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Min Woo Lee wins Fortinet Australian PGA Championship


West Australian Min Woo Lee has enhanced his standing as one of world golf’s most electrifying young players with a three-stroke win at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.

Lee bounced back from an early bogey to close out his win with a 3-under par round of 68 and 20-under par total at Royal Queensland Golf Club, Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino (68) showing admirable composure in the final group to snare second at 17-under.

Victorian Marc Leishman, whose 7-under 64 was the best of the last day, birdied his final two holes to claim outright third with Lee’s good friend and fellow West Australian, Curtis Luck, playing the back nine in 4-under for a round of 69 and fourth spot.

“I’ve always thought I could win, but it took a while to get over the hump,” Lee said on the 18th green.

“But two wins in the last month or so, I’m really proud of my team and myself.

“I made it interesting early on and through the middle, but ended up hanging on, so I’m really proud.”

Projected to elevate Lee to a career-high of No.38 on the Official World Golf Ranking, the win is Lee’s second on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and third on the DP World Tour

A leader by one after 36 holes and three through 54, Lee’s pitch-in for eagle at the par-5 ninth restored a buffer that had all but disappeared after just one hole on Sunday at Royal Queensland Golf Club.

A second shot at one that speared towards the enormous gallery behind the green led to an opening bogey, world No.138 Hoshino turning a three-shot deficit into just one with birdie.

He joined Lee at 16-under with a follow-up birdie on two before Lee flirted with a hole-in-one on his way to a birdie at the par-3 fourth.

The 25-year-old played another brilliant approach to set up birdie at the par-4 sixth but it was his miraculous chip-in just prior to making the turn that sent shockwaves throughout RQ.

“That was probably the best atmosphere shot I’ve ever hit,” Lee added.

“I’ve had a few chip ins, but at that point it was getting close and I was in a pretty average position after the tee shot. So to chip that in, it was amazing.

“I want to see it straight away. I would like to see it. It was one of the best shots I’ve probably hit.”

He emerged from the tunnel at the par-3 17th with a four-shot advantage and, despite disappointing the fans by missing the green left, made the putt from four feet for par for a reception befitting the sweet-swinging rock star he is quickly becoming.

A second shot into the back bunker on the 72nd hole kept the tension high until the very end, a closing bogey doing little to dull the celebrations of a maiden Joe Kirkwood Cup victory.

Although it didn’t come on the heaving party hole, Joaquin Niemann delivered one of the highlights of the final round with a hole-in-one at the par-3 fourth, holing his 8-iron from 164 metres.

More to come


His coach calls him Australia’s best part-time golfer. Given what he and his family have been through this year, Sam Eaves also has claims as this country’s best full-time dad.

Eaves tees off alongside Geoff Ogilvy and American Julian Suri at 6.19am on Sunday in the final round of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship. It’s no given, but he is hoping that his next game of golf will be at City Golf Club in Toowoomba next Saturday for his birthday.

Because little wins mean so much right now.

Like the four-footer Eaves made to stay alive in the playoff at Monday qualifying for the PGA Championship at Wynnum Golf Club.

Or the 10-footer he made at the second playoff hole that meant, come Thursday, he would join the likes of Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith in contesting a golf tournament worth $2 million.

But this is not about money.

It’s about a golfer who had to care for his three children – including a newborn daughter named Josephine – when his wife Kimberly was diagnosed with lymphoma, just nine days after giving birth.

For Sam, a PGA Professional now living in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, golf quickly became an afterthought.

As specialists scrambled to uncover why Kimberly had unbearable back pain, couldn’t raise her right leg and could barely lift her left arm above shoulder height, Sam juggled his baby daughter and two boys aged 3 and 9.

Golf? Sam barely had time to tie his shoes.

“I couldn’t really function some mornings,” Sam shares.

“I’d just get out of bed and be like, I don’t even know how to cook breakfast or pack the kids’ lunch. I don’t know what to grab first. Do I grab them a sandwich or what are we having for breakfast?

“How do you deal with it? I don’t know, mate, because you don’t really know what’s ahead.

“You just deal with it in two-hour blocks at a time.

“What are we doing for the next two hours? I could not think more than a couple of hours ahead at a time.”

With support from family, Sam pushed through each day, taking a different kid on a daily excursion to the chemist to try and provide some relief for Kimberly in between bouts of chemotherapy.

Having come five weeks premature, ‘Josie’ didn’t leave hospital for two weeks. By that time, her mother was back in hospital for her first round of chemotherapy.

Sam hasn’t worked since but, eight weeks ago, when Kim’s final cycle had been completed, he planted a seed of playing in the Australian PGA Championship.

It’s one of the few tournaments he plays… and he plays them well.

When Jed Morgan won the 2021 championship in record fashion in January 2022, the Eaves family banked $11,490 courtesy of Sam’s tie for 17th.

Last year, as Cameron Smith was anointed the king of RQ, Sam finished tied for 18th to collect another $22,440.

Yes, making the cut mattered on Friday, but the yellow cap he played in on Yellow Day in support of Challenge suddenly meant more than the cheque he will collect on Sunday night.

In a year in which his brother and caddie this week, Andrew, had a Stage 3 melanoma successfully cut out of his left groin and the family cat was hit and killed by a car, a spot in the field at RQ gave something Sam and the entire Eaves family craves more than anything else right now: Hope.

“Six or eight weeks ago now, I said to Kim, ‘Hey, what do you reckon about pre-qualifying for the Australian PGA?’” Sam says.

“Do some practice, have a hit with the members at City Golf Club and hit some balls in the backyard in the net.

“Just have something to look forward to and have a bit of a purpose.

“I don’t really feel any butterflies or anything because I’m just here for fun.

“I don’t have to win money or do any of that. I am just a golf fan playing golf inside the ropes and I feel just so lucky to be here.

“It’s just pure enjoyment.”

Yet, as his dad savoured a rare moment of joy, Sam was reminded in a text from Kimberly what matters most right now.

“It was ‘Very nice finish there, my love. We’re all super proud, except for Campbell who just has the shits that you can’t answer your phone while playing.’

“Typical three-year-old.”


Despite now being in their 40s, Marc Leishman and Adam Scott continue to leave no stone unturned as they seek to improve and potentially author an unlikely victory at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.

For Scott, it was a short game chat/lesson with Brett Rumford, while for Leishman it was the experienced eyes of career-long coach Denis McDade.

“I actually played well all year. My putter was not great early in the year and Denis came over and worked it out in about 10 minutes,” Leishman said.

“My putter wasn’t aiming where I thought it was. From 10 feet my putter was aiming about two inches left of the hole, which is not conducive to making putts when your good putts are not going where you think they should be.”

The putts were going where they should during a Saturday 67 that took the Victorian into a share of seventh, however that is eight shots back of 54-hole leader Min Woo Lee on 17-under, with Leishman needing some help to finally end his Australian drought.

“You never know what can happen,” Leishman said. “If I can play like I did today and get a hot putter, get off to a good start, you never know what might happen.”

A long-time visitor to Queensland for family holidays, Leishman’s record in the Sunshine State suggests there may be some truth to his joke that the heat helps an ageing body.

Making his 14th PGA start, Leishman owns nine top-25s, including a second behind close friend Cam Smith in 2018.

“When I first started playing in Queensland, I didn’t enjoy putting on Bermuda and all the different grasses, but now I love it,” he said.

“Hopefully I can use my experience tomorrow, make everything and give the boys something to think about.”

Scott will be thinking much the same after an even par third round where his putter failed to convert the multitude of chances the Queenslander’s iron play continued to present.

“It wasn’t really my day. I couldn’t really get it going and unfortunately, I missed a putt on 12 and then bogeyed 14 and 16 and had a rough run coming in there,” Scott said.

Unlike Leishman, Scott has the benefit of previous triumphs in his homeland’s biggest events to draw on. So too Cam Davis, whose top level experience belies his 28 years of age.

Signing for a 68 on Saturday alongside Leishman, Davis is seeking to follow his own come-from-behind example when he broke on to the scene at the 2017 Australian Open.

“Early on in my professional career I was drawing off that week pretty much every tournament I played in. I know I can do it when the pressure’s on,” Davis said.

“I’m trying to get a more recent memory of lifting a trophy over here.”

Although they will have their work cut out for them, the experienced trio will also have next week’s ISPS HANDA Australian Open. That event certainly now the focus for Cam Smith.

Spending significant time on the practice facilities Saturday, Smith will also take solace from wise words from Leishman.

“We’ve all missed cuts before and that is very disappointing when you do it, particularly in an event that you love so much and have had success in the past,” he added.

“But I think in the long run it’ll be good for him, just to know that it can happen.

“I know he’ll knuckle down and he’ll be better for it next week.”


Min Woo Lee will renew a junior rivalry more than a decade old in his quest to win a maiden Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland Golf Club on Sunday.

On a day in which enormous galleries flooded the fairways to witness his dream pairing with Adam Scott, the 25-year-old West Australian used an up-and-down for birdie from left of the green at the pivotal par-4 12th to come home in 3-under 32 for a round of 5-under 66.

His 17-under total puts Lee within reach of the 72-hole tournament record of 22-under par and three strokes clear of Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino (64) and fellow West Australian Curtis Luck (66).

Although Luck is two years Lee’s senior, the pair played countless junior events together growing up in Perth.

Although Luck’s path to the final group on the Sunday of a major Australian championship has been more circuitous, Lee admitted that such a prospect was always part of the plan.

“We obviously didn’t dream about this… we did dream about it, but it came pretty quick,” said Lee, who has three professional wins to his name.

“We played junior stuff every week back in the day.

“We both have potential to be the best players in the world so I wouldn’t put it (playing in the final group together) past us.

“A really, really good friend and hopefully we can both play good.”

Winner of the 2016 WA Open as an amateur – Lee finished tied 52nd – Luck has recent form on a Sunday to call upon.

In September, he shot 66 in the final round to finish second at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship – a tournament he won in 2020.

The 27-year-old will need all that and more to pull back the four-shot head-start he is affording his former junior adversary but, given his bogey-free round on Saturday, will start the final round full of belief.

“I could have shot, I feel like 8 or 9 (under) today, so absolutely not,” Luck responded when asked whether he was too far back.

“Man, I hit it close a lot out there. I had a lot of putts seem to go over the edge and it was kind of similar yesterday.

“I feel like I played very, very well today.”

The only player to win the US Amateur and Asia-Pacific Amateur in the same year, Luck’s professional progression has stalled at times.

A Sunday showdown with one of the hottest young players in world golf might be just what Luck needs to turn his fortunes around.

“I think we all knew that he was going to be good. He’s always been a bit of a stud,” Luck said.

“I’ve just been dealing with the ebbs and flows of golf. Had a couple of rough years and seems to be coming back up again.

“I’ve definitely played events where everything’s looked great, so I’m just going to obviously back myself off that experience and just try and get out there tomorrow and hopefully get it done.”

With established stars such as Adam Scott (71), Marc Leishman (67) and Cam Davis (68) all at least six strokes back, the greatest threat to a West Aussie win looms in the form of Japan’s Rikuya Hoshino.

Ranked No.138 in the world, Hoshino has won five times on the Japan Golf Tour since 2018 but had not seen anything like the par-3 17th party hole at Royal Queensland.

“It was the most exciting moment of my life,” said Hoshino, who had six birdies in a back nine of 6-under 29 on Saturday.

“It is my first time to visit Australia and the atmosphere at 17 is great.”

Hoshino’s 7-under 64 was the equal best round of the day, matched by Scotland’s Connor Syme and Kiwi Michael Hendry, who made a four-footer for par on Friday to squeeze inside the cut-line and will now start the final round in a tie for 14th.


For many, a Friday afternoon in Noosa is the perfect end to the working week. For Lucas Herbert, being witness to a Noosa sunset on a Friday evening 12 months ago was one of the more dispiriting moments of his career.

Herbert teed off in the first group on Friday of the 2023 Fortinet Australian PGA Championship as the official ambassador for Yellow Day, a colourful tribute to the late Jarrod Lyle designed to raise awareness and much-needed funds for Challenge to continue to help the families of children battling cancer.

The Leuk the Duck badge has been a permanent fixture on the Victorian’s golf cap ever since Lyle’s passing five years ago, yet a back injury forced Herbert to quit halfway through his second round of the 2022 championship at Royal Queensland.

One year on, after rounds of 66-68, Herbert is in a tie for fourth at 8-under and just four strokes off the lead held by Min Woo Lee (66).

As defending champion Cam Smith left Royal Queensland after a Friday 78 fighting back tears having missed the cut by nine strokes, Herbert was reflecting on the disappointment he felt in checking out early a year ago.

“I said to ‘Pughy’ (caddie Nick Pugh) walking up 18, I was like, ‘Geez, we’re in a much better place than we were this time last year’,” said Herbert, who will tee off with Curtis Luck and Spaniard Joel Moscatel at 10:54am AEST on Saturday.

“I think we were 2-over at that point as well. It wasn’t a nice feeling to be driving home even earlier than Friday afternoon last year.

“It’s never fun to deal with injuries and I was very frustrated Friday night sitting at home up in Noosa.

“It’s nice to sort of look back on that and see how far we’ve come and touch wood, very injury free and my body’s moving really nicely.”

On the surface, the 6am tee time on Friday seemed to catch Herbert napping.

He dropped a shot at the short par-4 12th and then made double-bogey on 14 to be 3-over through his first five holes.

The reality was that the 27-year-old careened off the back edge after driving the green on 12 and, after missing the fairway on 14, failed to get up-and-down for bogey.

He cast that aside with a birdie at the par-5 15th and then played the front nine – his back nine – in 5-under 31 to sign off on 36 holes of golf with a share of the lead.

Lee, Scott and Lyras would all pass him by day’s end yet Herbert is content with the position he finds himself as he chases a maiden Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia title to go with his three DP World Tour wins and single PGA TOUR victory.

“There’s still a lot of golf to play, so definitely a good opportunity,” said Herbert, winner of the ISPS HANDA Championship in Japan in April.

“I’ve been in some good opportunities before and haven’t capitalised the way I wanted to.  At some point if I keep doing that, I’m going to capitalise on one of them.

“I know the way I play golf and when I do get a sniff of the lead, I’m pretty good at converting it.

“I know that if I give myself a sniff on Sunday enough times, it’ll happen.”


Australian golf’s superstar in waiting, Min Woo Lee, will go toe-to-toe with our only Masters champion Adam Scott in a tantalising final group on Saturday at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.

Lee leant on his exceptional short game on Friday to conjure par saves at each of his final three holes to post a second round of 5-under 66 and 12-under total at the halfway mark at Royal Queensland Golf Club.

Scott, who matched Cameron John’s 65 for low round of the day, looms large in outright second, one stroke clear of Sydney’s John Lyras (67) who has a three-shot buffer from Lucas Herbert (68), Curtis Luck (67) and Round 1 leader, Spain’s Joel Moscatel (71).

Luck delivered the first hole-in-one at the Southern Comfort Party Hole, the celebrations somewhat muted given he holed a gap wedge from 124 metres at 8.56am.

A late move of the cut-line from 1-under to even par saw 80 players advance to the weekend, necessitating groups of three for the final two rounds.

That will see Lyras join Lee and Scott in the final group with Herbert, Luck and Moscatel to play in the penultimate group in Round 3.

Such is the age gap between the pair, Lee was a skinny teen from Perth watching on TV at the Junior Interstate Series when Scott won The Masters at Augusta National in 2013.

Through an introduction by South Australian Wade Ormsby, the pair have become friends in recent years, sharing dinners when Scott tees it up on the DP World Tour.

That will count for nothing on Saturday as Lee endeavours to solidify his stature as one of world golf’s hottest young stars and Scott tries to prove that, at 43 years of age, his days of winning tournaments are far from over.

“It’s amazing. Only a few years ago I was dreaming to be in this spot, especially to play with ‘Scotty’,” said the 25-year-old Lee, who spent Thursday night at Post Malone’s Brisbane concert.

“It seems only like a few years ago I was in the Interstate Series watching him winning the Masters. It is cool to have him as a friend and play in the final group.

“Anywhere you are in the final group of any tournament, it’s a pretty good achievement, so hopefully I can keep it going.”

Given he turned professional before Lee turned two, Scott has seen enough to know that winning a Saturday showdown doesn’t win you trophies.

In a bogey-free round in which he lipped out with his tee shot for albatross on the par-4 12th and then lipped out again for eagle with the subsequent putt, Scott displayed the peerless ball-striking that has made him such a perennial contender for more than 20 years.

“I don’t really know what happened, but that’s a nice way to make an easy three there and keep the round going,” Scott said of his near miss on 12.

“My striking feels better than it has been, feeling a bit more comfortable and also doing what I want it to do a bit more often.

“That’s very pleasing for me, good for the confidence too going into the weekend.

“Someone’s going to have a good score out there; it may as well be me.”

Ranked 763 in the world, Lyras is the odd man out in Saturday’s final group but is ready to embrace the moment.

He played his way into a pairing with Lee at Royal Queensland 12 months ago and, with four top-five finishes on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia in the past two years, is ready to meet the moment.

“That would be remarkable, I’d love that,” said Lyras, who finished 45 minutes before the cut moved to bring an additional 17 players into the final two rounds.

“I tell you what, I played with Min Woo last year, Round 3, it doesn’t work by just sitting there and letting things come to you.

“There’s a point where you’ve got to step on it a bit and see how much you can take from the golf course.

“I plan on doing a better job of that tomorrow and just being overall more aggressive and more trusting in the game.

“You’re never going to play good golf by being ultra conservative with your game-plan or thought process.”

The greatest casualty on Friday was defending champion Cameron Smith, who fought back tears after signing for a 7-over 78 to miss the cut by nine strokes.


Before there was the excitement of Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee charging to the top of the leaderboard as Cam Smith plummeted, Curtis Luck had the early highlight of day two at Royal Queensland.

Reaching the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship’s Southern Comfort Party Hole 17th , Luck was not having the sort of day that would likely see his name up in lights with an opening bogey at the 10th and another two holes later.

That “rough start” was quickly forgotten when a gap wedge found its way to the bottom of the cup at 17 for an ace that inspired three more birdies and a 67.

The West Australian’s 8-under total places him in a share of fourth with Lucas Herbert and first round leader Joel Moscatel, the trio four back of the 36-hole leader.

“It was a pretty good number for what we were trying to do,” Luck said of his ace. “I mean, on that hole, the only thing you’re thinking is obviously don’t go long.

“Once I saw it land, I was pretty confident that it was going to stick pretty close … pretty electric stuff.”

On the bag for Luck this week is Duane Smith, husband and regular looper for Sarah Jane Smith, with the pair’s son Theo the lucky recipient of the hole-in-one ball from Luck, who reflected on a recent misstep when he also had a one-week only guest caddie.

Chasing promotion to the PGA TOUR via the Korn Ferry Tour points race, Luck brought in coach Craig Bishop as his caddie for the Albertsons Boise Open in late August only to miss his tee time. A crucial misreading that hurt his chances of finishing inside the top-30 and earning a card on main US circuit.

The mishap having something of silver lining with Luck and Bishop able to spend more time working on his game together before setting himself for a competitive trip home.

“It was just like a brain fart obviously. I just misread my tee time … But yeah, I mean, obviously getting to do a bit of work with Bish in Boise was big and then I spent 10 days in Perth getting the head right and seeing Bish before I came here.”

That time getting his head right clearly paid off for the former US Amateur and Asia-Pacific Amateur winner who will now look to embrace his artistic play over the weekend on an increasingly tricky Royal Queensland layout.

Luck’s tee time error perhaps well and truly forgotten if he could secure playing rights on the DP World Tour with a win either this week or next, with his wedge play that brought his Friday highlight the likely propelling factor.

“My putting’s always probably my best attribute. I’m a good chipper. I think one of the things I’ve done better this year compared to previous years is my driving’s improved considerably … My wedge play this week particularly has been unbelievable.

“I’ve come here and I’m like, ‘actually, I’m wedging it amazingly. Let’s keep it up’.”


Order of Merit leader Andre Stolz has set a new benchmark for prize money on the PGA Legends Tour with a one-shot win at the Col Crawford BMW NSW Senior PGA Championship at Cromer Golf Club in Sydney.

Victorious at the $25,000 event at Roseville two days prior, Stolz was the only player under par across the 36 holes at Cromer, his scores of 70-69 enough to edge Scott Barr by a shot.

With the winner’s cheque for $5,400, Stolz became the first player to accumulate $100,000 in prize money in a single season, a target he set for himself at the start of the season.

“A lot of people were asking at the start of the year how much can you make on this tour,” said Stolz.

“At the start of the year I said we had nearly 80 events and I was sure that there would be at least one or two guys cracking the 100 for the year.
“No one has cracked the 100k on the Legends Tour ever so I had that as one of my goals.

“Unfortunately I didn’t play that good at the Senior Open or Australian Senior PGA but I set in my mind that I would crack the 100 before the end of this stretch before we have a break and go to Queensland.”

Leading by one after a round of 5-under 66 in Round 1, Barr shot 74 in Round 2 to finish at level par, one clear of Neil Sarkies (72) and Mark Boulton (70).

HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED

With the tree-lined Cromer layout with perched greens playing to its most challenging, Stolz began the second round four strokes back of Barr.

He dropped a stroke further back with a bogey on 13 but responded with a birdie at the next.

After six-straight pars Stolz then made his move with three birdies on the trot, establishing enough of a buffer that a double-bogey at the par-4 seventh was not fatal to his hopes.

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

“It’s a tough course anyway. Heavily tree-lined, quite demanding. The pin placements the first day were extremely tricky, tucked pretty good over some bunkers and things. Fortunate that we got some rain overnight after the first round so at least the greens were a little bit more receptive on day two.

“To be honest, I’m playing pretty well for the most part but just throwing in a little bit of rubbish every now and again which has been frustrating.

“Sometimes that makes you play a little more cautiously and focus hard on each shot.

“That’s something I’m pretty happy about with my game. Just the fact that we’ve had a lot of golf on and haven’t been able to do any quality practice on a range to tidy things up. You’ve just got to play with what you’ve got and at the moment and that’s what I’ve been doing the last few weeks.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1          Andre Stolz      70-69—139
2          Scott Barr        66-74—140
T3        Neil Sarkies      69-72—141
T3        Mark Boulton  71-70—141
T5        Nigel Lane       72-70—142
T5        Mark Gilson     73-69—142
T5        Nicholas Robb 72-70—142

NEXT UP
The PGA Legends Tour completes its swing through Sydney with the Elanora Legends Pro-Am at the pristine Elanora Country Club on Friday.


Royal Queensland is something of an odd golf course, certainly in terms of week-to-week professional golf and what players in Europe and the United States have grown used to.

The fairways are generously wide and with a few exceptions (the 14th hole – one of the few retained from the old course- is one particularly narrow fairway) difficult to miss.

The opening tee shot in any big event always involves some nerves, but no one is fearing the tee shot off the first at RQ.

It’s a free hit much like the opening drive at Royal Melbourne or St Andrews and not a place anyone is likely to mess up their day before it’s barely started.

As a rule, golf pros fall on the side of embracing the concept of equity of punishment and detest that two similar shots might finish up with wildly different results.

Ben Crenshaw, one half of the finest modern-day architectural firm once suggested: “Golf would not be a mystery if there were not instances of two different outcomes on the same shot”.

I’m sure the twice Masters champion would argue attempts to make the game “fair” lead to sanitised holes, devoid of quirk and nuance, something which was the essence of the original game in Scotland.

So much of what we see is golf between lines with all the trouble down the sides of holes.

Of course, the great lesson of The Old Course in St Andrews is there is trouble on a direct line to the hole.

Players can hit “perfect” drives into bunkers in the middle of the fairways but the measure of a shot should always be its position relative to the next one.

The holes with bunkers in the fairways at RQ are, for me at least, the most interesting to observe and players – and caddies – wrestle with the options and the width sees approach shots played from wildly different parts of the fairways.

The greatness of St Andrews and Royal Melbourne is that shots from one side of the holes can be so different from the shots from the opposite side of the fairway and there are few better ways to make the game interesting for the members who play the course every week.

One player who comes from a country where narrow fairways are more the rule than the exception is the 21-year-old Osaka-based Japanese, Ryo Hisatsune.

He came to the Australian PGA last year from Spain where he’d finished seventh in the European Tour School and finished second, a good enough result to guarantee his employment pretty much in 2024.

He’d played his way to exemptions on the Asian Tour as well as his home circuit but by winning the French Open in September, he put himself on the edge of this new top 10 in Europe exemption with the reward of a PGA Tour card in the United States.

Sure, Tiger Woods by winning the 1997 Masters at the same age was instantly exempt on every tour in the world but Hisatsune physically played his way to those exemptions by playing all five tours and earning his way. (Which is not to suggest Tiger didn’t earn his way – he clearly did that and more.)

Hisatsune played well enough in Dubai last week to guarantee his place on the American Tour and, back at RQ yesterday, he was around in 66 with a single bogey on the third hole.

In the 1980s when Jumbo Ozaki, Tommy Nakajima and Isao Aoki were dominating Japanese golf, their tour was almost as big, prizemoney wise, as the tour in America.

Few, as a consequence, felt the need to travel outside of their own country. The Americans weren’t much different and if we’d had forty tournaments for a million dollars a week it’s a reasonable assumption most Australians would have stayed home as well.

Instead, our equivalents of the great Japanese triumvirate – Greg Norman, David Graham, and Graham Marsh – collected frequent flier miles like 27-handicappers collect double-bogeys.

It’d be fair to say Australian pro golfers have travelled, out of necessity, pretty well and Japanese, out of not having to, less so.

One staggering recent example was at the Dunlop Phoenix tournament a couple of weeks ago in Miyazaki where a local amateur, Yuta Suguira, beat one of the strongest Japanese Tour fields, including this year’s PGA and US Open champions Brooks Koepka and Wyndham Clark.

If anyone had been paying attention to Suguira at the Asian Amateur at Royal Melbourne a month ago they could have watched the Japanese star, but only on the first two days because he missed the halfway cut.

Hisatsune is one who clearly relishes the travel and whilst the week is still young it’d be a surprise if he wasn’t in the middle of it come Sunday afternoon because if he’s proved anything in the 12 months since last year it’s that he can play a wide variety of golf courses.

Few though will be as wide as Royal Queensland. Or as interesting.

Author Mike Clayton led the redesign of Royal Queensland with John Sloan and Bruce Grant in 2006

Photo: Ryo Hisatsune on day one of the 2023 Australian PGA Championship (Getty Images)


The most significant crowds and attention were on the marquee groups on day one of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship yet three young Aussies gave a glimpse into generation next at Royal Queensland Golf Club.

As the likes of Min Woo Lee, Cam Smith and Adam Scott strolled 18 holes followed by a throng of fans, Sydneysider John Lyras, West Australian Connor McKinney and Queensland youngster Elvis Smylie shone brightly on an overcast and humid morning in Brisbane.

Out with a pair of Michaels in Sim and Hendry in the morning wave, Lyras experienced something of a roller-coaster ride on his way to a 6-under 65 that put him in third alone at the end of the day. His up-and-down round somewhat reflective of his year to date.

“It’s nice to be back in Brisbane,” Lyras said. “It’s been a long year and just nice to get back amongst the Aussie crowds and the vibes.

“I’ve been injured and a bit of sickness here and there, so it’s just been just on the back foot, no real momentum. I’ve played a lot of good golf but then a lot of stretches of really bad golf. I just want to try and put some rounds together this week.”

Mixing his time on the Asian Tour and in America where his girlfriend lives and he attempted to Monday qualify for tournaments during the year, Lyras recently found himself in contention through 54-holes in China before a final round 81.

The St Michaels Golf Club member acknowledged the pressure of staying focused on the tournament at hand when there are greater rewards on offer, such as the pathways offered by the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia to this week’s co-sanctioning DP World Tour.

“I’ve had a really tough time trying to keep in the present and just focus on the golf that week. But they’re the challenges that you’ve got to deal with,” Lyras conceded.

“It was really hard, just trying to keep playing golf, play day by day and wake up with the same motivation every day even though you knew that something bigger and better is, what the goals you have in mind.

“You’ll see them and they’re coming closer pretty quickly.”

Similarly looking to use a strong finish in the local Tour’s richest event to propel him towards playing rights overseas after missing out at the recent DP World Tour school is Elvis Smylie.

Once again striding the fairways with Royal Queensland course designer Mike Clayton as caddie, Smylie opened with a four birdie, one bogey 68 to sit tied for 15th on a congested leaderboard heading into day two.

“Obviously I’m very familiar with RQ. I’ve played this golf course a lot of times and having played since ‘Clayts’ redesigned the course, so having a bit of an inside scoop’s always nice,” Smylie said. “I’m just very familiar with the course and it just brings a sense of being very comfortable around there.”

A regular presence on leaderboards in Australia, Smylie has yet to truly find his feet overseas as a professional.

The 21-year-old is, however, more than comfortable among the calibre of players that caused Clayton to suggest it is the best field assembled on these shores in decades on social media.

“It definitely makes me feel pretty good about myself knowing I’m surrounded by guys like that that I’ve looked up to since a young age,” Smylie said.

“But I’m wanting to obviously mix with them and learn as much as I can from them, but as well, I want to beat them. I want to test my game against theirs and see what areas I need to improve against Adam or Cam and guys like that.”

Smylie confident enough in his game if a head-to-head battle was to eventuate he would be well-quipped enough to potentially change his career trajectory with victory.

“Without a doubt,” he said when asked if he can beat the bigger names.

“It’s not an arrogance feeling, it’s just more of a silent confidence. I’m just going about my business nicely and just plodding along and just doing what I can control and let the rest just unfold nicely.”

One of the last men in on Thursday, McKinney joined the fray with four back nine birdies.

His bogey-free 66 puts him in a share of fourth, three shots back of Moscatel with the pair both carrying the same DP World Tour category after missing a card at the final stage of qualifying school two weeks ago.


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