Want to recieve exclusive news, videos, tournament highlights, golf important tips and more ?
Want to recieve exclusive news, videos, tournament highlights, golf important tips and more ?
Aussies Jordan Zunic and Josh Younger are in position to play their way into the Final Stage of Asian Tour Qualifying School at the halfway mark of First Stage in Thailand.
The pair are among 11 Australians currently in action across the two qualifying sites, Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia regular Nick Voke the best of the four Kiwis through two rounds.
Zunic and Younger are both playing in Section F at Phoenix Gold Golf Bangkok in Thailand’s capital while Queenslanders Sam Howse and Jake McLeod are both inside the top 60 heading into Round 3 in Section F being played at the Grand Prix Golf Club’s Composite Course in Kanchanaburi.
Zunic opened with a fine 4-under 66 in Round 1 but dropped to 2-under for the week with a 2-over 72 in Round 2. Younger went the other way on day two to join Zunic in a tie for 19th, the Victorian posting a 2-under 68 on the back of an even-par 70 in Round 1.
There are currently 17 Australians already exempt into the five-round Final Stage starting January 16 with a further 40 places being held for qualifiers from the final two First Stage tournaments.
Elsewhere this week, the withdrawal of Aaron Baddeley leaves Cam Davis as the sole Australian representative at the PGA TOUR’s Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu while Kiwis Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier make their first appearances for 2024 at the DP World Tour’s inaugural Dubai Invitational.
Asian Tour
Qualifying School Section E
Grand Prix Golf Club (Composite Cse), Kanchanaburi, Thailand
Round 2 scores
T9 Nick Voke (NZ) 67-67—134
T13 Kevin Chun (NZ) 68-67—135
T45 Brian Lee (NZ) 72-67—139
T52 Sam Howse (a) 71-69—140
T56 Jake McLeod 69-72—141
T60 Will Florimo 72-70—142
T77 Stefan Tuionetoa 70-75—145
T88 Scott Adams (NZ) 75-74—149
T88 Grant Lewis 76-73—149
T88 Daniel Park 77-72—149
100 Darshan Shivalkar (a) 80-81—161
Round 3 draw AEDT
11:30am Peter Badawy, Stefan Tuionetoa, Phuripon Namkang
12pm* Scott Adams (NZ), Grant Lewis (a), Daniel Park
12:20pm Will Florimo, Anshul Patel, Othman Raouzi
12:30pm Wanxi Sun (a), Clayton Tribus, Jake McLeod
12:40pm* Darshan Shivalkar (a), Zhao Zeyu
4:10pm Bongsub Kim, Kevin Chun (NZ), Gaurav Singh
4:30pm Nick Voke (NZ), Papito Gonzalez, Joachim Altonen
4:40pm* Junghyun Um, Jean Bekirian, Brian Lee (NZ)
4:50pm* Chunghoon Ha, Oscar Zetterwall, Sam Howse (a)
Qualifying School Section F
Phoenix Gold Golf Bangkok (South & West Cse), Bangkok, Thailand
Round 2 scores
T19 Jordan Zunic 66-72—138
T19 Josh Younger 70-68—138
T36 Doeun An 67-73—140
T84 Zach Maxwell 76-71—147
Round 3 draw AEDT
11am Zach Maxwell, Abhinav Lohan, Chen Wei-sheng
3:30pm Yash Majmudar, Josh Younger, Shaurya Binu
3:40pm Jordan Zunic, Sangpil Yoon, Liu Yen-Hung
3:45pm* Robbie Busher, Doeun An, Harshjeet Singh Sethie
Round 1 tee times AEDT
PGA TOUR
Sony Open
Waialae Country Club, Honolulu, Hawaii
10am Cam Davis, David Lingmerth, Justin Suh
Defending champion: Si Woo Kim
Past Aussie winners: Bruce Crampton (1969), Brett Ogle (1994), Cameron Smith (2020)
TV times: 4am-2:30pm Friday, Saturday; 7:30am-2:30pm Sunday; Live 5am-12pm Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.
DP World Tour
Dubai Invitational
Dubai Creek Resort, Dubai, UAE
4:14pm* Rory McIlroy, Ryan Fox (NZ)
5:03pm Daniel Hillier (NZ), Tom McKibbin
Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
TV times: Live 6:30pm-11:30pm Thursday, Friday; Live 7pm-11:30pm Saturday; Live 7:30pm-11:30pm Sunday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.
Lachlan Barker is back on course this week in the Yarra Valley for the Heritage Classic, looking to further bolster his strong Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit (OOM) standing.
Barker is sixth on the season-long standings, but is effectively third because Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, and Marc Leishman, ahead of him, are unlikely to reach the required four tournaments to qualify for OOM status.
The top-three placed players on the OOM standings at season’s end receive status on the DP World Tour, a huge prize for Aussie players looking to take the next step in their careers.
“It’s huge! It’s why I’m here this week,” said Barker of his decision to play the Heritage Classic ahead of the Asian Tour qualifying school beginning in Thailand next Tuesday.
“I’m flying to Thailand midnight on Sunday, and I’ll only get one very brief practice round. That’s how big the DP World Tour carrot is.”
His first professional win at last year’s PNG Open kick-started Barker’s season, and with a couple of top-10s at the NT PGA and WA PGA, he has been able to hold his strong position on the OOM.
“It’s my second season on tour, my first one I experienced all the emotions, some good, some bad,” he said.
“I struggled to keep my card and went back to qualifying school, but this season it’s been the opposite.
“I feel like I belong.”
This week marks the return of the Heritage Classic to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia schedule, its first playing since 2013, and Barker is excited to have it back.
“I love this place, my first ever Aussie junior was here at The Heritage and I fell in love,” he said.
“It was my first big tournament as a kid and I played well, so look out!”
After playing in the final stages of Asian Tour qualifying school, Barker is coming straight home to play in the Webex Players Series Victoria at Rosebud, making sure he is not missing any opportunity to gain OOM points.
“You can’t hide from it, I mean we’re all trying to get it,” Barker said of the DP World Tour status.
“I’m missing Webex Players Series Murray River, but I am playing every single other event.
“When the season finishes, we’ll see where we stand.”
The Heritage Classic kicks off tomorrow, and despite heavy rainfall in recent days, the St. John course at The Heritage Golf and Country Club has dried out remarkably.
The final two rounds will be broadcast live on Foxtel and Kayo, from 4pm-7pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Kyle Michel defied driving rain to birdie his final two holes to earn a share of victory with Brad McLellan at the Geelong BMW Lonsdale Links Pro-Am at Lonsdale Links.
While McLellan banked his birdies before the weather turned foul, Michel was forced to play catch-up.
The pair both finished the day with rounds of 2-under 68, along with Ryan Lynch (69) the only three players in the field to break par.
PNG Open champion Lachlan Barker (71) and Victorian Andrew Kelly (71) were tied fourth at 1-over par, one clear of Jose De Sousa (72) and Jack Murdoch (72).
HOW THE ROUND UNFOLDED
Starting from the fifth tee, Michel bogeyed each of his opening two holes. He got back to even par with birdies at 13 and 14 and then moved into red figures with a birdie at the par-4 17th.
He dropped back to even par again with a bogey on 18 but took advantage of the par-5 third and short par-4 fourth to match McLellan’s score of 2-under.
McLellan began his round from the ninth tee and quickly made an impression on the leaderboard.
Three birdies on the trot from the par-5 11th and a fourth at the tricky par-4 16th had him 4-under through seven holes.
The weather turned not long after, McLellan only faltering at the 18th and fourth holes on his way into the clubhouse.
WHAT THE WINNERS SAID
Kyle Michel: “I got off to a bit of a slow start, starting bogey-bogey, but managed to claw it back with a couple of birdies right before the really bad weather came in this afternoon.
“Managed to hold it together and knew that I had a couple of easier holes coming in and managed to finish off with a couple of birdies to get to 2-under.”
Brad McLellan: “I started on the ninth hole today and had a couple of pars to start. Birdied 11, 12, 13 and 16 and was just hanging on from there.
“The weather started to get pretty wild at about 16. It was raining sideways for most of the rest of the round so had a couple of bogeys coming in but managed to hold it together.”
LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
T1 Kyle Michel 68
T1 Bradley McLellan 68
3 Ryan Lynch 69
T4 Lachlan Barker 71
T4 Andrew Kelly 71
NEXT UP
The adidas PGA Pro-Am Series resumes on Monday, January 15 with the PK Community Foundation Pro-Am on the North Course at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club.
The Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia returns for the new year at the Heritage Golf and Country Club in Victoria’s Yarra Valley for the 2024 Heritage Classic.
The Tour’s resumption also marks the return for this tournament, which has not been held since its inaugural playing in 2013, where David Bransdon edged out then amateur Lucas Herbert on the first playoff hole.
The Heritage Golf and Country Club boasts two championship courses, with the Heritage Classic being played on the Jack Nicklaus-designed St John course.
Kicking off the second half of the tour season, players are looking to bolster their Order of Merit standings as the race to the finish heats up.
Seven of the top 12 players on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit are in the field this week and looking to kick-start their year, with eyes on DP World Tour cards and major championship starts at season’s end.
“I’m going to keep trying to apply myself the way that I have done from the start of the season all the way through until the end.”
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) January 7, 2024
New year, same game-plan for @BenEccles4 ahead of this week's #HeritageClassic.https://t.co/02ouRbFqYA
Bransdon, who recently gained his PGA TOUR Champions status at Qualifying School, is back more than a decade later to defend his 2013 title and will be one of few players in the field who can make use of course knowledge.
Order of Merit front-runners Ben Eccles and David Micheluzzi will be players to watch this week coming off their one-two finish at the Victorian PGA Championship last November.
Players will be competing this week for a $200,000 prize fund, and despite the heavy downfall of rain on Monday, the forecast for the rest of the week looks near perfect.
HOW TO FOLLOW
For live scoring and the latest news visit www.pga.org.au. Exclusive content and tournament updates will also be posted regularly on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia’s social media channels.
Instagram: @pgatouraus
Twitter: @PGAofAustralia
Facebook: @PGAofAustralia, @PGATourAus
Official hashtag: #HeritageClassic
HOW TO WATCH
Watch the final two rounds of the Heritage Classic live on Kayo and Fox Sports on Foxtel.
Round 3: Saturday 4pm-7pm
Round 4: Sunday 2pm-7pm
FORMER CHAMPIONS
2013: David Bransdon
COURSE RECORD
64, David Bransdon (2013)
COURSE DESIGNER
Jack Nicklaus
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Ben Eccles, 2023 WA PGA Championship winner
David Micheluzzi, 2023 Vic PGA winner
Kerry Mountcastle, 2023 Gippsland Super 6 winner
Austin Bautista, 2023 Webex South Australia winner
Daniel Gale, 2023 Sandbelt Invitational winner
Matthew Docking, 2023 PGA Professionals Championship winner (at The Heritage)
Kazuma Kobori, 2019 New Zealand PGA Championship winner
David Bransdon, defending champion (2013)
Australia’s No.1 male golfer, Jason Day, continued his career resurgence with a top-10 finish as American Chris Kirk claimed the PGA TOUR season-opening The Sentry at Kapalua Resort in Hawaii.
On a day in which Korean Sungjae Im bettered the PGA TOUR record for most birdies in a 72-hole tournament – supplanting Australia’s own Paul Gow’s shared record of 32 set at the 2001 BC Open – Kirk’s closing 65 saw him finish at 29-under par, one clear of Sahith Theegala (63) with Jordan Spieth (65) outright third.
Day threatened to make a Sunday charge up the leaderboard with three straight birdies from the fifth hole to draw within one of the lead but a wayward tee shot at the par-3 eighth led to a costly double-bogey.
Look out for @JDayGolf 👀
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 7, 2024
He moves to one back of the lead with his third straight birdie @TheSentry. pic.twitter.com/njyd0jxbok
The 36-year-old made his 24th birdie of the week at the par-4 12th and then made three further birdies on the trot to play his way into a tie for 10th, the 92nd of his career on the PGA TOUR.
It was a week of mixed scores for the only other Aussie in the field, Cam Davis closing with a bogey-free round of 8-under 65 to climb four spots into a tie for 52nd.
Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images
Results
PGA TOUR
The Sentry
Kapalua Resort (Plantation Course), Kapalua, Hawaii
1 Chris Kirk 67-65-66-65—263 $US3.6m
T10 Jason Day 65-69-67-67—268 $530,000
T52 Cam Davis 75-68-73-65—281 $54,500
Seven of the top 12 players on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit will hope to advance their status when the 2023/2024 resumes this week with the return of the Heritage Classic.
It will mark 10 years since The Heritage Golf and Country Club in the Yarra Valley outside of Melbourne last hosted a PGA Tour of Australasia event, Gareth Paddison edging Michael Hendry in a Kiwi quinella at the 2014 Victorian PGA Championship.
A year earlier David Bransdon defeated a young Lucas Herbert in a playoff at the Lexus of Blackburn Heritage Classic, the 2024 championship the first in a three-year commitment.
With 10 of this season’s 18 tournaments now completed, the importance of the Order of Merit comes more sharply into focus.
There are DP World Tour cards, starts in major championships and direct pathways to the world’s top tours on offer in a race that looks set to go down to the wire.
Fortinet Australian PGA Championship winner Min Woo Lee is a runaway leader entering 2024 but, given he is about to embark on his first season on the PGA TOUR, is unlikely to play the minimum number of events to be eligible.
That makes WA PGA champion Ben Eccles the provisional No.1 but he will be up against a host of fellow contenders this week at The Heritage.
Reigning Order of Merit champion David Micheluzzi and current-season tournament winners Lachlan Barker, Kerry Mountcastle and Austin Bautista are all in the field, less than 75 points separating the top five currently eligible for the Order of Merit rewards.
Following his win at Kalgoorlie, Eccles enhanced his Order of Merit hopes with a runner-up finish to Micheluzzi at the Victorian PGA Championship at Moonah Links.
As he starts the new year as the hunted, the 29-year-old insists his mindset has not changed since the season started.
“I’ve been talking to Grant (coach Grant Field) about this whole thing and it’s not really about what it means and what it gets you,” said Eccles.
“It’s more about continuing to move forward and keep trying to play golf the way I want to play golf.
“That’s the message I’m going to have regardless of the result.
“I’m going to keep trying to apply myself the way that I have done from the start of the season all the way through until the end.”
As he prepares to embark on his debut season on the DP World Tour, Micheluzzi is establishing a solid defence of his crown in limited appearances.
He earned 76.14 points for his share of second behind amateur Phoenix Campbell at the Queensland PGA Championship and then edged Eccles by a stroke two weeks later at the Vic PGA.
While disappointed to make it a two-win season prior to the Christmas break, Eccles knows that result was important to his Order of Merit aspirations.
“Obviously the result was great. It sucked a bit to watch Dave win but at the same time it was a great week,” Eccles reasoned.
“Obviously the result was important in terms of the rankings and confidence-building and all that sort of stuff but there’s still a lot of golf to play and I’m just looking forward to that.”
Other players of note teeing it up this week are DP World Tour-bound Tom Power Horan, rookie professionals Kazuma Kobori and Jack Buchanan and the defending champion, Champions Tour Q School graduate David Bransdon.
Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit
1 Min Woo Lee 1,044 (2)
2 Ben Eccles 340.37 (9)
3 Adam Scott 326.67 (2)
4 Marc Leishman 314.93 (2)
5 David Micheluzzi 312.90 (4)
6 Lachlan Barker 273.94 (10)
7 Kerry Mountcastle 267.28 (10)
8 Austin Bautista 265.75 (9)
9 Lucas Herbert 245.23 (2)
10 Simon Hawkes 233.26 (7)
Players must play a minimum of four events to be eligible for the Order of Merit
The decision to restrict his Christmas break has paid off handsomely for Chris Wood with a two-stroke victory at the 2024 Harcourts Langwarrin Pro-Am at Settlers Run Golf & Country Club in Melbourne.
Setting a new tournament low, Wood’s round of 7-under 65 was two strokes to the better of Brock Billard (67) and Brett Coletta (67) with a group of five players finishing a further stroke back at 4-under.
The Victorian PGA champion at Moonah Links three years ago, Wood has come out of the Christmas break with intent for the second half of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season.
With the season to resume next week at the Heritage Classic, the Brisbane native will take confidence from a win built on the work he has put in since the ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
“I had a week off after the Aussie Open and I wanted to come out and play well in these pro-ams and get off to a good start into the second half of the season,” said Wood.
“I didn’t get off to a great start last year for the second half of the season so I wanted to pull my finger out and not have such a long break.
“Put the work in and obviously it has paid off today.”
HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED
Starting his round from the 14th tee, it was not until midway through his round that Wood began to make an impression on the leaderboard.
A birdie at his opening hole was encouraging and he followed it with a second two holes later at the par-5 16th.
Three pars preceded a dropped shot at the par-3 second but birdies at four, six and seven put him in contention for his first adidas PGA Pro-Am Series win since victory at his home club in November at the Bartons/BMD Wynnum Pro-Am.
A birdie at the par-5 ninth saw Wood draw level with Gillard’s morning total of 5-under, pulling clear with further birdies at 10 and 13.
WHAT THE WINNER SAID
“It was a round that I kept building on as the round went on.
“I didn’t really get off to a great start but just stayed in the round and capitalised on the holes that I should have birdied and made some good pars.
“Playing this event the past three or four years, the scoring hasn’t really been that great.
“That is obviously a testament to how tough the course can play, generally.
“It is a long course so with a round like today it’s going to give me a lot of confidence for next week and the weeks to follow.”
LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1 Christopher Wood 65
T2 Brock Gillard 67
T2 Brett Coletta 67
T4 William Bruyeres 68
T4 Ben Wharton 68
T4 Darcy Boyd 68
T4 Andre Lautee 68
T4 Andrew Kelly 68
NEXT UP
Next stop on the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series is the Geelong BMW Lonsdale Links Pro-Am at Lonsdale Links.
He’s a last-start winner. He begins the new year ranked No.19 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Australian male golfer on the planet.
He returns to Kapalua for the tournament formerly reserved for the past season’s champions for the first time in five years, yet Jason Day wanted to make a change.
Not to the swing that he has meticulously reconstructed with coach Chris Como to alleviate the back injuries that plagued his career, but to his wardrobe.
Gone is the athletic look adorned with the Nike swoosh; in its place a baggier, looser fit that the cool kids are now fond of.
For a 36-year-old father of five, it may appear on the surface as the beginnings of a mid-life crisis. But Day is adamant that his new clothing partnership with Malbon Golf will not only enhance his status in the fashion stakes but continue his upward trajectory on the Official World Golf Ranking.
“I’m just looking for a bit of a change and this is it,” Day told PGATOUR.com’s Sean Martin.
“I’m more interested in having a more relaxed, loose-fitting type of clothing, especially out here because, obviously, the clothes that you see now these days, everything’s very athletic looking. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
“There’s nothing worse than when you’re playing golf and you put a sweater on or something like that and it just feels so restrictive. You’re restricting your swing.”
Please Welcome Jason Day to #TeamMalbon@JDayGolf pic.twitter.com/ZKEirWhvmg
— Malbon Golf (@MalbonGolf) January 2, 2024
A regular at The Sentry from 2015 to 2019 during which he rose to No.1 in the world, Day begins his 2024 campaign in a vastly different position to the one he found himself just 12 months ago.
Having fallen as low as 175th in late 2022, Day was 115th in the world when he played his first event for 2023, a tie for 18th at The American Express.
He followed that with four consecutive top-10s, building towards his first PGA TOUR win in five years at the AT&T Byron Nelson.
Day’s final tournament for 2023 was a winning one, partnering with Kiwi Lydia Ko to win the Grant Thornton Invitational, albeit unofficial.
So while he embraces a new look to start 2024, Day will be eager to continue the career resurrection that began a year ago.
Day is one of two Aussies in the field for the PGA TOUR’s first event of the new season, Cam Davis earning his spot in the $US20 million Signature Event by virtue of his top-50 finish on the 2023 FedEx Cup.
Round 1 tee times AEDT
PGA TOUR
The Sentry
Plantation Course at Kapalua, Kapalua, Maui
7:15am Akshay Bhatia, Nick Taylor, Cam Davis
8:03am Erik van Rooyen, Jason Day, Corey Conners
Defending champion: Jon Rahm
Past Aussie winners: Steve Elkington (1992, 1995), Stuart Appleby (2004, 2005, 2006), Geoff Ogilvy (2009, 2010), Cameron Smith (2022)
TV times: Live 4:30am-2pm Friday, Saturday; Live 5am-12pm Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503.
Photo: Courtesy Malbon Golf
A late decision to add his name to a star-studded field has paid off handsomely for Darcy Boyd at the Peninsula Sotheby’s Portsea Celebrity Pro-Am at Portsea Golf Club.
The first adidas PGA Pro-Am Series event for 2024 was also Boyd’s first since rolling his ankle and having to withdraw during the final round of the WA Open at Joondalup Resort in October.
Such was his limited preparation – which included marrying long-time partner Danni Vasquez on December 9 – Boyd didn’t consider that good play in the club comps back home warranted entry into the $40,000 event.
With Tour winners such as Tom Power Horan, Matthew Griffin, Austin Bautista and Zach Murray teeing it up alongside AFL stars Christian Petracca and Angus Brayshaw, NRL star Ryan Papenhuyzen and TV and radio personality Andy Lee, it was Boyd who stole the show with a clutch par putt on the final hole for a round of 7-under 64.
“I was umming and aahing whether to come down because it was my first event and I hadn’t really played any competitive golf for three months,” Boyd revealed after securing his first adidas PGA Pro-Am Series win.
“I’d been playing all right at home but I wasn’t sure whether I should come back and compete against such a solid field to start.
“It’s paid dividends.”
HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED
After fellow New South Welshman Lucas Higgins set the morning mark with a round of 6-under 65, Boyd burst out of the blocks.
Par at the opening hole was followed by four straight birdies to suddenly draw within two of the lead with 13 holes still to play.
Birdies at eight and 11 saw Boyd draw level with Higgins but the pair soon had company, Power Horan also posting a score of 6-under 65.
Power Horan saw a birdie try slide by on his final hole to stay at 6-under as Boyd traded a birdie on 13 with a bogey on 14.
A brilliant approach to eight feet to set up birdie at the par-4 17th would prove crucial, Boyd rolling in the four-footer for par on 18 to send his wife and caddie into raptures.
Darcy Boyd for 64 and the win at the @Portseagolfclub Celebrity Pro-Am
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) January 3, 2024
And…… this happens with his wife of just a few weeks Danni watching on#adidasPGAProAmSeries pic.twitter.com/BVAbrAIz0m
WHAT THE WINNER SAID
“I actually had pretty good speed control today and I was conscious of the fact that it might get away from me after the hole,” Boyd said of his winning putt.
“Still blasted it through a bit but I putted well inside six feet all day.
“I was on a bit of a roll this year. Got my Tour card and life was going well. Made the cut at the WA Open and was going well in the fourth round and then rolled my ankle on the left side and didn’t play for three months.
“That was pretty heartbreaking considering I committed fully to golf this year. I gave up my job and we’ve been travelling and trying to play as much as we could. I felt like I was starting to kick some goals.
“It’s not an over-use injury, it’s not something that you really see coming, it was just a bit unlucky.
“This one is pretty special to get it done, first one back out of the blocks.
“Danni’s a superstar. She was so good today, she was so positive. It’s pretty easy to put things in perspective when you’ve had some bad luck over the last 18 months.”
LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1 Darcy Boyd 64
T2 Lucas Higgins 65
T2 Tom Power Horan 65
T4 Aiden Didone 66
T4 Cameron John 66
T4 Michael Wright 66
T4 Matt Jager 66
NEXT UP
The adidas PGA Pro-Am Series moves up into Melbourne on Friday for the 2024 Harcourts Langwarrin Pro-Am at Settlers Run Golf & Country Club.
Assistant Professional at The Brisbane Golf Club, Asha Flynn, was honoured at the 2023 PGA Awards when she was named the PGA of Australia National Coach of the Year – Game Development.
The Coordinator and Head Coach for golf programs at both Ambrose Treacy College and St Aidan’s Girls College, Flynn has engaged with 252 school students in the past 12 months.
At The Brisbane Golf Club, Flynn is the Junior Program Coordinator and Head Coach, overseeing 80 students across eight levels of development. She is also the Coordinator and Coach for the High Performance Program.
Here she outlines the strategies she uses to communicate effectively with juniors to not only improved their performance but to embed a life-long love of the game.
How we communicate with juniors is crucial in developing their passion for golf.
Golf is a game of discovery, and when kids first start showing an interest we need to feed that desire for experimentation.
How we do that is dependent on the language that we use.
I have seen many well-meaning parents with the best of intentions try to tell their kids what to do and how to do it.
My philosophy is to give juniors the core basis of the golf swing, let them hit shots and then provide me with the feedback on why the ball went where it did.
Where was our ball position at set-up?
Have you checked the alignment of your feet in relation to the target?
Did we take the time to read the putt correctly?
Let them answer and move on.
As they progress, that language remains important.
Don’t tell them where not to hit it; ask where they think the best miss is. Plant the seed of a positive thought that they can apply to the next shot.
Early on in their learning, it also needs to be fun.
Technique can come later. Get them playing games. Relate what they are doing to other sports they may have played. Make it competitive and give them an incentive to complete the exercise to the best of their ability.
And don’t be afraid to let them hit drivers as hard as they can.
After all, what’s more fun than that.
