In winning last Sunday’s Heritage Classic, James and Steve – the 1995 Singapore Open champion – have become the first father-son duo to win on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia since its establishment in 1973.

Fathers and sons to have both played on Tour is rare – David and Charlie Smail played the 2019 New Zealand Open – and winners globally are few and far between.

They are not the first Australian father-son duo to win on a major tour – Joe Kirkwood Snr and Joe Kirkwood Jnr were the third to do so on the PGA TOUR when Joe Jnr won the 1949 Philadelphia Inquirer Open.

Having grown up in the locker rooms of golf tournaments throughout Australia and Japan, James was thrilled to create a slice of history alongside his father.

“It’s pretty cool now that I think about it,” said James ahead of the final event of the season, The National Tournament starting Thursday.

“I never really realised growing up how highly ranked in the world rankings and stuff Dad was. I never really thought about it too much.

“Now that I’m a bit older, I can see what he accomplished so it means a bit more now.

“I remember going to Aussie Opens, Aussie Masters, Aussie PGA, they’d send me into the creche and I’d be crying. I wanted to go watch the golf with them.

“I just remember going to tournaments when I was a little kid and being around all the golfers in the locker room and stuff. It was pretty cool.”

A silky player who spent almost 20 years on the Japan Golf Tour, Steve Conran won the KBC Augusta tournament in 2004 and accumulated career prize money of ¥471,023,313 (approx. $4.984m).

With his 59th birthday approaching in May, Conran has been a prolific winner on the PGA Legends Tour. He also has the occasional win over his 26-year-old son.

“I still go home now and he’s 60 years old and he is still beating me up, so that’s not very good,” James laughed.

“The most I’ve learned from him is probably how to score a golf course. Course management and just hitting it to the correct spots.

“You hear it all the time, course management, but I’ve grown up watching how he did it.

“He’s not the longest hitter but he would just shoot 2-under, 3-under every day and it added up over the week.

“That’s what I’m trying to get a bit better at the moment. I can have those 5, 6, 7-under rounds, but I have too many of the 1, 2, 3-over rounds at the moment.

“That’s what I’ve learned the most from him, how to score a golf course.”

Leading by three strokes with nine holes to play at the PNG Open before being run down by Will Bruyeres, Conran is now 16th on the Order of Merit and with playing rights secured for the next two seasons.

Thirty years after his dad’s win in Singapore, James now knows what winning on Tour represents.

“It was a cool feeling just seeing the messages on my phone,” said James.

“I had over 200 messages to reply to and that was 10 minutes after I finished.

“It’s cool to know that everyone was watching and supporting.”

The National Tournament tees off at 8:10am Thursday. The final two rounds are broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 3pm Saturday and 1pm Sunday AEDT.

Photos: Dan Pockett (James Conran), Darren England/ALLSPORT (Steve Conran)

The National Golf Club on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is Australia’s only golf club with three 18-hole courses at a single site – The National boasts a fourth course, Long Island, at Frankston – and is the host course for a fourth straight year of The National Tournament starting Thursday.

For the second time, the tournament will be played on the Gunnamatta Course, a Tom Doak layout on the site previously occupied by the Peter Thomson, Mike Wolveridge and Ross Perrett-designed Ocean Course.

The jewel in the crown that is golf on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Steve Dimopoulos, acknowledged the impact hosting such events has on the entire region.

“It’s fantastic to see The National Tournament return to the spectacular Gunnamatta Course at The National,” said Mr Dimopouulos.

“It’s a world-class course that’s a true test of skill and strategy, and it will be a brilliant setting for spectators to see some amazing golf.

“The National Golf Club boasts four of the finest courses in the country, and the Mornington Peninsula as a whole is one of Australia’s premier golfing destinations – with stunning landscapes continuing to attract elite competition and passionate golf fans.

“This tournament, in addition to the fantastic success of the recent Australian Open and Vic Open, reinforces Victoria’s reputation as Australia’s sporting capital and a world-class destination for golf.

“Events like this not only showcase our incredible courses but also support local businesses, drive tourism and cement our state’s position on the global golfing stage.”

Sydney’s Nathan Barbieri is another excited by the tournament’s return to the Gunnamatta course.

Runner-up to American Derek Ackerman three years ago, Barbieri has finished top 10 at each Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia tournament played at The National and was medallist at Qualifying School that was played on the Mornington Peninsula last April.

It should come as no surprise that he finds comfort in the creativity called upon at each of The National’s courses.

“It’s a nice property,” said Barbieri.

“The courses are always good and I like that style of golf. You need a lot of imagination with the slopes and the positioning of the green sites.

“I’ve always enjoyed golf in Victoria, where you get to play the ball along the ground a lot. You just get to be creative.

“My main memory of the Gunnamatta course is the bowl greens where you can be creative depending on the hole locations each day.

“All the courses at The National are really nice.”

One of golf’s most acclaimed course architects, Barbieri’s comments will be music to the ears of Tom Doak, who sought to enhance playability for members and provide a stage for professionals to showcase a variety of skills.

“A lot of the old green sites were kind of fighting into a big slope and if you didn’t get the ball up to the green, it came rolling back at you,” said Doak.

“They reshaped a few of them to try and reduce that but they basically just had some greens in hard places.

“Changing it around, we’ve got a lot of greens in bowls or at least there’s one part of the green you feel like you can get to comfortably.

“That may not be where you want to get it to today, but at least you’ve got a safe play. The old course, you really didn’t have many safe plays; it was hard.”

The National Tournament is the final event of the 2024/2025 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season and will see the finalisation of the Order of Merit.

Tune in this weekend

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Tied with Victorian Nathan Page coming down the last hole, Conran, from Orange in New South Wales, hit a brilliant wedge approach to inside a metre and tapped in for a final birdie for a tournament winning 22-under-par total.

It was a closing 7-under 65 for Conran, who’s the son of long-time tour pro Steve Conran and finished second in last year’s PNG Open, while Page’s 67 couldn’t quite get it done in front of his home crowd.

Webex Players Series Perth champion Jordan Doull finished in solo third at 19-under, while a number of players made a charge on the final day to surge into the top five.

In the group of four tied at 18-under, both Andrew Martin and Anthony Quayle made a serious run on day four, Martin managing to card a 7-under 65 even with a triple-bogey on the card.

The 54-hole leader, Lachlan Barker, struggled to keep the momentum rolling on Sunday, eventually signing for a 1-over 73 and a share of 12th place.

Playing in the final group today, Conran made his intentions known early with a birdie on the first hole, the problem was so too did both his playing partners.

This remained a theme for the day, with he and Page trading blows for much of the front nine, Conran’s chip-in for eagle on the par-5 fourth the highlight.

Conran wouldn’t make another birdie until the 18th, but with further eagles at 12 and 15, he suddenly held a two-shot lead with three holes to play.

“After the first hole, we all just put it in the middle of the fairway and all hit it within 10-foot of the hole and all made birdies. I knew those two came to play today. They kept me going,” Conran said.

Moments after rolling in his third eagle of the day, Conran hit a wayward tee-shot on 16, and couldn’t get up and down out of the left greenside trap to save par.

With his lead cut to one, the New South Welshman then failed to find the green on the par-3 17th, and when that par putt slid by, his lead was gone just as quickly as it had come.

With the adrenaline —and likely anger —pumping, Conran piped his drive over the corner of the dog-leg 18th, and with 117 metres left in, almost holed his gap-wedge. When Page’s four-metre birdie chance to force a playoff slid by, Conran was home with the biggest win of his career.

“If you told me that at the start of the week, I would’ve told you you’re lying or crazy,” the 26-year-old said of being the Heritage Classic champion.

“I mean I played really nicely every day and it just worked out well this week.”

Having started a university degree and deciding it wasn’t for him, Conran is relieved to have gained winners’ category Tour status, which helps secure his future for the next few years.

“I started Commerce and Accounting, but it lasted about half a semester,” he said.

“It hasn’t really sunk in to be honest yet, but it’s just nice.

“A bit more stability for the next couple of years. I can actually make a bit of a schedule instead of sort of not knowing when I’m going to play the next tournament.”

Queenslander Elvis Smylie officially wrapped up the Order of Merit today, bouncing back from a lacklustre third round with a 5-under 67 to finish equal 53rd.

The 2004/25 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season finishes with The National Tournament, starting on Thursday.

As soon as the putt dropped, the young Queenslander became a DP World Tour member, and had proved to the world that he could not only rub shoulders with his heroes, but out-do them when it mattered most.

Smylie had proved that to himself a month earlier however, with his breakthrough win at the Bowra & O’Dea Nexus Advisernet WA Open.

Those wins have helped Smylie hold onto a strong lead at the top of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit (OOM), however commanding as it may be, last month’s New Zealand Open champion Ryan Peake can still catch him with two events left.

At 1,356.36 points, Smylie is 372 points clear of Peake in second, but with 190 points on offer to the winner of this week’s Heritage Classic, it’s a long shot for Peake.

A strong showing will secure Smylie’s position atop the OOM, and tick off a season-long ambition.

“It was a goal that I set out last October when I started the season,” Smylie said. “It would be really special to be able to achieve that goal this week at The Heritage.

“To be able to say that you’ve won the Australasian Order of Merit, you are the best player throughout a calendar season, not many people have achieved that.

“I think that accolade that comes with the title is incredible, and then everything that comes with it is awesome as well.”

Having already secured his DP World Tour playing rights by way of his win at Royal Queensland, Smylie’s sights are on the other benefits of topping the OOM, including a spot in this year’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Smylie pre-qualified for last year’s championship at Royal Troon, and his missed cut only fuelled his determination further to get back to the sport’s oldest major.

“If Royal Troon taught me anything, it’d be that I want to compete against these guys on a week-to-week basis and I want to play against the best players in the world,” he said.

“I love links golf and I want to test myself against the best, so I’m definitely motivated to get back there.”

Smylie finished middle of the pack at last season’s Heritage Classic, and so has been on the ground since Monday working through familiarising himself with the St John’s layout that he only saw for the first time in 2024.

“I’ve seen both sides of the course now. I played nine yesterday, nine this morning,” Smylie said on Tuesday at The Heritage.

“The course is pretty soft, but the greens can actually get quite speedy, so I think just hitting in the right tiers is really important around here.”

As a Golf Australia Rookie Squad member, Smylie has plans to base himself at the Golf Australia house in London for parts of this year, as he looks to take full advantage of his DP World Tour status around the globe.

“I’m going to China in the middle of April in a couple weeks’ time, and then everything kind of kicks off in Europe around late June onwards. That is when I’ll be basing myself in London.”

The Heritage Classic kicks off Thursday, and the final two rounds over the weekend are live on Fox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo.