Given Elvis Smylie’s BMW Australian PGA Championship win, Peake will effectively assume the category of this tour’s No.1 player when he embarks on his rookie season on the DP World Tour later this year.

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There is a major championship debut awaiting the 32-year-old at The Open Championship, reward for his victory at the New Zealand Open that formed part of the Open Qualifying Series.

Yet Peake’s well-documented past lingers, the after-effects of five years in prison creating roadblocks that others in his position never have to confront.

He has a Great Britain and Northern Ireland passport that ensures he will be able to tee it up at Royal Portrush from July 17-20 but entry into other countries – particularly throughout Asia – will be problematic.

Another bonus of Peake’s win in the co-sanctioned NZ Open is status on the Asian Tour. Using that status, however, is mired in visa and immigration law.

It’s why as his life-changing season draws to a close, he can’t yet bring himself to look too far forward.

“I’ve sat down with my manager and team and we’ve looked at schedules, but as far as excitement goes, it’s not quite there yet,” conceded Peake, who tees off at 12:50pm Thursday with former Order of Merit winners Jed Morgan and David Micheluzzi.

“We’re not a hundred percent sure on where exactly I’ll get to first because it’s going to be a bit of a process.

“There’s a lot of countries that I will get into, but it’s not just going to be a couple-of-week process.

“We’re looking more between four to six months of figuring it all out.

“It’s all my own doing, but it still does suck.”

But for the knocks that may come, there are moments to look forward to.

Peake’s family will join him for The Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland and he will finish 2025 as a member of the DP World Tour.

What happens in between will be determined on a week-to-week basis.

“It’s a major – it’s my first major – and my whole family’s coming so it’s going to be a very special week,” he added.

“But in saying that, once that week’s done, it’s back on to the other tours as well.

“Obviously I want to play well and see what happens from there, but it is one tournament as opposed to a whole season out there.

“It is all a new experience for me, so every tournament that I play on the calendar season is going to be one to look forward to.”

Round 1 of The National Tournament teed off at 8:10am on Thursday morning and entry to spectators is free all four days. The final two rounds are broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 3pm-6pm Saturday and 1pm-6pm Sunday AEDT.

As the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia 2024/2025 season reaches its conclusion at The National Tournament this week, a variety of opportunities and exemptions await those who finish prominently on the Order of Merit.

Jack Buchanan and Anthony Quayle shape as the two with most to gain.

Elvis Smylie has secured the Order of Merit title but, as the winner of the co-sanctioned BMW Australian PGA Championship, is now exempt on the DP World Tour until the end of the 2027 season.

NZ Open champion Ryan Peake sits second on the Order of Merit and is guaranteed one of the three DP World Tour cards on offer for the top three not otherwise exempt.

Which is where it gets tricky.

Three-time DP World Tour winner Lucas Herbert and The Open champion of three years ago, Cameron Smith, both qualify for the Order of Merit having played the minimum four events and currently sit third and fourth.

Which leaves Buchanan (No.5) and Quayle (No.6).

Given Herbert is not in the field this week, either can leapfrog into third spot with victory on Sunday.

Circumstances could dictate that both might earn DP World Tour status without a win this week, but confirmation could be weeks in the waiting.

For two players both looking to launch their international careers, doors are about to open regardless of what happens at The National.

Winner of the WA PGA championship and Webex Players Series South Australia, Buchanan is exempt into 10 International Series events on the Asian Tour and believes he now has the grounding to take his game to the world.

“If someone told me I did what I did this season, I probably wouldn’t believe them,” said Buchanan, who will celebrate his 23rd birthday on Tuesday.

“I always have a bit of self-belief, but as my official first rookie year on the Aussie Tour, having two wins and some other good results in some big events is a pretty good achievement.

“I’m not too sure how it all works with the Order of Merit stuff, but I’m in a pretty good position to where a win this week would pretty likely get me a European Tour card.

“A lot of people would tell you they want to be world No.1 or whatever, but I always just want to play big events and have big moments in big events, wherever that may take me.”

After seven years playing the Japan Golf Tour, Quayle hit reset and returned to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia late last year.

With seven top-five finishes from his past 12 starts, the 30-year-old can see a path to pursue his career either in Europe or in the US.

“The path I was going down in Japan was not a productive one,” said Quayle, who needs all 190 points awarded to the winner this week to surpass Herbert and Smith. He trails Buchanan by 63 points.

“It was hard to really see any kind of progress being made or love of the game really. It was just really difficult.

“Right now, the pathway is not as clear or straightforward as what you might like it to be, but I know that there will be opportunities. I just have to be a bit more open-minded with it.

“Since I finished third at the Aussie PGA, I’ve already got some (DP World Tour) points that don’t show up on the moneylist now, but they kind of count. With the Alfred Dunhill Links, that’ll be a DP event and if I play well that week, I might rack up a few more points.

“I’ll be doing the US Open and British Open final qualifying, so if I can get into one of those, there’s also a lot of points on offer there.

“There’s still some avenues. If I play how I’m playing at the moment, I feel like it’ll open some doors.”

In addition to the three DP World Tour cards, the top 10 Order of Merit finishers earn an exemption into the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, the leading five players get a spot at the Singapore Classic and Hero Indian Open next year and there are exemptions into Final Stage of Qualifying Schools for the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Asian Tour.

Round 1 tees off at 8:10am on Thursday morning at The National’s Gunnamatta Course.

The final two rounds are broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 3pm-6pm Saturday and 1pm-6pm Sunday AEDT.

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.