Serving as the perfect precursor to the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship, this year’s Queensland PGA sees the return of Nudgee favourite son Scott Hend along with two-time Australian PGA and Australian Open winner, Greg Chalmers.

The Queensland Open champion in 2003, Hend has proven to be one of Australian golf’s most enduring performers.

His 10th win on the Asian Tour in 2019 saw him become the most successful international player in the history of the Asian Tour, three of those 10 wins co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour.

Now in his 25th year as a professional, Hend qualified to play the PGA TOUR in 2004 and in 2005 became the first foreign player to end the year leading the long drive statistical category.

A representative at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Hend’s Australian golf bag is proudly on display within the Nudgee clubhouse. According to club president Paul Rigby, Hend’s inclusion will further elevate the event in its second visit to Nudgee inside a year.

“The members of Nudgee Golf Club always take great pride in Scott’s accomplishments around the world so they are understandably thrilled that he will tee it up in this year’s Queensland PGA Championship,” Mr Rigby said.

“Scott has never forgotten where he came from and I’d expect there will be a large gallery following him when the tournament begins on Thursday.

“With the inclusion of Scott, Greg Chalmers, Mathew Goggin and the new stars that are emerging in Australian golf, fans who come out to Nudgee this week are going to be witness to truly world-class golf.”

A five-time winner on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, Chalmers has won tournaments across the globe.

He won the Challenge Tour Championship in Europe in 1997, is a two-time winner on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour in the US and in 2016 won the Barracuda Championship on the PGA TOUR.

Goggin, too, has tasted success internationally.

He won twice on the Challenge Tour, boasts five wins on the Korn Ferry Tour between 1999 and 2015 and in 2009 played with Tom Watson in the final group of The Open Championship after only receiving notification that he was in the field the week prior.

Other notable names in the field this week include 2002 Australian Open champion Stephen Allan, ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winners Jake McLeod and Matthew Griffin and the winners of the first three events of the 2022/2023 season, David Micheluzzi (WA PGA), Deyen Lawson (WA Open) and Andrew Martin (Victorian PGA).

The Queensland PGA Championship also represents one of the final opportunities to earn automatic entry into the $2 million Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland Golf Club, one of the hottest tickets of the summer for players and fans alike.

“With so many of our best players coming home this summer, a spot in the field for the Australian PGA Championship is highly sought after,” said PGA of Australia Tournaments Director Australasia, Nick Dastey.

“It’s wonderful to have accomplished international stars of our game such as Scott Hend, Greg Chalmers and Mathew Goggin teeing it up at Nudgee and there is the potential for it to be a life-changing week for one of our young players.

“Jed Morgan showed what’s possible when you give players an opportunity with his win at Royal Queensland in January and we could see something similar from the winner of this week’s Queensland PGA.”

The Queensland PGA Championship will be played at Nudgee Golf Club from Thursday, November 17 until Sunday, November 20. The final two rounds will be broadcast live on both Fox Sports and Kayo from 2.30pm Saturday and 12.30pm Sunday AEDT.