One tournament deep in to the season and my picks were shocking at the Vic PGA Championship barring a late charge from Marcus Fraser to put a respectable result on the board, he finished T3, Taylor Macdonald was T9, Stephen Leaney T18, David McKenzie T23 and Ash Hall T70. That’ll teach me for going the early crow after one round! I’ll get back to winning ways at the Oates Vic Open, plenty of big names in the field for this week, my top five below.

#1 Min Woo Lee

Controversial to pick an amateur on top in a field of international talent, took out the US Junior Amateur Championship as did his older sister Minjee a couple of years earlier, talented family! Don’t think a win on Tour is far off his radar. Minjee is also playing this week and has won here, tipping a bit of sibling rivalry will drive Min Woo to match big sister’s silverware collection.

#2 Brett Rumford

Best player in the field and a champion bloke, loves sharing his knowledge of the game and giving tips to others, specialises in teaching the short game. Doesn’t discriminate, spotted today giving much needed lessons to Matt Dowling on the practice green. Can’t wait to see him play and he is due for a change of luck after a tough run with injuries.

#3 Ben Eccles

The human greyhound, trained on this track and has great form here too, equal fifth here last year. If he gets the rails run at 13^th beach and stays upright he’ll be hard to beat. Fun fact, Ben Eccles is also facing a ban from most venues in NSW*.

*Probably not true.

#4 Rory Bourke

Scored $10,000 at the Lightning Golf exhibition event here earlier this week so he definitely doesn’t need the cash, played well here last year and is another local who would love to win his home Open. If he gets the win I’m sure there’ll be a monogrammed cardigan created for the next time he dresses up his bulldog!

#5 Peter O’Malley

Fast dog, to bulldog, to the old dog! Shot 64 here early in the pro-am and was leading most of the way in last week’s Victorian Senior Open until a rampaging Peter Senior took charge. A secret weapon in POM’s bag could be the Bullseye style putter he’s currently running, if it behaves he should challenge the leaders