Australia’s Greatest Golfer: Brett Ogle v Minjee Lee - PGA of Australia

Australia’s Greatest Golfer: Brett Ogle v Minjee Lee


Vastly different personalities, equally exceptional ability with golf club in hand; Brett Ogle is pitted against Minjee Lee in our continuing search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

There is an enigmatic nature to both Brett Ogle and Minjee Lee yet in a vastly different manner.

The gregarious joker whose emotions could also swing wildly the other way, Ogle skipped out on the PGA TOUR at the height of his powers in search of his biological parents, ultimately discovering that he had two sisters he never knew existed.

This chapter of Ogle’s life represents a microcosm of a career of highs and lows, a natural sporting talent raised in Goulburn in south-west New South Wales who would flirt with the game’s upper echelons and find his place as a man of the people.

A state champion table tennis player at school, Ogle turned his attention to golf and went from a 32-handicap to 1 in the space of two years. Junior accolades were soon forthcoming followed by the decision to turn professional in December 1985 at 21 years of age.

He shot 5-under 67 in the final round to win the 1988 Tasmanian Open and would register victories on the European Tour and PGA TOUR over the next five years, his greatest triumph coming at the 1993 Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Yet to many Aussie golf fans he would become synonymous for his role as host of The Golf Show on Fox Sports and as the face of Drummond Golf, his outgoing nature and broad smile endearing him to golf fans across the globe.

Due to turn 24 this month, Minjee Lee’s rapid ascension in world golf is yet to reach its peak but she has already compiled a resume that elevates her among the best this country has produced. And for now – with younger brother Min Woo nipping at her heels – the best golfer in her family.

Winner of the 2012 US Junior Girls title, Lee claimed consecutive Australian Women’s Amateur crowns in 2013 and 2014 and when she won the 2014 Oates Victorian Open became the No.1 ranked amateur in the world.

Shy by nature but possessing a million-dollar smile, Lee turned professional after joining with Su Oh and Shelly Shin to win the Espirito Santo Trophy in September 2014 and the next year had earned her maiden LPGA Tour title at the Kingsmill Championship.

She has won four more times on the female game’s pre-eminent tour and risen to a high of No.2 in the world, a breakthrough major championship and that No.1 ranking the next big targets as her career progresses.

In today’s other match two of the game’s unsung heroes in this country go head-to-head.

The reigning Legends Tour Player of the Year, Mike Harwood has won 34 times throughout the world during his career yet his perhaps best remembered for the time he ran second to Ian Baker-Finch at the 1991 Open Championship.

A five-time winner on the European Tour, Harwood shot 64 in the final round of the 1986 Australian PGA Championship to edge Greg Norman by two strokes and has won 20 times on the Australian seniors tour over the past decade.

Although he doesn’t carry the profile of some of the game’s modern stars, Greg Chalmers boasts a record that rivals any.

Winner of the 1993 Australian Amateur and 1994 French Amateur, Chalmers made an instant impression on the Australasian Tour after joining the pro ranks in 1995.

He won the Australian Players Championship in 1997 and the Australian Open the following year, a feat he repeated 13 years later with a one-stroke win over John Senden at The Australian.

Two weeks after that win Chalmers added the 2011 Australian PGA Championship and would win it for a second time in a marathon playoff against Wade Ormsby and Adam Scott at Royal Pines in 2014, becoming just the fifth player to win both the Open and PGA titles twice in the past 50 years.

A two-time winner on the Nationwide Tour, Chalmers first joined the PGA TOUR in 1999 but had to wait 18 years and 386 events to earn his first victory at the 2016 Barracuda Championship.

Brett Ogle
Career wins: 15
PGA TOUR wins: 2
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: 2nd (1994)
Australian PGA: Won (1990)

Minjee Lee
Career wins: 7
LPGA Tour wins: 5
ALPG Tour wins: 2
Women’s Australian Open: T3 (2017)
Australian Ladies Masters: 2nd (2014)

Mike Harwood
Career wins: 34
European Tour wins: 5
Australasian Tour wins: 2
Australian Open: T7 (1989)
Australian PGA: Won (1986)

Greg Chalmers
Career wins: 11
PGA TOUR wins: 1
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: Won (1998, 2011)
Australian PGA: Won (2011, 2014)


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