australian Open at The Lakes where he held off Peter McWhinney and American Duffy Waldorf to win by two strokes.

Where Elkington had his eyes on America from the outset, Peter O’Malley instead opted for a career in Europe.

Bathurst born and bred, O’Malley also came under the tutelage of Mercer in the NSW state squads, regularly travelling from the Central West of NSW down to Sydney for training camps.

Runner-up in the 1985 Australian Amateur at 20 years of age, O’Malley had his first experience playing in Europe in 1989 and immediately showed that he had made the right decision, runner-up to Mark James in his first European event, the Dubai Desert Classic, and top 10 in two of his next three events.

The first of O’Malley’s three European Tour wins came at the 1992 Bell’s Scottish Open and was done in such a fashion as to still be discussed to this day.

Played the week before The Open Championship was to be staged at Muirfield, Gleneagles attracted Europe’s finest including Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie.

Without a top-10 all season and starting the tournament a 150-1 outsider, O’Malley played his way into contention with a 65 that was the best of the rounds on the Saturday but it was his Sunday surge that went down in the annals of European Tour history.

Still well adrift of the leaders when he arrived on the 14th tee, O’Malley found the putting surface with his tee shot at the 300-yard par 4 and promptly holed the putt for eagle. He added birdies at each of the next three holes and, tied for the lead, eagled the par-5 finishing hole to go 7-under for his final five holes, played the back nine in 28 for a total of 62 and a two-stroke win.

In addition to his exploits in Europe O’Malley has had considerable success on the Australasian Tour with five wins, his most impressive a nine-stroke procession at the 1998 Canon Challenge.

Steve Elkington
Career wins: 17
Major wins: 1 (1995 US PGA Championship)
PGA TOUR wins: 10
Australasian Tour wins: 1
Australian Open: Won (1992)
Australian PGA: T44 (2003)

Peter O’Malley
Career wins: 8
Major wins: Nil
European Tour wins: 3
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: T5 (1996)
Australian PGA: 5 (2006)