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Two icons of Australian golf have been recognised for their contribution to the game in this country by receiving the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announced on Monday.
Revolutionary golf coach Gary Edwin and the late David Mercer were both recipients of OAMs for Services to Golf, due recognition for more than 120 years combined as PGA Professionals helping elite and amateur players to get the most out of their golf.
A PGA Professional since 1961, Edwin developed a methodology that became known as the Right Sided Swing and guided players to more than $100 million in career earnings… and counting.
Christened Gary Edwin Player, constant confusion and derision caused by the emergence of the South African great during the early days of his own playing career convinced the Australian to make his own name.
Taking inspiration from the swings of Peter Thomson, Kel Nagle and Ben Hogan, Edwin’s swing theory found success quickly, guiding the likes of Peter Lonard, Paul Gow, Rod Pampling, Nathan Green and Gavin Coles to the heights of the PGA TOUR and breathed new life into Peter Senior’s game when he considered quitting in the wake of his 1997 Canon Challenge win.
World Golf Hall of Famer Jan Stephenson is another Edwin disciple and the Gold Coast coach synonymous for his all-black attire has also worked with Major champions Ian Baker-Finch and Michael Campbell.
Pleasantly surprised by the nod – “They’ve been sending me e-mails for a couple of years but we never answered them because we thought they were hoaxes” – the 2006 Australian Teaching Professional of the Year said he has endeavoured to make not only players better but also fellow coaches.
“I got into teaching to make coaching better,” said Edwin, conceding that he was initially motivated to improve his own “horrendous” swing.
“I’ve had a little bit of influence on a lot of guys that now teach the game so that’s probably the biggest thrill that I get out of it.
“My two boys are good golfers and are in the industry with me so I’m very proud of that, too.
“Just generally trying to make coaching better and to help other coaches, because coaching golf isn’t easy.
“The game is so great for all of us. Socially, exercise-wise, the people we meet and seeing people get better.
“Coaches all feel better when they make people better and improve their golf. Improving people’s golf makes their life better, particularly if they play golf a lot.
“I’ve had a great life because of golf.”
Measuring the impact of David Mercer in his 68 years as a PGA of Australia Professional is next to impossible.
One of eight children – including brother Alex, another iconic figure in Australian golf – Mercer’s earliest introduction to golf was picking out balls to sell for pocket money at nearby North Ryde Golf Club and he began his traineeship in 1951.
In 1953 Mercer was appointed the Head Professional at Killara Golf Club and would spend the next 43 years endearing himself to every member who walked through his pro shop door.
While his putter would prove to be his Achilles heel, Mercer bested Open champions Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle to claim the Killara Cup shortly after becoming the club’s head professional, twice won the NSW PGA Foursomes Championship with close friend Len Woodward (1958 and 1967) and led the qualifying at Lundin Links to play his way into the 1973 Open Championship at Royal Troon.
After starting his traineeship under Alex Greg Hohnen completed his training under David and would become his business partner and ultimately successor at Killara, carrying forward his legacy of imparting a deep love of the game.
“He had incredible knowledge of the game, but lessons with Dave were centred around enjoying the game no matter what your handicap was,” Hohnen said on Mercer’s passing on September 12, 2020.
“He would tell people, ‘You’re going to get a lot of enjoyment out of the game, you’re going to meet a lot of great people and you’re going to have a lot of fun’.
“Not everyone is going to be a great player, but as long as they enjoy their game of golf, that’s the No.1 priority.”
Thick rough from the very edge of the fairway. Greens that instil the type of trepidation that comes with a downhill ski jump when viewed from the top side of the hole.
To quote NBC’s Dan Hicks’ immortal words following Tiger Woods’ 18th hole heroics at the 2008 US Open, “Expect anything different?”
The best female players on the planet have assembled at The Olympic Club in San Francisco and been confronted by a golf course that measures 6,486 yards (5,931 metres) and will play to a par of 71.
This is the US Women’s Open and Australia’s lone Major champion in the field is adopting the attitude that the tougher, the better.
West Australian Hannah Green shocked the world when she made a sand save at the 72nd hole to complete a wire-to-wire win at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in 2019.
That performance reinforced the grit necessary to turn talent into trophies and the 24-year-old knows she will need all of that mental toughness to be triumphant at The Olympic Club.
“This week is going to be a little different to what we’ve had the whole entire year,” says Green, who hasn’t finished worse than 14th in her past five strokeplay starts.
“This year pars are going to be great scores. I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw the winner at over par. That’s how tough it’s playing.
“The course is long, just because we are getting cooler temperatures, and the rough is really thick. Getting yourself around is going to be quite the tough task.
“Major championships are already a long week, but I think with having to concentrate with every shot on this golf course, it’s going to be quite gruelling.
“Every part of your game is going to be tested this week, so I’m ready for the task.”
Rising to a career high of No.13 in the world after finishing runner-up at the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore in April, Green is benefiting from a program undertaken with coach Ritchie Smith to add more distance to her game.
She is 10th in average driving distance (274.77 yards) on the LPGA Tour and 21st in greens in regulation (74.77 per cent) but knows her putting (first in putts per GIR, fifth in putting average) may be this week’s most valuable weapon.
“Fairways and greens is key, but also giving yourself uphill putts,” said Green.
“If you get some downhill putts, it’s going to be defensive. You won’t be able to be aggressive and try to make it.
“They don’t actually have a first cut of rough here, so it’s going to be quite interesting.
“There are a few run-offs that we have to worry about with the slopes and making sure that, even if you have to hit 3-wood and have a longer shot in, it’s going to be quite a different way of playing golf compared to just hitting driver everywhere.
“The rough is quite thick around the greens, so whoever hits the most greens, I want to say, is probably who’s going to win the tournament.”
Green has been paired with fellow Major champions Danielle Kang and Jin-young Ko for the first two rounds and believes such a star-studded group will also help to bring out her best.
“I’ve got a great pairing, playing with Danielle Kang and Jin Young Ko,” said Green.
“That will be really fun to play with them. Obviously they’re both in quite some form this year.
“It’s always nice to have good playing partners to kind of carry on and vibe off each other.”
With her two best finishes on US soil coming already this season, seasoned LPGA Tour campaigner Sarah Kemp enters this week’s US Women’s Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco in the best physical and mental state of her career. With Tony Webeck
I’ve been to Olympic Club before and played the other course but I’ve got a feeling I’m going to love it. I would love to play well. Obviously it’s the US Open but if I can keep doing what I’ve been doing this year and stick to my game-plans and not put too much pressure on myself or the situation, I’d love to have a good week and I think it’s possible.
I played 18 holes on Monday morning, Tuesday and Wednesday I’m playing nine holes each day and then I’ll take Wednesday afternoon off. Sarah 10 years ago would have gone 18-18-18 which is silly. It’s about practising smarter. You don’t have to be at the golf course all day; you can get a lot done in three hours. I’m hitting the ball well so when you go to a new tournament like this it’s getting a feel for the place. Lines off the tee and do a lot of pace putting and get the speed of the greens, especially on Wednesday. I’m sure the rough’s going to be super-long but I won’t be doing anything too complicated to get ready.
I was talking to my coach John Serhan on Sunday night and while it would have been nice to make it out of the group stages at the Bank of Hope Match-Play last week, he was happy that I got a couple of days rest before such a big week. I feel like the older I get the more I appreciate recovery. When I was in my 20s I would just play week-in and week-out and now you realise that’s a bit silly. There are definitely off weeks where you can recharge and get back to the events a bit fresher. I’m trying to stick to no more than four in a row during this busy part of the season.
I got to come home to Australia and did hotel quarantine over Christmas and New Year and then had five weeks to see John. I’d been hitting the ball well for a couple of years now and we just worked really hard on my putting and in particular the pace of my putts and that has paid off.
I also worked with a sports psychologist by the name of John Crampton. I met him while I was home and we put in a couple of things that I was lacking in the mental department and added them into a routine I do on the course now. The combination of those two has been the key to the good start to the year.
I turned pro when I was 20. I’d won pretty much everything you needed to win in Australia and did some travelling overseas. I was labelled a little bit as the ‘next Karrie Webb’. I don’t remember the pressure but I’m sure there was some. I would have liked to have played this kind of golf 10 years ago but golf’s a sport that you can play for a really long time as long as you’re fit and healthy. It would have been nice to have this earlier on but it’s happening now and I’m still enjoying it.
I grew up when Karrie was No.1 in the world; that’s really hard to do. Even if you had a quarter of Karrie’s career that’s a really good career. Being Australian and coming out being talked about as the next Karrie Webb… That’s a once in a lifetime career. If I was to win a LPGA tournament, that would be a really good career. It would have been nice to win already but I feel like I’ve still got a long way to go with my career. I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon. I’m still motivated.
Winning is a really hard thing to do. There have been a lot of girls who have come out and done it first up but there are a lot of great stories of players who have been out here for 10-plus years and have had their wins after that. I’m just going to be one of those.
The last few years I’ve gotten into a really good place mentally. Off the golf course my life’s great. Not that it wasn’t before but I have taken pressure off the bigger picture. Earlier on golf was everything and I wanted it really quickly and it didn’t happen. I haven’t really done anything too differently this year and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why I’m now getting the results. It’s just kind of come together. It’s been such a great start to the year and physically and mentally I feel great.
I’ve only been in contention a handful of times and it was fun to have the lead through 36 holes at the Pure Silk Championship a few weeks ago. I loved it and I would love to be in that position more often. That’s the plan. I was nervous going into the Saturday but if I wasn’t nervous there’d probably be something wrong with me. Just tried to embrace that. That’s what I play for. I don’t want to go out there and just have a top-30 finish. It definitely got the juices flowing and I realised that’s what I want to do. I want more of that.
We had an Aussie barbecue a couple of weeks ago in Orlando so just trying to be mates with the new girls on tour like Hannah Green and Minjee Lee. I don’t know that I can give them too much good advice but first and foremost being able to hear another Aussie accent out here is pretty nice.
I’m playing one practice round with Aussie amateur Emily Mahar. We both qualified at the Virginia site together and I know she’s doing great at Virginia Tech. I got the second spot and I saw her name in the playoff and it said ‘Australia’ next to it so I went up and gave her a fist bump and said, ‘Go and get that last spot’. She messaged me on Instagram a couple of weeks later and she said she’d put her name down next to mine on one of the practice days and said, ‘I’ll see you at Olympic.’
US Women’s Open
Round 1 tee times AEST
12.11am* Sarah Jane Smith, Kim Metraux, Gurleen Kaur (a)
12.48am Amelia Garvey, Mi Hyang Lee, Da Yeon Lee
12.55am* Minjee Lee, Ariya Jutanugarn, Amy Olson
1.17am* Hannah Green, Danielle Kang, Jin Young Ko
5.30am* Emily Mahar (a), Ssu Chia Cheng, Elizabeth Szokol
6.03am* Sarah Kemp, Alison Lee, Aneka Seumanutafa (a)
As he reflects on 70 years as a Member of the PGA of Australia this year, Brian Huxtable reveals the twist of fate that led him to golf and the extraordinary people he has met along the way. With Tony Webeck
My first exposure to golf was as a caddie at Riversdale Golf Club when I was 10. It was during the War; in 1944 I started to caddie at Riversdale. I knew one other fella who used to go there sometimes and he said there was a bit of money in it. Nobody had any money so I went… and never stopped. I’d work Saturday afternoons and Sunday and earning nearly half of what Dad was.
I’d never seen a course anywhere else so I didn’t realise Riversdale was considered a hilly golf course. That was the only one I knew! It was 18 holes, I knew that. I knew you had to hit it up the right-hand side of 17; you couldn’t hit left.
When I was 12 I caddied for a guy regularly on Saturday afternoons and he won the Club Championship after I coached him around having never played golf. He told George Naismith that if I ever wanted to use his clubs over Christmas I could borrow them. So I started playing the odd nine holes using mens clubs at 12 years of age.
I went from no golf at 13 to comfortably breaking 80 at 15. All of us kids learnt by caddying. I’d never hit a golf shot and here I am clubbing the bloke who won the club championships. On the last hole he wanted to hit a certain club and I said, ‘No way!’ I gave him his 7-iron and said, ‘This is the club.’ I’d never played a game of golf in my life!
There were only two high schools in those days and because I lived in Mt Waverley, Dandenong High was impossible to get to so I’d catch the train into town to go to school. But they wouldn’t take me because I was under age so I had to go back and do Year 8 again. In March or April that year George offered me a job in the shop so I raced home on the bike and told Mum and Dad, ‘I’ve got a job!’ I was only 13 at that time and became probably the first assistant pro that had never played 18 holes. By the time I was 17 I was good enough to be in the PGA.
The biggest job I had when I started at 13 was buffing the clubs. In those days every set of clubs had to be buffed on a buffer after the play. Winter time you’d first have to wash the mud off and then buff them, and there were 250 sets in the shop. And I was it.
We would make clubs up. We’d start off with heads, shafts and leather grips, nothing else. George was a master clubmaker and I got the job of filing the head into shape. It was a real art. Pros in those days were very important to golf clubs because there weren’t any golf sports stores; the only place you could get a golf club in the first five years I was at Riversdale would have been through a pro shop.
George was from the wooden-shaft days and he could make a club feel real good. He was absolutely flat strap making up wooden-shafted clubs because you had to know where to shape the shaft itself. You had to make it so that it could move a bit so it was a real art. They were artists.
I had a stroke of luck. George played in Sydney and brought home another trainee by the name of Peter Thomson. I improved more by watching Peter than anything anybody told me.
I played in assistant pro tournaments and when I turned 14 I won my first money up at Heidelberg. We were handicapped at the start and I started off on 20-something and didn’t do very well. The second tournament my boss wrote that I had improved and couldn’t have the same handicap, which didn’t suit me at all. I then went to Heidelberg and was off 17 or something and we played nine holes in the morning and 18 in the afternoon. I shot par for the first nine and walked in and said, ‘Half of 17,’ and the bloke said, ‘You’re not getting that handicap son.’ And he dropped me back to about five. I didn’t even win the damn thing!
I was assistant pro at Riversdale until I was 20 and then went to Green Acres and stayed there for four years. Then I went to be the club pro at Yarrawonga, which was the first bush club up that way with grass greens. I had three years there and it was the right age for me to take some responsibility and do a bit of development.
I won quite a few pro-ams over the years and came second at the Vic PGA in 1966 at Huntingdale. It makes you think how close we were to being good golfers. Geoff Flanagan was the first person that ever broke 290 around Huntingdale over four rounds; my score in coming second would have won the first three Australian Masters tournaments.
Thommo came home to Melbourne to have a rest one year in the middle of the British season. They talked him into playing at Woodlands on Queen’s Birthday and he knocked me off there. I beat all the locals but Thommo was just a bit better.
After Yarrawonga I spent three years at Medway Golf Club and I was playing pretty well at that stage, playing in all the major events. I played in the same tournament that Jack Nicklaus played his first tournament in Australia at The Australian Golf Club. Alan Heil and I knew Gary Player who brought him out so we asked if we could walk around with him. We walked around for Nicklaus’s first nine in Australia. I realised then that I was never going to be a Jack Nicklaus. We’d never seen the ball go so far.
There was a hole at The Australian along the freeway – maybe the sixth or seventh – and it was two woods and a wedge for most players. Somebody might get up there on a helping day. Nicklaus had never used a small before and he hit a drive down to where God would have thought he was cheating. He hit a 3-iron that landed on the back of the green and bounded 40 yards over the back. He hit a 6-iron and cleared the green with that as well. So here’s a hole of some 575 yards and he’s cleared the green with a drive and a six.
Following Medway I was at the public course at Waverley for 16 or 17 years but the hours became too much and I got the job at Kingston Heath. My wife at the time wanted to go back to the Murray so I went up to Barham for quite a few years. Then my son became a pro and he was in Darwin and wanted some help with the teaching in the area. I couldn’t handle the heat so I got a job as the pro at Eden on the South Coast and spent about eight years there.
Golf was at its absolute peak during my time at Waverley. We had golfers every day and I was giving up to 100 lessons a week. All the pros were the same at the public courses, we were starting golfers off all the time. I can still walk down the street and someone will yell out, ‘Hey Huxtable! I started golf at Waverley with you.’ If a person started and then got going you would recommend they go and enter a private club and join up. We were the feeder grounds for the other clubs in the area.
You had a process for beginners and they had to learn not to sway. Most people used to go sideways and try and lift the ball; you had to teach them to stay in between their feet and rotate. I think I was one of the first people to ever use that word in relation to the golf swing. I got sick of the word ‘pivot’. When I’m teaching now I still use the word ‘rotate’. It’s the best way to get people going.
I shot 69 around Southern one day and there was an 80mph wind blowing. Johnny Kennedy was the bloke I played with and he said it was the best round of golf he’d ever seen. I won it by about eight shots and they reckon I’d cheated. It was just one of those days when everything fell into place.
The average person who lasts at golf is usually a pretty nice person. I’ve got thousands of friends all through golf. We’ve got that mateship because it was a smaller pro game back then and the PGA pros were the top of the tree. There were very few tour players. If I was 22, 23 I could have been tempted to go away and have a go of being a tour player but I enjoyed the club life, the actual life I was leading in a pro shop.
Image: Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort
Twelve months after receiving the “gut-wrenching” news that his Champions Tour debut had been cancelled for a second time Brad Burns will this week join golf’s greatest names at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Oklahoma.
As the world still comes to terms with 50-year-old Phil Mickelson’s US PGA Championship triumph, his fellow senior tour alumni have assembled for their second Major of the year, the field headlined by Major champions including Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh and Darren Clarke.
There are six Australians in the field and while the usual names such as Rod Pampling, Peter Fowler, Stephen Leaney, John Senden and David McKenzie are all present, it is the inclusion of Burns that represents the realisation of a lifelong dream.
A three-time winner of the PGA of Australia Professionals Championship from 2003-2005, Burns has topped the PGA Tour of Australasia Legends Tour Order of Merit in each of the past four seasons.
His victory in 2017 earned him a place at the $US2 million Insperity Invitational in Texas in 2018 only to be denied two months out from the tournament due to a late change to the qualifying criteria, money invested in flights and accommodation all lost.
When he won the 2019 Legends Tour Order of Merit it guaranteed Burns a place in the 2020 KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to force its cancellation 12 months ago.
“I’d already paid for the accommodation and the airfares so that’s two years running,” Burns said at the time.
But now his time has arrived and he will spend the first two rounds playing alongside 2002 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am winner Matt Gogel and Brown Deer Golf Club Professional Jeff Schmid.
Close friends Rod Pampling and John Senden have been drawn together for the opening two rounds with McKenzie to play alongside Jeff Maggert and Bob Sowards and Leaney with Thai legend Thongchai Jaidee and Mark Mielke.
The first of the 47 Aussies in action this weekend are the women on the LPGA Tour in the early hours of Thursday morning at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
In the round robin format Hannah Green has drawn Gerina Piller in the opening round, Minjee Lee is up against Jaye Marie Green, in-form Sarah Kemp faces 2020 major champion Patty Tavatanakit and Su Oh has been drawn to play two-time Major champion Sung Hyun Park.
Round 1 tee times AEST
Champions Tour
KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship
Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Oklahoma
12.16am* Peter Fowler, Paul Claxton, Bill Breen
3.25am* David McKenzie, Bob Sowards, Jeff Maggert
3.36am* Brad Burns, Matt Gogel, Jeff Schmid
3.58am* Stephen Leaney, Thongchai Jaidee, Mark Mielke
4.09am* Rod Pampling, John Senden, John Pillar
Defending champion: Ken Tanigawa (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Rod Pampling
TV schedule: Live 3am-6am Friday, Saturday on Fox Sports 503
PGA TOUR
Charles Schwab Challenge
Colonial Country Club, Fort Worth, Texas
10.54pm Matt Jones, Corey Conners, Patton Kizzire
11.38pm* Cam Davis, Peter Malnati, Will Zalatoris
3.22am Danny Lee, Jhonattan Vegas, Denny McCarthy
4.28am* Cameron Percy, Charley Hoffman, Scott Brown
Defending champion: Daniel Berger
Past Aussie winners: Bruce Crampton (1965), Bruce Devlin (1966), Ian Baker-Finch (1989), Adam Scott (2014)
Top Aussie prediction: Matt Jones
TV schedule: Live 6am-9am Friday, Saturday; Live 4am-9am Sunday; Live 3am-8.30am Monday on Fox Sports 503
European Tour
Made in HimmerLand
HimmerLand, Farsø, Denmark
4.50pm Scott Hend, Morten Ørum Madsen, Adrian Otaegui
5pm* Jason Scrivener, Joost Luiten, Pablo Larrazabal
6pm Maverick Antcliff, Pep Angles, Joakim Lagergren
9.40pm* Jake McLeod, Oliver Farr, Ben Evans
10pm* Wade Ormsby, Matt Ford, Jordan Smith
11pm* Ryan Fox, David Howell, Alvaro Quiros
11.10pm* Min Woo Lee, Richard Mansell, Sean Crocker
11.20pm Jarryd Felton, Josh Geary, Garrick Porteous
Defending champion: Bernd Wiesberger (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Jason Scrivener
TV schedule: Live 9pm-2am Thursday, Friday; Live 10.30pm-2am Saturday; Live 9.30pm-2am Sunday on Fox Sports 503
LPGA Tour
Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play
Shadow Creek, Las Vegas, Nevada
Round 1
12.30am Hannah Green v Gerina Piller
12.50am Minjee Lee v Jaye Marie Green
3.30am Sarah Kemp v Patty Tavatanakit
4am Su Oh v Sung Hyun Park
Defending champion: Inaugural event
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Minjee Lee
TV schedule: Live 4am-7am Thursday; Live 9am-12pm Friday, Saturday on Fox Sports 503; Live 7.30am-10.30am Sunday on Fox Sports 505; 8.30am-11.30am Monday on Fox Sports 505
Japan Golf Tour
Gate Way To The Open Mizuno Open
JFE Setonaikai Golf Club, Okayama
8.20am Todd Sinnott, Panuphol Pittayarat, Kunihiro Kamii
9am* Adam Bland, Toru Taniguchi, Yosuke Tsukada
9.20am* David Bransdon, Scott Vincent, Hiroyuki Fujita
9.40am* Andrew Evans, Naoto Takayanagi, Shun Murayama
12.55pm Scott Strange, Yusuke Sakamoto, David Oh
1.25pm Brad Kennedy, Yoshitaka Takeya, Shingo Katayama
1.35pm Anthony Quayle, Yoshinori Fujimoto, Taihei Sato
1.45pm Matthew Griffin, Hyun-Woo Ryu, Akio Sadakata
1.05pm* Dylan Perry, Tomohiro Kondo, Min-Gyu Cho
1.45pm* Michael Hendry, Koki Shiomi, Juvic Pagunsan
Defending champion: Yuta Ikeda (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Brian Jones (1990), Roger Mackay (1991), Brendan Jones (2004, 2013), Chris Campbell (2005), Brad Kennedy (2012)
Top Aussie prediction: David Bransdon
Korn Ferry Tour
Evans Scholars Invitational
The Glen Club, Glenview, Illinois
10.06pm Brett Drewitt, Rob Oppenheim, Brett Stegmaier
11.30pm Nick Voke, Conrad Shindler, Alex Chiarella
11.40pm Ryan Ruffels, Mark Blakefield, John VanDerLaan
3.10am Curtis Luck, Brandon Crick, Jim Knous
3.20am* Aaron Baddeley, Austin Smotherman, John Chin
3.31am Mark Hensby, Dawie van der Walt, Jimmy Stanger
4.55am Harrison Endycott, Trevor Cone, Shad Tuten
Defending champion: Curtis Thompson
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Aaron Baddeley
KPGA Tour
KB Financial Live Championship
Black Stone Icheon GC, Icheon-si, South Korea
08.20am Kevin Chun
1pm Wonjoon Lee
1pm* Junseok Lee
Defending champion: Seo Hyeong-seok
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Wonjoon Lee
Challenge Tour
Irish Challenge
Portmarnock Links, Co. Dublin, Ireland
Aussies in the field: Blake Windred, Deyen Lawson
Defending champion: Emilio Cuartero Blanco (2019)
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Blake Windred
Symetra Tour
Mission Inn Resort and Club Championship
Mission Inn Resort and Club, Howey-In-The-Hills, Florida
Aussies in the field: Stephanie Na, Robyn Choi, Julienne Soo, Soo Jin Lee, Hira Naveed
Defending champion: Matilda Castren
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Robyn Choi
Ladies European Tour
Ladies Italian Open
Golf Club Margara, Piemonte, Italy
Aussies in the field: Stephanie Kyriacou, Whitney Hillier, Amy Walsh
Defending champion: Florentyna Parker (2014)
Past Aussie winners: Corinne Dibnah (1991, 1994), Denise Booker (1995)
Top Aussie prediction: Whitney Hillier
* Starting from 10th tee
Australia’s representation at next month’s US Open at Torrey Pines has received a sizeable boost but Jason Day remains on the outside looking in.
The United States Golf Association announced on Monday that an additional 27 players had achieved the qualification parameters necessary to tee it up from June 17-20 with four more Aussies now exempt.
Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith had already qualified by virtue of playing in last year’s PGA TOUR Tour Championship and have now been joined by Adam Scott, Matt Jones, Brad Kennedy and Wade Ormsby.
Scott (39th) and Jones (55th) have qualified as a result of being inside the top 60 in the Official World Golf Rankings following the US PGA Championship while Kennedy and Ormsby have been rewarded for their 2020 Order of Merit wins on the PGA Tour of Australasia and Asian Tour respectively.
The first of 10 qualifying tournaments was played in the US on Monday but 2015 US PGA champion Jason Day has already stated that he won’t attend qualifying.
That now means that to play his way in Day must progress from his current position of No.67 in the world rankings into the top 60 following The Memorial tournament next week where he finished fourth last year.
There are opportunities for the likes of Jason Scrivener, Scott Hend and Min Woo Lee to still play their way into the field in a three-event qualifying series being conducted on the European Tour.
Starting with the Betfred British Masters two weeks ago and concluding over the next two weeks at the Made in HimmerLand and Porsche European Open tournaments, 10 places will be awarded to those with the highest aggregate points total.
Other notable additions to a US Open field that now stands at 76 were two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Cantlay, Paul Casey, Si Woo Kim and Lee Westwood.
Career-best performances from Sarah Kemp and Jason Scrivener highlighted another week of strong performances from Aussie professionals around the world.
While the golf world was rapt in the US PGA Championship heroics of Phil Mickelson at Kiawah Island, Kemp and Scrivener set about creating their own pieces of personal history.
Tied for fifth at the Gainbridge LPGA earlier in the season, Kemp held the outright lead at the halfway mark of the Pure Silk Championship in Virginia as she pushed for a breakthrough LPGA Tour title.
Beginning the final round two shots off the lead, Kemp halved the deficit with a birdie at the first but dropped a shot at the ninth to make the turn even par.
Consecutive birdies at 11 and 12 kept the 35-year-old in the mix but she was unable to make any further progress on the closing holes, her total of 9-under good enough for outright fourth and her best result in a LPGA Tour event in the US.
Few tipped Scrivener to be the best of the eight Aussies at the conclusion of the PGA Championship but the West Australian fired a final day 3-under 69 to close out a very solid week and a tie for 23rd, his best result in a Major championship in his second appearance in golf’s showpiece events.
Honda Classic champion Matt Jones also made a Sunday surge with a 4-under 68 to climb into a tie for 30th while Jason Day can take heart from playing all four rounds in difficult conditions, finishing with a 1-under 71 and a tie for 44th.
In his second start for the year on the European Challenge Tour New South Welshman Dimi Papadatos finished tied for 12th alongside Kiwi Josh Geary at the Dormy Open in Sweden while there was another Australasian tie for highest finisher on the Japan Golf Tour, Dylan Perry and Michael Hendry tied for 16th at the Golf Partner Pro-Am Tournament.
Results
US PGA Championship
Kiawah Island Golf Resort (Ocean Cse), Kiawah Island, South Carolina
T23 Jason Scrivener 73-75-72-69—289 $US103,814
T30 Matt Jones 73-75-74-68—290 $59,750
T44 Jason Day 74-75-72-71—292 $31,300
T59 Cameron Davis 69-78-76-72—295 $21,400
T59 Cameron Smith 72-73-73-77—295 $21,400
MC Marc Leishman 74-76—150
MC Adam Scott 78-72—150
LPGA Tour
Pure Silk Championship
Kingsmill Resort Golf Course, Williamsburg, Virginia
4 Sarah Kemp 69-67-69-70—275 $US66,141
T25 Katherine Kirk 69-70-72-71—282 $11,207
T53 Sarah Jane Smith 70-73-71-72—286 $3,568
MC Gabriela Ruffels 75-73—148
MC Su Oh 71-77—148
Japan Golf Tour
Golf Partner Pro-Am Tournament
Toride Kokusai Golf Club, Ibaraki
T16 Michael Hendry 69-65-66-65—265 ¥633,333
T16 Dylan Perry 66-66-67-66—265 ¥633,333
T25 Anthony Quayle 71-65-64-66—266 ¥420,000
T36 Scott Strange 70-64-67-67—268 ¥240,000
T43 Brad Kennedy 69-66-69-65—269 ¥185,000
T55 Matthew Griffin 68-67-69-68—272 ¥120,000
68 Adam Bland 68-67-72-74—281 ¥109,500
MC David Bransdon 66-71—137
MC Andrew Evans 69-75—144
Korn Ferry Tour
AdventHealth Championship
Blue Hills Country Club, Kansas City, Missouri
T35 Aaron Baddeley 70-71-74-66—281 $US4,084
66 Mark Hensby 69-72-77-73—291 $2,700
MC Brett Drewitt 74-69—143
MC Rhein Gibson 70-74—144
MC Steven Alker 68-76—144
MC Nick Voke 72-72—144
MC Harrison Endycott 74-72—146
MC Jamie Arnold 73-79—152
Challenge Tour
Dormy Open
Österåkers Golfklubb, Åkersberga, Sweden
T12 Josh Geary 69-70-69-72—280 €3,300
T12 Dimitrios Papadatos 69-70-72-69—280 €3,300
T35 Blake Windred 72-67-74-71—284 €1,280
MC Jarryd Felton 73-74—147
MC Daniel Hillier 72-76—148
MC Deyen Lawson 74-77—151
Queensland’s Cameron Smith displayed all the hallmarks that make him a Major champion in waiting but it is 50-year-old Phil Mickelson who is chasing a slice of history at the US PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort.
On another difficult day for scoring at Kiawah’s brutal Ocean Course played in a different wind direction and where only six players broke 70, even-par rounds by Jason Scrivener and Jason Day were the best that the six Aussies who made the cut could manage, Smith fighting back late to post 1-over 73 and remain the highest-placed Australian with one round to play.
Starting the day in a tie for 25th, Smith made a steady start to his third round. He had birdie chances from long range at three, four and five without being able to get one to drop and then dropped a shot at the par-4 sixth after tangling with Kiawah’s gnarly rough on both sides of the fairway.
An uncharacteristic miss from inside five feet led to another dropped shot at the par-4 ninth but two late birdies rescued a round that could very easily have gotten away from him.
The 27-year-old made a putt from just inside 12 feet to pick up a birdie at the 215-yard par-3 14th and then played the par-5 16th to perfection, two spectacular shots to 55 feet followed by a pitch to four feet making the 606-yard journey seem a breeze.
As Smith held his round together Mickelson was extending his advantage at the top of the leaderboard as he seeks to become the oldest winner in Major championship history.
Starting the day tied with South African Louis Oosthuizen at 5-under par, Mickelson was 9-under by the turn thanks to birdies at two, three, six and seven.
He was 10-under and leading by five when he added a fifth birdie at the par-4 10th but a dropped shot at 12 and back-to-back birdies by Oosthuizen reduced the margin to two in the blink of an eye.
The tournament was turned on its head when both players found the water with their tee shots at No.13 as Mickelson made double and when the pair both missed birdie chances at 14 the five-time Major champion held a one-stroke advantage over Oosthuizen and Brooks Koepka.
As Mickelson faltered Koepka surged, picking up shots at 10, 12 and 16 to snare a share of the lead before bogeying the final hole to sit one back of Mickelson in his pursuit of a fifth Major since the 2017 US Open.
Playing the weekend of a Major for the first time, Jason Scrivener spent the majority of the opening hole in waste bunkers as he began his third round with a bogey but bounced back with consecutive birdies at two and three.
The West Australian two-putted for birdie from 33 feet at the par-5 second and then dropped a bomb from 44 feet to pick up another shot at the 376-yard third.
Bogeys at five, eight and nine meant that Scrivener went out in 2-over and was losing ground to the field but displayed impressive composure in just his second Major championship to play the difficult back nine in 2-under.
He made birdie for the third day in succession at the par-5 11th and then fired a wedge from 101 yards into seven feet at the 606-yard par-5 16th and made the putt.
In what has been a difficult period there were positive signs too for Jason Day.
Needing to finish inside the top-20 to rise up into the top 60 in the World Golf Rankings and qualify for next month’s US Open, Day’s short game was a feature in his round of even par 72, a lone bogey at the par-4 first offset by a birdie from 22 feet at the par-5 16th.
Hitting 10 of 18 greens in regulation, Day successfully got up-and-down seven times and made a number of crucial par saves from six and seven feet as he advanced 12 spots up the leaderboard on day three.
A double-bogey due to some misadventures in a waste bunker on the par-4 13th was the sour note in Matt Jones’ third round of 2-over 74 that saw him fall into a tie for 60th with one round to play.
After opening with six straight pars Jones fired a brilliant shot from 230 yards into seven feet for a two-putt birdie at the par-5 seventh but gave that shot back with a three-putt birdie from 56 feet at the par-4 ninth.
With the double at 13 and another dropped shot at 14 Jones dropped to 3-over on his round but a wedge from 116 yards to inside four feet set up a birdie at the par-5 16th and some positive momentum to take into Sunday.
A birdie from 12 feet at the first was the perfect start for Sydney’s Cameron Davis but a lost ball on the next tee and resulting double bogey took his trajectory in the opposite direction, struggling to hit fairways (seven of 14) and greens (eight of 18) in a third round of 4-over 76.
It was a difficult day too for Victorian Lucas Herbert, thanks in no small part to a double bogey at the first, the highlight a birdie from 35 feet at the par-4 third in his round of 5-over 77.
US PGA Championship
Through 54 holes
T33 Cameron Smith 72-73-73—218
T45 Jason Scrivener 73-75-72—220
T51 Jason Day 74-75-72—221
T58 Matt Jones 73-75-74—222
T68 Cam Davis 69-78-76—223
T75 Lucas Herbert 76-72-77—225
In the toughest conditions that Cameron Smith could recall, the eight-man Australian charge faltered at the PGA Championship at windy Kiawah Island resort in South Carolina today.
Smith is the leading Australian at one over par through two rounds of the season’s second major championship, just inside the top 30 after shooting 72-73.
Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa and legendary Phil Mickelson hold the lead at the halfway point, reaching five under par overall. Another major specialist, Brooks Koepka, is just a shot further back.
Taking advantage of the calmer morning conditions, the 50-year-old Mickelson shot a 69, with a 31 on the front nine, raising the notion of a sixth major championship win eight years after the previous one.
Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open champion, was superb today until he bogeyed the difficult final hole to post a 68.
High hopes were held for Sydney’s Cameron Davis, who shot an opening 69, but the 2017 Australian Open champion did not bring his best today.
The Seattle-based Aussie began with a double bogey at the par-four 10th, his first hole of the day, after hitting his tee shot way right. At the par-five second hole he found water off the tee then had a further penalty drop on his way to a triple bogey eight, and he carded a 78 for the day.
In context Smith’s 73 was solid, including a water ball at the long par-three 17th. “It’s probably the two hardest condition days I’ve seen, to be honest,” said the Queenslander. “Maybe a few days around Augusta here and there, the British Open can get windy and wet, as we all know, but no, pretty tough stuff.
“I mean, a score is still out there, which I love. I think the course has been set up really nice. It’s just that you’ve got to kind of get lucky with those longer putts going in.”
Six of the eight Australians made the cut which fell at five over par.
Adam Scott (72 today) and Marc Leishman, who dropped three shots on the last two holes, both missed out. But Sydney’s Matt Jones, Western Australian Jason Scrivener and Victorian Lucas Herbert are in at four over par, Herbert playing his way through with a nice 72 today after forgetting to bring his golf clothes.
“Yeah, I just feel like I’ve just gotten out of a fight and I’ve won,” said Herbert, whose warm-up was interrupted as he waited for a friend to drive back to his rental house and fetch his proper attire.
Herbert called coach Dom Azzopardi at home, so concerned was he as he prepared. “I got on the range straight back into the wind, and I think I hit about four 2-irons in a row over the left fence.
“So I FaceTimed my coach with like nine minutes till my tee time going, how do I fix this? There’s something really, really wrong. How do I fix this? It was like, we just had a laugh because it can’t get any worse. This is going to be a fun day. We’re going to be shouting fore left a lot.”
Jason Day thought he had missed the cut after posting 74-75, but at five over par he scraped in despite troubles on the greens. “It’s funny, I feel really positive about my game,” said Day. “There’s a lot of good signs out there. I just somehow just got to get over the putting part.”
As for the others, Mickelson was the headline act, although he was at a loss to explain the resurgence.
“I don’t know if I have a great answer for you,” he said. “I think that I was patient even though things weren’t quite going well at the moment, and I had a few shaky strokes on 16, 17 and 18 where I was very tentative. I was able to make an adjustment on the front and ended up making some really good putts. I putted very well.”
Mickelson has been playing well on the senior tour, but this was unexpected. “Physically I feel like I’m able to perform and hit the shots that I’ve hit throughout my career, and I feel like I can do it every bit as well as I have, but I’ve got to have that clear picture and focus,” he said. “So these first two days have been much better.”
Cam Davis loves the big moments – and he’s put himself in position for another early at the US PGA Championship.
The lanky Sydneysider, in just his second major championship, showed poise well beyond his 26 years to card a three-under-par 69 at Kiawah Island’s tough Ocean Course and share second place on a tumultuous opening day.
Davis trails only Canadian Corey Conners, who caught fire late in his round and surged to a two-stroke advantage with his own breakout round, a five-under-par 67.
But it was Davis, already enjoying his best season on the US PGA Tour, who caught the eye late.
The 2017 Australian Open champion was well placed with two early birdies, but on a course renowned for penalising bad shots, was given a rude shock when his hooked drive up the sixth was unplayable.
The resultant penalty drop was taken in wasteland from where it took two more shots to reach the par-four green.
Three putts later and with the resultant triple-bogey on his card, Davis could have been excused for unravelling on his PGA Championship debut.
But he’s made of stern stuff and immediately began the rebuild with a birdie up the seventh.
An eagle on the seventh powered him back into the fray and another birdie on the par-three 14th put him back alongside major champions Brooks Koepka and Keegan Bradley in the group that now shares second.
He narrowly missed three subsequent birdie chances that would have him second alone, but Davis can be well pleased with both his form and his mindset.
“It helps when you’re hitting the ball in pretty good spots and not really having to stress too much,” Davis said.
“There was one hole where I was a little bit frazzled, I guess.
“But for the most part I was just doing my own thing and playing the golf course the way that I see fits my game.
“That’s all I can do … and chill out between shots.”
Of the other Australians, in-form Cam Smith looked set to take his place among the leaders when he almost casually loomed at two under through 13 holes.
But two makeable birdie putts and another for par from the 14th to 16th all burned the edge as he lost momentum.
A spectacular bunker blast singed the edge on the tough 17th, then a blocked drive into the wasteland right of 18th couldn’t be overcome and led to a closing bogey as he finished at even-par 72.
“I thought the ball-striking was really up there today,” said Smith, who was clearly satisfied with his overall game.
“The last five holes I played two over and basically didn’t really miss a shot. I hit a bad drive on 18 but it didn’t really feel bad, that’s just the way it is around here.
“I thought I putted well – a couple more putts go in and I’m right up there.
“Yeah, no work for me tonight. I’m just going to get a good rest and be here early in the morning.”
New South Welshman Matt Jones, in fine form all season long on the US PGA Tour and with an eye on possible Olympic selection, hit the lead momentarily during the morning phase of play.
Jones, already a career-best 24th on the Tour’s FedEx Cup money list, went top when he drilled his fourth birdie on the 13th.
But, like so many others on the brutal closing stretch of holes and playing at arguably the wind’s zenith for the day, the dual Australian Open champ came undone in a hurry.
A bogey on the 15th was followed by another on the 16th, a double on the 17th and a bogey on the final hole as he fell back to a one-over 73.
Jason Scrivener was also very impressive for a very long time.
The West Australian, in just his second major championship, fought back from two early bogeys to reach one under through the 11th.
He also bogeyed three of the closing five holes, but soothed the damage with a birdie on the long 16th to also card 73.
Marc Leishman and Jason Day each fired opening 74s, but they came in different fashions.
Victorian Leishman was square through 12 holes and mixed three bogeys with a late birdie from that point.
Queenslander Day, champion of this event six years ago, looked in early trouble with his third bogey by the sixth hole.
But he made a spectacular eagle on the seventh and fought hard to play the final eight holes square to pick up several shots on the majority of the field.
Lucas Herbert fought long and hard, but eventually stumbled and carded a 76.
The Victorian began the day with a drive blocked into the water right of the 10th fairway and a subsequent double-bogey.
In his sixth major championship appearance, Herbert hung tough for a long time and was still two over when he stood on the third tee.
A hat-trick of bogeys at that point was damaging, but he hit back with a late birdie on the seventh to give himself a chance tomorrow.
Queenslander Adam Scott also began the day on the wrong foot and, despite a couple of birdies, never really recovered.
Scott leaked his opening drive into the same pond that Herbert found, but went one worse with a triple-bogey en route to a flat 78.
Of the other big names, world No.1 Dustin Johnson endured two double-bogeys in a 76, while tournament favourite Rory McIlroy shot a rollercoaster 75.
LEADERBOARD
