Australia’s Greatest Golfer: Aaron Baddeley v Bill Dunk

Unfortunately for Aaron Baddeley, he has drawn the one man Rodger Davis says you don’t want to face in match play as our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer continues.

Not even Wikipedia can keep up with the vast expanse of golf victories enjoyed by Billy Dunk throughout his decorated playing career.

Such was the frequency of his play and the often low nature of his scoring that the modern substitute to the Encyclopedia Britannica simply states that Dunk won on more than 100 occasions, including the Australian PGA Championship five times between 1962 and 1976.

He was a precocious character and a ferocious competitor and not the man you wanted to face in a man-to-man duel according to former sparring partner and legend of Australian golf himself, Rodger Davis.

“’Dunky’ would be the one I’d find hardest to play against,” Davis said when asked which of the 64 finalists in our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer he’d least like to face in match play.

“He was an aggressive player and a very, very good iron player.

“He had a helluva record and when he was on fire he invariably broke a course record.

“He was a little bit like Bernhard Langer in that he had the ability to hit it flag-high and he was a good putter.

“If I mis-hit a shot into a green it was half a club short and to the right and all of a sudden I had a 30-footer. But if you had the ability to hit it flag-high the longest putt you’re going to have is 10-15 feet.

“That’s why they used to make so many birdies.”

The son of a greenkeeper, Dunk’s aversion to travel constrained his golf talents largely to Australian shores where he regularly made a mockery of the par set by any course that dared stand in his path.

It is estimated he broke more than 80 course records in his time, his 10-under par 60 in the NBN 3 tournament at Merewether Golf Club contributing to a scoring average in 1970 of 70.13 from 62 rounds, best in the world ahead of Jack Nicklaus (70.66), Gene Littler (70.79) and Lee Trevino (70.82).

Winner of the 1960 NSW PGA, Dunk dusted Eric Cremin 8&7 to win the first of his five PGA titles in 1962, second only to Kel Nagle (six) for most victories by any player.

While Dunk never enjoyed victory in his national open – he was tied for third at the 1975 Australian Open won by Jack Nicklaus – Aaron Baddeley burst into Australian golf’s consciousness by claiming the Stonehaven Cup twice before his 20th birthday.

Born in the United States, Baddeley followed in the footsteps of the likes of Robert Allenby, Stuart Appleby and Geoff Ogilvy as a product of the Victorian Institute of Sport, the talented teen honing his craft under the tutelage of Dale Lynch.

He was an 18-year-old amateur when he finished two shots clear of Greg Norman and Nick O’Hern at Royal Sydney Golf Club in 1999 and returned as defending champion at Kingston Heath the following year to register his first win as a professional.

In the process he became just the ninth player to win the Australian Open in successive years, putting his name up in lights alongside legends such as Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Norman von Nida and Jim Ferrier.

Baddeley’s victory at the 2001 Greg Norman Holden International further entrenched his status as one of the rising stars in world golf and having been ranked as high as No.16 in the world has won four PGA TOUR titles and was the 54-hole leader at the 2007 US Open at Oakmont.

In the second match to be decided today John Senden faces off against the man whom the trophy for the Australian PGA Championship is named after, Joe Kirkwood Snr.

Regarded as one of the game’s best ball-strikers over the past 25 years, Senden’s putter has often been the cause of any malaise, his propensity to hit a high number of greens in regulation often contributing to unflattering putting stats.

Senden’s first victory as a professional came at the 1995 Indonesian PGA, he won twice on the European Challenge Tour but his most significant year came in 2006 when he not only broke through for his maiden PGA TOUR title but also claimed the Australian Open at Royal Sydney, closing out a round of 7-under 65 with three straight birdies to win by a shot.

Eighty-six years earlier Joe Kirkwood won the first Australian Open conducted post-WWI and would become a seminal figure in the advancement of professional golf in Australia.

Following his 1920 Australian Open triumph Kirkwood took his talents to the world, conducting exhibition matches to make ends meet and played an estimated 5,891 courses across the globe, putting the Australian PGA on the map.

Aaron Baddeley
Career wins: 8
PGA TOUR wins: 4
Australasian Tour wins: 4
Australian Open: Won (1999, 2000)
Australian PGA: T4 (2011)

Bill Dunk
Career wins: More than 100
Australasian Tour wins: 37
Australian Open: T3 (1975)
Australian PGA: Won (1962, 1966, 1971, 1974, 1976)

Match 27 | @CocaColaAmatil Australia's Greatest Golfer?️

Follow @PGAofAustralia & https://t.co/8tUxMHCgi8 to vote as we give you the chance to vote for our best Aussie in a decorated class of 64 greats.
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) April 30, 2020