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Grady v Ossie headlines week two matches


A showdown between major champion Wayne Grady and four-time Australian Open champion Ossie Pickworth highlights an enthralling group of matches in our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Nine of Australia’s major champions advanced to the second round in the opening week of matches and while many were clear-cut victories, the second week throws up some head-to-head battles sure to divide the voting public.

One of the most difficult matches to split is that between Grady and Pickworth, one a player who found success in the United States and another who was a dominant force in the post-War period of Australian golf.

Like another blond Queenslander who would gain worldwide fame, Grady’s professional career was launched with victory at the West Lakes Classic in Adelaide in 1978, a financial injection that paved the way for his move to the European Tour.

But it was in America where Grady really made his mark, winning on the PGA TOUR in 1989 and then claiming the 1990 US PGA Championship at Shoal Creek.

The United States held little appeal for Pickworth despite the urging of Australia’s trailblazer in America, Jim Ferrier.

Still, the only person to win three consecutive Australian Open titles from 1946-1948, Pickworth shot 63 at Royal Melbourne’s West Course to defeat reigning British Open champion Bobby Locke 2 and 1 in a 1950 match and won a fourth Australian Open at Kooyonga in 1954.

Bruce Devlin and Frank Phillips won consecutive Australian Open championships in 1960 and 1961 and will face off against each other on Thursday with Peter Senior and Mike Clayton to go head-to-head on Friday.

Australia’s Greatest Golfer Week 2 Draw

Monday: Jim Ferrier v Marcus Fraser; Geoff Ogilvy v Wayne Smith

Tuesday: Bruce Crampton v Katherine Kirk; Ian Baker-Finch v Brett Rumford

Wednesday: Rodger Davis v Matt Jones; Graham Marsh v Karen Lunn

Thursday: Ian Stanley v Stuart Appleby; Bruce Devlin v Frank Phillips

Friday: Wayne Grady v Ossie Pickworth; Peter Senior v Mike Clayton

Week 1 winners: Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, David Graham, Jan Stephenson,    Karrie Webb, Kel Nagle, Adam Scott, Steve Elkington, Jason Day

To have your say on Australia’s Greatest Golfer follow the PGA Tour of Australasia Facebook page and the PGA of Australia on Twitter.


An American trailblazer and two-time European Tour winner face off in the 10th match of our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Jim Ferrier was just 16 years of age when he shook Australian golf to its core.

Defeating Eric Apperly 1-up in the final of the New South Wales Amateur Championship marked the teenage son of Manly Golf Club secretary Ben Ferrier as a player of rare promise.

Ferrier then ran second to Ivo Whitton at the Australian Open – making 6 on the 72nd hole to lose by a stroke – and quickly established that his talents and personality would demand a much greater audience.

He would win the Australian Amateur on four occasions, won the 1938 Australian Open by 14 strokes and was victorious in a total of 13 professional events in Australia whilst still an amateur.

Yet for all his dominance – or perhaps partly because of it – Ferrier also ruffled feathers.

His dress sense upset the local golf hierarchy, he hit the ball harder – and often wider – than anyone else in the field and even produced his own book, How I Play Golf.

This publishing feat would prove to be a pivotal moment in not only Ferrier’s career but the legacy he would leave for Australian golf.

Unable to turn professional without spending two years in a pro shop, Ferrier emigrated to America in 1940 and became a US citizen in 1944 but his accomplishments became part of Australian folklore.

His triumph at the 1947 US PGA Championship secured his place in history as the first Australian winner of one of golf’s majors, relying on an exquisite short game to go 27-under par for the 203 holes that he played that week.

“Jim Ferrier is the greatest I ever saw at getting down with a chip and a putt,” said Byron Nelson who refereed the final.

He led the 1950 Masters by three with six holes to play before finishing second behind Jimmy Demaret and was second at the 1960 US PGA Championship at 45 years of age.

Unlike Ferrier, Marcus Fraser does not overpower golf courses but rather massage layouts to bend to his will.

Possessing a silky swing that generates seemingly effortless power, Fraser announced himself with victory at the 1999 Victorian Amateur Championship and proved his game could contend with the best in the world when he won the individual title at the 2002 Eisenhower Trophy.

The Corowa native would make his name in Europe and after turning professional at the end of 2002 won twice on the Challenge Tour in 2003 along with the Russian Open, a win that secured his status on the main tour in 2004.

Rising to a career-high world ranking of 51 in 2012, Fraser spent 15 years playing full-time on the European Tour with three victories and a top-20 finish at the 2015 Open Championship.

Jim Ferrier
Career wins: 36
Major wins: 1 (1947 US PGA Championship)
PGA TOUR wins: 18
Australasian wins: 13
Australian Open: Won (1938, 1939)
Australian Amateur: Won (1935, 1936, 1938, 1939)

Marcus Fraser
Career wins: 6
Major wins: Nil
European Tour wins: 3
Australian Tour wins: 1
Australian Open: 4 (2018)
Australian PGA: T2 (2011)


The 2006 US Open champion takes on a man who went toe-to-toe with the best players in a halcyon period for golf in this country in our latest match-up to uncover Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

The way Mark Waugh caressed a cover drive; the silky skill of Essendon legend Michael Long.

Geoff Ogilvy’s career will not be defined by the number of tournament wins but the significance of those in which he was victorious and the almost artistic way in which he did it.

A talented teen but with a temper that needed curtailing, what has defined Ogilvy’s career over the past 20 years is his need to be mentally engaged in order for the depth of his talent to shine through.

He has just two wins in Australia but they are our two most prestigious titles, the 2008 Australian PGA Championship and 2010 Australian Open.

His PGA TOUR record of eight wins is populated by a major championship and three World Golf Championships, one of only five players to have three or more WGC wins to their names.

The others? Tiger Woods (18), Dustin Johnson (6), Phil Mickelson and Rory McIlroy (3 each).

If you needed further proof that Ogilvy’s best flex comes when the fields are at their strongest, two of his other PGA TOUR wins came at the annual congregation of the previous year’s PGA TOUR winners in Hawaii.

But without question Ogilvy’s crowning glory came at the famed Winged Foot Golf Club and the 2006 US Open.

Opening with a 1-over par round of 71, Ogilvy moved inside the top five with a 70 in the second round yet even as the unassuming Victorian sat one shot back going into the final round attention was being focused elsewhere.

Phil Mickelson’s quest for a US Open title was at fever pitch and Colin Montgomerie was positioned to win his first major yet it was Ogilvy’s demeanour under pressure that won the day.

A critical chip-in at the 17th hole and superbly-executed up-and-down when his approach into 18 rolled off the front of the green secured Ogilvy a one-shot victory as he joined David Graham as the only Aussies to win the United States Open.

Wayne Smith’s career came during a golden era for Australian golf which at once both presented opportunities and challenges.

Like Ogilvy’ Smith’s win tally doesn’t completely illustrate the impact he had on Australian golf in the 1990s.

The first Australian to be recruited to a US college, the two-time All American at the University of Georgia returned to win the Australian Amateur in 1983 and in 1984 was the PGA Tour of Australasia Rookie of the Year.

The 1986 Victorian PGA was one of only three significant tournament wins but Smith’s name was a perennial one near the top of Aussie leaderboards.

Runner-up at the 1994 and 1995 Heineken Classics (to Mike Clayton and Robert Allenby respectively), Smith played second-fiddle to Nick O’Hern at the 1999 Schweppes Coolum Classic and finished second to Craig Parry at the 1995 Canon Challenge.

Smith also enjoyed a prosperous career on the Japan Golf Tour, winning in excess of Y85 million during his time there.

Geoff Ogilvy
Career wins: 12
Major wins: 1 (2006 US Open)
PGA TOUR wins: 8
Australasian Tour wins: 2
Australian Open: Won (2010)
Australian PGA: Won (2008)

Wayne Smith
Career wins: 3
Australasian Tour wins: 2
Australian Open: T6 (1987)
Australian PGA: T4 (1996)


Jason Day and Wade Ormsby have taken differing paths to be ranked among the greatest golfers Australia has ever produced.

Jason Day burst into Australian golf’s subconscious like a supernova; Wade Ormsby’s star has shined brighter the further his career has progressed.

Where Day seemed destined for greatness from the time he emerged from the Hills International School west of the Gold Coast, Ormsby had to first get out of his own way before wins of significance were added to his list of career accomplishments.

A winner of the Callaway World Junior Championship in 2004, Day’s story of rescuing a club from the tip at Beaudesert on his path to becoming world No.1 is the stuff of Hollywood.

Joining the professional ranks midway through 2006, Day was immediately signed by TaylorMade-adidas golf and began playing PGA TOUR events on sponsor’s exemptions, finishing inside the top 15 in two of his first five starts.

Twelve months later he won on the Nationwide Tour, effectively securing his advancement to the PGA TOUR in 2008 at just 20 years of age.

Since his breakthrough victory at the 2010 Byron Nelson Championship Day has won 12 PGA TOUR titles in the decade since, including a major triumph at the US PGA Championship in 2015.

A month later he had reached No.1 in the world – just the third Australian male player to reach such heights – on the back of a run of tournaments that included four wins, three further top 10s and a pair of ties for 12th in nine events.

Ormsby, on the other hand, took time to unlock the formula to win tournaments.

The son of decorated PGA Professional Peter Ormsby, Wade turned professional in 2001 after spending three years at the University of Houston.

A successful graduate of European Tour Qualifying School at the end of 2003, Ormsby regularly had to return to Q School to retain his playing privileges, a win at the 2013 Panasonic Open India an important psychological breakthrough.

At the end of 2015 Ormsby was inside the top 150 in the world but it was three years ago that his career entered a new stratosphere.

Victory at the co-sanctioned UBS Hong Kong Open earned Ormsby the mantle as a European Tour winner, claiming that title again for a second time in January 2020.

Jason Day
Career wins: 17
Major wins: 1 (2015 US PGA Championship)
PGA TOUR wins: 12
Australian Open: T4 (2011)
Australian PGA: T9 (2011)

Wade Ormsby
Career wins: 3
Major wins: Nil
European Tour wins: 1 (2017 Hong Kong Open)
Australian Open: 17th (2003)
Australian PGA: T2 (2014)


Two of our finest exports go head-to-head as Steve Elkington is pitted against Peter O’Malley in Match 8 of our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Both products of regional New South Wales, mentored by the legendary Alex Mercer and regarded as two of the finest ball-strikers golf has witnessed; there are a number of shared traits between Steve Elkington and Peter O’Malley.

The senior of the pair by three years, Elkington’s early development took place on the fairways of Wagga Wagga Country Club, progressing to the NSW State Junior team where he began what would be a career-long association with Mercer.

He attended the University of Houston before turning professional in 1985, his first professional win not coming until his fourth season on the PGA TOUR at the Kmart Greater Greensboro Open courtesy of a brilliant 6-under par 66 in the final round.

It would be the first of 10 PGA TOUR wins for Elkington, highlighted by his victory at the US PGA Championship in 1995 – where he came from six shots back to shoot 64 in the final round and defeat Colin Montgomerie in a playoff – and twin victories at THE PLAYERS Championship in 1991 and 1997, the first Australian to snare the PGA TOUR’s showpiece event.

Elkington’s win at TPC Sawgrass in 1997 was by an astonishing seven strokes and remains to this day the greatest winning margin in the event’s history.

Throughout his career Elkington showed a penchant for winning multiple times at the one venue, twice winning the Tournament of Champions at Kapalua (1992 and 1995) and taming the ‘Blue Monster’ two times in the space of three years to win the Doral-Ryder Open in 1997 and 1999.

In addition to his 1995 PGA Championship win at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles Elkington was a regular contender in golf’s majors with a number of heartbreaking near-misses.

Elkington and fellow Aussie Stuart Appleby finished one shot back of Ernie Els in the four-hole aggregate playoff to decide the winner of the 2002 Open Championship and Elkington recorded further top-five finishes at The Masters (1993 and 1995) and the PGA (1996, 1998, 2005 and 2010).

Elkington’s most significant win in Australia was the 1992 Australian Open at The Lakes where he held off Peter McWhinney and American Duffy Waldorf to win by two strokes.

Where Elkington had his eyes on America from the outset, Peter O’Malley instead opted for a career in Europe.

Bathurst born and bred, O’Malley also came under the tutelage of Mercer in the NSW state squads, regularly travelling from the Central West of NSW down to Sydney for training camps.

Runner-up in the 1985 Australian Amateur at 20 years of age, O’Malley had his first experience playing in Europe in 1989 and immediately showed that he had made the right decision, runner-up to Mark James in his first European event, the Dubai Desert Classic, and top 10 in two of his next three events.

The first of O’Malley’s three European Tour wins came at the 1992 Bell’s Scottish Open and was done in such a fashion as to still be discussed to this day.

Played the week before The Open Championship was to be staged at Muirfield, Gleneagles attracted Europe’s finest including Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie.

Without a top-10 all season and starting the tournament a 150-1 outsider, O’Malley played his way into contention with a 65 that was the best of the rounds on the Saturday but it was his Sunday surge that went down in the annals of European Tour history.

Still well adrift of the leaders when he arrived on the 14th tee, O’Malley found the putting surface with his tee shot at the 300-yard par 4 and promptly holed the putt for eagle. He added birdies at each of the next three holes and, tied for the lead, eagled the par-5 finishing hole to go 7-under for his final five holes, played the back nine in 28 for a total of 62 and a two-stroke win.

In addition to his exploits in Europe O’Malley has had considerable success on the Australasian Tour with five wins, his most impressive a nine-stroke procession at the 1998 Canon Challenge.

Steve Elkington
Career wins: 17
Major wins: 1 (1995 US PGA Championship)
PGA TOUR wins: 10
Australasian Tour wins: 1
Australian Open: Won (1992)
Australian PGA: T44 (2003)

Peter O’Malley
Career wins: 8
Major wins: Nil
European Tour wins: 3
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: T5 (1996)
Australian PGA: 5 (2006)


Two of Australian golf’s most admired figures who have provided moments we will never forget; Adam Scott takes on Jarrod Lyle in match seven of Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Wonderful ambassadors for both golf and their country, Adam Scott and Jarrod Lyle have endeared themselves to the Australian public in vastly different ways.

Scott, the progeny of a PGA Professional, has served as something of an aspirational figure.

Blessed with a swing that draws gasps from golfers and a face that has attracted Hollywood starlets, Scott has been a consistent presence near the top of the world rankings for the past 20 years.

His status in Aussie golf was cemented when he became the first player from this country to claim the coveted Green Jacket in winning the 2013 Masters and he has been hailed for the way he has supported the PGA Tour of Australasia during his time as one of Australia’s leading professionals.

A two-time winner of the Australian PGA Championship and winner of the 2009 Australian Open at New South Wales Golf Club, Scott turned professional in 2000 and from 2001 until 2014 enjoyed a tournament victory at least once every year.

Winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship in 2001 on the European Tour, Scott’s breakthrough in America came at the 2004 Players Championship where he made a spine-tingling up-and-down at the 72nd hole to win.

One of only three Australian males to rise to No.1 in the world rankings, Scott has amassed 14 wins on the PGA TOUR including two World Golf Championships events, his most recent win coming at the Genesis Invitational in February.

Lyle emerged in emotional fashion at the 2005 Heineken Classic, his story of fighting back from leukaemia to reach the pinnacle of world golf instantly endearing him to millions of golf fans throughout the world.

Lyle was the professional that Aussie golfers could relate to. Burly by nature but possessing a surgeon’s touch around the greens, Lyle wore his heart on his sleeve and golf fans responded by holding a special place for Lyle in theirs.

Although he missed joining Craig Parry and Nick O’Hern in the playoff at Royal Melbourne in 2005, Lyle was the story of that Heineken Classic, his two wins on the Nationwide Tour in 2008 propelling him to the PGA TOUR in 2009.

Lyle spent three years on the PGA TOUR full-time but shortly after finishing fourth at the 2012 Northern Trust Open he was diagnosed with a recurrence of the acute myeloid leukaemia that he had fought off as a teen.

Tears were shed both inside the ropes and out when he returned again to play in the 2013 Australian Masters but when the cancer returned for a third time in July 2017 the mountain he would be asked to climb was simply too steep, Lyle passing away in August 2018 at just 36 years of age.

Adam Scott
Career wins: 31
Major wins: 1 (2013 Masters)
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian PGA: Won (2013, 2019)
Australian Open: Won (2009)

Jarrod Lyle
Career wins: 2
Major wins: Nil
Best finish on Australasian Tour: T3 (2005 Heineken Classic)
Australian PGA: T16 (2006 and 2008)
Australian Open: T7 (2009)


One blazed a trail for the promotion of women’s sport; the other constructed an impressive career largely out of the limelight. Jan Stephenson and Randall Vines have been drawn against each other in match six of Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Jan Stephenson’s elevation into the World Golf Hall of Fame last year was the punctuation mark the Aussie icon needed on her playing career.

A product of Newcastle north of Sydney, Stephenson was a dominant force within the junior ranks and soon started pitting her skills against professionals with far greater experience.

Her athleticism and aggressive way of playing marked her as something out of the ordinary and in her first year as a professional claimed the 1973 Wills Australian Ladies Open.

She joined the LPGA Tour the following year and her 16 career wins still sees her ranked 35th for all-time wins on the LPGA Tour.

Three of those 16 victories were major championships yet it was Stephenson’s exploits off the golf course that brought her – and women’s golf – to the attention of the broader public.

First was the cover of Sport Magazine’s ‘Sex In Sports’ issue in May 1977, a brief romance with Donald Trump, a calendar and that now infamous photo of Stephenson in a bathtub covered by nothing more than golf balls.

It simultaneously catapulted Stephenson and the LPGA Tour itself into a new level of consciousness within the sporting world and in many ways overshadowed what she accomplished in her career.

Inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, Stephenson won a total of 26 professional tournaments and her remarkable life has been mooted as a potential Hollywood movie with Margot Robbie in the lead role.

The career of Randall Vines could not have been a greater contrast.

The Brisbane native turned professional in 1966 and immediately took his talents to Europe. In 1967 he was runner-up at the Spanish Open and played in the Open Championship for the first time after successfully navigating qualifying.

In September that year – and boosted by an ace at the par-3 eighth hole in the final round – Vines won the first of two European titles at the Swiss Open, following that up with victory at the 1968 Engadine Open also in Switzerland.

Earlier that year Vines had stunned Australian golf with a 17-stroke win at the Tasmanian Open, a victory that was considered the largest winning margin in a tournament anywhere in the world.

It was the first of nine victories in Australia, two of which were unique for the formats in which they were won.

Only Colin Johnston had previously won the Australian PGA Championship in both match play and stroke play formats, Vines equalling the feat with back-to-back wins at The Lakes (stroke play) and Bonnie Doon (match play) in 1972-73.

Vines also had the honour of representing Australia at the 1973 World Cup where he and Errol Hardvigsen finished tied for seventh.

Jan Stephenson
Career wins: 26
Major wins: 3 (1981 Peter Jackson Classic, 1982    LPGA Championship, 1983 US Women’s Open)     
LPGA Tour wins: 16
Women’s Australian Open: Won (1973, 1977)
Legends Tour wins: 3

Randall Vines
Career wins: 13
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 9
Australian PGA: Won (1972, 1973)
Australian Open: T8 (1977)


Two-time major champion David Graham is pitted against winner of 13 professional events Brad Kennedy in the fourth match of our quest to decide Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

A polarising figure for the single-minded way in which he approached his pursuit of golf perfection, David Graham constantly pushed beyond what many thought was previously possible.

At 16 years of age he became the youngest member of the Victorian PGA and 19 years later won the second of his two major championships, creating another slice of Australian golf history.

Winner of the 1979 US PGA Championship, Graham remains the only Australian to win two of America’s three majors, the manner in which he won the 1981 US Open at famed Merion Golf Club drawing high praise from players and the media.

Celebrated golf writer Herbert Warren Wind described the final round in which Graham barely missed a shot over the entire 18 holes as “a genuinely memorable performance. It has been a long time since we last saw a golfer play such brilliant, forceful, technically pure shots on the final holes of the Open.”

Such was Graham’s play on that Sunday that it drew comparisons with the legendary Ben Hogan, Hogan calling Graham himself to congratulate the first Australian winner of the US Open for “one of the best rounds of golf I have ever seen”.

Winner of the 1977 Australian Open, Graham set his sights early on taking his game to the world, his travels reflected in another unique slice of history.

Graham remains one of only five players along with Gary Player, Hale Irwin, Bernhard Langer and Justin Rose to win on six continents, his eight PGA TOUR wins and three in Europe supplemented by victories in Japan, Brazil and South Africa among many others.

Three times Graham was victorious in Japan, a nation that has proven to be a happy hunting ground for his opponent today, Brad Kennedy.

Winner of the New Zealand Open for a second time in March that elevated him to a career-high world ranking of 101, Kennedy took time to find his feet after turning professional in 1994.

In 2002 he finished fourth at the Volvo China Open and was runner-up at the European Tour’s Carlsberg Malaysian Open a year later.

His best year in Europe was in 2004 when Kennedy finished 96th on the Order of Merit but it has been in Japan and in Australia where most of his 13 tournament victories have come.

The 45-year-old’s first win on the Japan Golf Tour came at the 2012 Gateway to the Open Mizuno Open which he followed up a year later with a second title at the Kansai Open Golf Championship.

There was a five-year wait until his third Japan Golf Tour win at the 2018 Shigeo Nagashima Invitational Sega Sammy Cup and last year he narrowly missed out on a fourth, losing to Ryo Ishikawa in a playoff at the season-ending Golf Nippon Series JT Cup.

Regarded as one of Australia’s best putters of recent years, Kennedy has also enjoyed great success in New Zealand, winning their national Open twice, losing another in a playoff and taking out the 2016 New Zealand PGA Championship.

David Graham
Career wins: 38
Major wins: 2 (1979 US PGA Championship, 1981 US Open)
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: Won (1977)

Brad Kennedy
Career wins: 13
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 5
Australian Open: T21 (2009)
Australian PGA: T4 (2012)


The first of our female legends enters the fray as Karrie Webb takes on two-time Australian PGA champion Eric Cremin in Match 3 to determine Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

Karrie Webb won seven major championships.

She won four of the eight majors contested in 2000-2001 and finished outside the top 10 just once in the other four, tied for 15th at the 2001 Women’s British Open.

Of Webb’s 41 career wins on the LPGA Tour 13 came across just two seasons from 1999-2000. In comparison, fellow Queenslander Greg Norman won 20 times during his career on the PGA TOUR.

The Women’s World Rankings weren’t established until February 2006, a year in which Webb played in 21 events, won five, was runner-up three times and top-10 on 13 occasions to rise as high as No.2 in the world.

If we measured our best players purely by tournament wins alone the case for Webb as our greatest ever is a compelling one.

Whether it was her naturally shy demeanour or the lack of exposure afforded women’s sport in general 20 years ago, Webb’s glittering career struggled to garner the widespread recognition within the Australian public that it undoubtedly deserved.

From the time she became the youngest ever winner of the Women’s British Open in 1995 we almost expected Webb to win every time she teed it up, and were somewhat shocked when she didn’t.

Like so many of our greats, Webb’s influence has carried through into the next generation, the establishment of the Karrie Webb Series and Scholarship providing the likes of Minjee Lee and Hannah Green with invaluable insight and exposure to the elite level of women’s professional golf whilst still amateurs finding their way.

Another prolific winner in an era of highly-talented Australian professionals was Eric Cremin.

Cremin stunned Australian golf when he claimed the 1937 Australian PGA Championship whilst still an assistant professional at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney, winning the NSW PGA that same year and both events again the following year, the only player to ever achieve the unique feat.

His playing career was stalled by World War II but when it resumed it did so in spectacular fashion.

Runner-up in the Australian PGA on seven occasions between 1946 and 1962, Cremin won the 1949 Australian Open at The Australian and was ninth at the 1951 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

Renowned for his putting, Cremin won a host of state PGAs and Opens against the likes of Norman von Nida, Ossie Pickworth, Kel Nagle and good friend Alan Murray, the last of his 28 professional wins coming at the 1960 Adelaide Advertiser Tournament.

Karrie Webb
Career wins: 57
Major wins: 7 (1999 du Maurier Classic, 2000         Nabisco Championship, US Women’s Open, 2001 McDonald’s LPGA Championship, US Women’s Open, 2002 Weetabix Women’s British Open, 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship)
LPGA Tour wins: 41
Women’s Australian Open: Won (2000, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2014)
Australian Ladies Masters: Won (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013)

Eric Cremin
Career wins: 28
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 28
Australian Open: Won (1949)
Australian PGA: Won (1937, 1938)


In the second of our matches to determine Australia’s Greatest Golfer, long-time world No.1 Greg Norman faces off against a man with wins in four successive decades, Stewart Ginn.

It would appear to be some cruel twist of irony that we put Greg Norman up against Stewart Ginn on the same date 24 years on from his most heartbreaking Masters moment as we continue our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

It was April 14, 1996 that Norman began the final round of The Masters with a six-stroke advantage yet with all of Australia collectively holding their breath, collapsed in spectacular fashion to finish four strokes behind Nick Faldo.

A two-time British Open champion and world No.1 for an incredible 331 weeks, we have come to associate Norman’s career not by his triumphs but by the gut-wrenching defeats.

As golf fans pored over Masters highlights last week, one young US golf writer had the temerity to suggest that he had never seen Norman play a good round of golf, highlights serving as a reminder of how many majors the Great White Shark could have won in his career.

But for those few crushing defeats there were countless other rounds and tournaments where Norman played simply breathtaking golf.

His 64 in the final round of the 1993 British Open at Royal St George’s stands today as one of the best in championship history, Norman himself admitting that the only shot he mis-hit all day was a short putt at the 17th hole.

A year later Norman again put one of golf’s strongest fields to the sword, opening with a 9-under par round of 63 and setting new records for 36, 54 and 72-hole scores as he won THE PLAYERS Championship by six strokes.

Back in Australia, Norman was a tour de force from the time he won the 1976 West Lakes Classic until the 1998 Greg Norman Holden International and beyond.

Crowds rivalling that of major championships poured into Australian golf courses simply to see Norman play, his magnetism and standing in world golf helping to bring the world’s best to our shores to face the Shark in his own waters.

Former Australian Golf Union supremo Colin Phillips once said that Australian golf would surge again when the next Greg Norman came along; the truth is we may never see a force of nature of his type ever again.

As Norman emerged in the mid-1970s Stewart Ginn was established as one of the country’s finest players.

Runner-up to Randall Vines when the Australian PGA Championship reverted to a matchplay format for one year in 1973, Ginn was one of the trailblazers who forged their careers in Europe and on the Asian circuit, winning the Malaysian Open twice and on the Japan Golf Tour on one occasion.

Recording his first tournament victory at the 1983 Tasmanian Open, Ginn enjoyed success throughout the world, winning the Martini International on the European Tour, the 1979 New Zealand Open and 1992 Indian Open before embarking on a stellar senior career.

Along with Peter Thomson and Graham Marsh Ginn is one of only three Aussies to win a senior major championship, claiming the 2002 Ford Senior Players Championship, and also enjoyed victory on the European Seniors Tour, winning the 2008 Azores Senior Open, 25 years after his first professional victory.

Greg Norman                                                                
Career wins: 89
Major wins: 2 (British Open 1986, 1993)
Australasian Tour wins: 32
Australian Open: Won (1980, 1985, 1987, 1995, 1996)
Australian PGA: Won (1984, 1985)

Stewart Ginn
Career wins: 19
Senior Major wins: 1 (Senior Players Championship 2002)
Australasian Tour wins: 11
Australian Open: 6th (1981)
Australian PGA: Won (1979)


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