A winner on the Nationwide Tour in 2005 and three-time winner of both the WA Open and WA PGA, Felton and fellow PGA of Australia State Manager Nick Dastey were workshopping ideas that would inject new life into the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.

The world had changed considerably from the halcyon days of Australian tournament golf in the 1980s and 1990s. Female sport was booming and cashed-up companies seeking sponsorship opportunities were now few and far between.

The success of the ISPS HANDA Vic Open – a state men’s Open revived by adding women into the mix and ultimately co-sanctioning with the European Tour and LPGA Tour – provided not only the catalyst but the confidence that a series of tournaments pitting men and women against each other on the one golf course was worth exploring.

“Looking at those notes now, it’s like looking back on something from school in the ‘80s. There were pages of notes everywhere that I’d scribbled on but the basic framework was there,” Felton recalls.

“The Vic Open was obviously a huge success but the next step was to develop a tournament whereby the guys and girls could play against each other.

“That hasn’t been easy and required a great deal of research and planning to set the course up to be as fair as possible to everyone playing but here we are, about to host the first TPS event, and we couldn’t be more excited.”

The biggest name among the men playing this week at Rosebud Country Club is the host, former US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, whose widespread respect throughout the golf world immediately brings the concept a sense of legitimacy.

Our greatest Major champion, Karrie Webb, has been behind The Players Series since it was first presented to her and is anticipated to host an event of her own in the not-too-distant future.

Australia’s leading male players were asked for feedback at the 2019 Australian Open and the ladies at the Vic Open at Thirteenth Beach two months later, their response another driving force in bringing The Players Series to life.

“Our leading Australian players both past and present from the PGA Tour of Australasia and WPGA Tour have all got behind the model,” says PGA of Australia Tournaments Director Australasia Nick Dastey.

“To have Geoff and Su present at the launch on Monday and also Marc Leishman and Hannah Green call in via video to lend their support goes to show how invested they all are in seeing The Players Series become a success.”

“We’re hearing nothing but positives,” adds CEO of the WPGA Tour, Karen Lunn, who has been integral in the development of The Players Series since shortly after that initial meeting in March 2019.

“We ran it across our leading players at the Vic Open last year and Karrie was a big part of that. She was super supportive straight off the bat and said that whatever she could do to help she would do.”

It was following the Vic Open last year that a teaser video was released featuring Ogilvy and Webb that immediately set tongues wagging.

The initial plan was for the first TPS event to take place towards the end of 2020 in alignment with the traditional summer of golf in Australia, the COVID-19 pandemic causing a delay until this week at Rosebud Country Club on the Mornington Peninsula.

Although the backing of Australia’s high-profile golfers is encouraging, it is the next wave of international stars that The Players Series hopes to develop.

In addition to men and women playing the same course for a share of the one prize money pool, 25 talented juniors will join the professionals for the final two rounds, competing in The Junior Players Series in a professional environment.

To be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo on Saturday (2-5pm) and Sunday afternoon (12-5pm), Dastey said The Players Series aims not only to develop players but connect them to new golf fans.

“The PGA Tour of Australasia aims to be a development pathway for our players to take their games and excel overseas,” says Dastey.

“We’ve set ourselves a target of having a schedule with 25 tournaments by the 2025/26 season, a vision we have presented to the players who are key to helping make this happen. The aim is to have 8-10 events in The Players Series as part of that schedule.

“The all-male and all-female tournament model is still key to both our tours but we wanted to introduce something innovative to create more opportunities.

“We have seen with the success of the Vic Open that bringing the top men and women together at one venue is popular with fans and attractive to TV.”

It is that attraction to fans and potential sponsors that provides the promise of The Players Series developing into the cornerstones that both the PGA Tour of Australasia and WPGA Tour are built upon in future, the message of a unified game perhaps the most powerful of all.

“It shows the industry working more collaboratively which has been a criticism of golf in the past,” Lunn concedes.

“Certainly in my tenure there has been a lot of criticism of various bodies trying to get various sponsors, broadcast partners or government money independently of each other.

“I know the phrase ‘stronger together’ gets widely used but certainly in golf it can only help us.

“These events appeal to sponsors, they appeal to governments more than your traditional event and to the fans who can come out and watch the men and women at the one tournament.

“We needed to find a product that is going to be able to provide all of us with more opportunities to have events and if it appeals more to sponsors and government then it’s a no-brainer.”

View #ThePlayersSeries round 1 tee times at pga.org.au.

Deyen Lawson (8-under 64)

On having 10 birdies in his opening round

“It was only talking to (my fiancée) Ali and she told me I’d had 10 birdies that I’d realised what I’d done. I know roughly what I am in terms of my score but I think not knowing how many birdies I’ve had might be a good thing. I do sometimes make eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 birdies in a round and not realise it. If you started thinking about how many birdies you’d had maybe you wouldn’t do it very often.”

On a new attitude coming out of COVID

“I saw my coach last week again and the stuff I’ve been doing the last three months, I’ve probably worked harder than I ever have and a little bit smarter. Normally I’d enjoy myself a little bit when I’m home but I’ve stopped drinking completely since September and I feel like when I’m practising I’m a lot more focused. I’m feeling better and now it’s just a matter of trusting what I’m working on and taking each shot at a time. COVID is probably going to make people go either way. Find a job and do that or, for me, it’s made me wake up a bit. I was a bit miserable there for a bit but now I feel better than I ever have and I’m ready. Even my coach said last week, now it’s just a matter of getting stuff to play in.”

On his birdie at the par-5 fifth

“I didn’t hit a good drive off the par 5, the fifth, and it was going to be a really risky shot to even get it up near the green. I decided to chip out with a 6-iron to a good number – which ended up being 82 metres, just a little sand wedge – and I hit that to half a foot and nearly holed it. I made birdie that way where previously I would have tried a bit much. I’m confident in most aspects of my game that even if I don’t birdie it I’m not going to do any damage.”

On returning to Yallourn Golf Club

“I played it once during my traineeship and it was a cold, wet, miserable day but I remember thinking it was a good layout. For a country course it’s definitely got some quite quick, sloping greens and can get quite tricky if you miss it on the wrong side.”

Dimi Papadatos (6-under 66)

On his excitement at returning to tournament play

“I couldn’t sleep last night I was that keen to play golf. I was maybe a little bit aggressive. I felt like I was playing all right, it’s a course you can get after but if you’re a little bit off there’s so much run and trouble that there are heaps of bogeys as well. You can make quite a few soft bogeys if you’re a little bit off and that showed up a little bit late in the round.”

On being cleared to enter Melbourne at short notice

“It was only the middle of last week that (the Central Coast) became an ‘orange zone’ and we were allowed to go. It was only last Wednesday that we looked like being a realistic chance of being able to go so I made my way down on Saturday because I didn’t want it to shut up again. As soon as the pro-ams in Newcastle finished I packed my bags on the Friday and started driving Saturday morning. I got tested Saturday afternoon at about 2 o’clock, had to get a hotel, stay in the hotel room until we got a negative result which I got Sunday night at 7 o’clock and then we were free to go.”

Michael Wright (6-under 66)

On being in contention at 46 years of age

“It’s kind of cool to be able to do it at my age. Maybe it’s the relaxed attitude that helped me out there today. I hit it quite scratchy in the practice round but that’s golf, you don’t have to flush it in the practice rounds, just get it done when it counts.”

On being cleared to go to Melbourne from Brisbane

“I played a few times last week at my home club at Brookwater and played quite nice but at that point we didn’t know whether we could get down here. All I want to do is get away and play a tournament if I’m playing good and sure enough on the Saturday night they changed the rules which enabled us to get down here. I’d entered hoping I’d be able to go and then it got right down to the wire. They called it on the Saturday night and I needed to have withdrawn by midday Sunday. We didn’t have much time up our sleeve. I got tested at 1 o’clock right near the gate where the plane came in on the Monday and I got my result by 6 o’clock the following morning.”

On the par at 12 that helped maintain momentum

“I plotted along there today and then made a couple of nice putts for birdie and then made a good 15-footer for par on the par-3 12th. That felt like an eagle. That kept the momentum going. I had a couple more birdies late and then had two harsh lip-outs on the last two holes so it could have been even better.”

Marcus Fraser (5-under 67)

On losing his ball on the tee shot at nine

“I thought it was perfect when I hit it and then got up there and couldn’t find it. I went back down and hit another one, it was about two yards to the right of the first one and it was perfect in the first cut of rough. I hit that on and birdied the second ball but I thought the first one was perfect. I don’t know what happened to it but it was gone.”

On his return to tournament play

“It was a bit of the unknown really. I played the pro-ams last week to try and have a hit-out before playing some four-rounders but before that I hadn’t really done a hell of a lot. I got off to a bit of a slow start but then gradually chipped away at it. Then the fifth hole I chipped in for eagle. Other than that it was all pretty steady.”

On how he prepared for the tournament

“There hasn’t been too much of my golf, I’ve been teaching some other people how to do it. I’ve always wanted to do some short game and putting coaching when I finished playing so I’ve started the bridging program and been doing a bit of that down at Peninsula-Kingswood. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and I get the chance to do it now.

On the difference in Yallourn Golf Club compared to 2019

“The course is completely different, and we’re playing it in a different wind also. It’s almost like a different golf course compared to when we played it last time. I prefer it this way. The ball’s bouncing, the greens are at a nice speed and for one ground staff and all the volunteers they do an unbelievable job to get it to this condition for a four-round tour event.”

Ben Eccles (5-under 67)

On his double-bogey at the par-4 ninth

“I hit one bad shot for the day and it was off that tee. I snap-hooked a driver into the rubbish on the left and made a par with the second ball. I holed some really nice putts – a couple for par – and some really nice ones for birdie.”

On his eagle at the par-5 fifth

“I hit 2-iron off the tee up the hill which left me 212 metres to the flag. I hit 4-iron to 6-8 feet and that was probably the best shot I hit all day. That was really nice that one. I didn’t hit many really close today, I holed some putts that I didn’t expect to hole and I built on it. Then I got to the fifth and hit two really, really nice shots into there and made the eagle and I was 7-under and thinking, This is really nice.”

On how he spent time away from professional golf

“I had a long break to be honest. I was helping out my brother and my dad in their building company, helping to frame houses with them. Then I took up a job in August working at Drummond Golf Geelong for a mate of mine who owns it. I was playing here and there and keeping the touch up but because every email was a cancellation or another postponement I just kept doing what I was doing and playing. That’s pretty much how I got through the past 10 months. I tried to keep myself as busy as possible because there are only so many things you can watch on Netflix. It’s been very bizarre but because I’ve played so much over the last five years as a pro it was a nice break at the beginning and now my feet are just so itchy to get back and competing again. It’s so nice to be back competing, it’s awesome.”

Tom Power Horan (3-under 69)

On how he began his title defence

“I made some poor bogeys. I played quite well the front nine and then a couple of soft bogeys. I feel like I should have been a few better to be honest but I’ll take it. It’s nice to play well because it gives you confidence but to be honest it’s a little bit annoying. If it was two shots better it makes the next two rounds a little bit easier. I don’t think I quite capitalised on how well I played.”

On the difference in how the Yallourn layout is playing

“The course is much, much firmer and the wind direction is the total opposite. Some of the holes that were the tougher ones last time are probably the easier holes and vice versa. It makes it a good challenge but it’s definitely there to be had. It wouldn’t surprise me to see someone shoot a really good score. If you drive the ball well there’s plenty of opportunities.”

On how the format will dictate tactics the next two rounds

“Normally for me I’m always looking at the cut line so that’s a bit of an issue but this one you’ve got the cut-line and then the top 24 for Sunday. If you’re only just making the cut you’re probably going to need a really good round in the third round. The first two rounds you generally play the course how you want to play it but then that third round it’s make or bust. Depending on the position I’m in will determine how aggressive or conservative I am but then those who just make the cut will play much more aggressively. I think there’ll be a big difference in the third round with guys being much more aggressive whereas the first two rounds you play the course as it is and see how it goes.”