Go hard or go home.

That’s the reality facing Sydney’s Cameron Davis as he eyes off a birdie blitz at the Barracuda Championship in hopes of retaining his PGA TOUR card for 2020.

The Modified Stableford format in play at the Barracuda Championship rewards those who can post plenty of red numbers and keep bogeys to a minimum.

Players receive two points for a birdie, five points for an eagle and eight points for a rare albatross but are docked one point for a bogey and three points for double bogey or worse.

Coming off his best result of his rookie season last week at the Barbasol Championship where he tied for 11th with seven birdies and an eagle in his final round, it could be just the format Davis needs to salvage his season.

Starting the week 161st in the FedEx Cup, nothing short of a win will be enough to propel Davis inside the top 125 but with a strong recent history of Aussie success in the event it is not beyond the realms of possibility.

Greg Chalmers secured the first PGA TOUR win of his career at the Barracuda three years ago while the 2014 Barracuda Championship was the eighth and most recent win of Geoff Ogilvy’s PGA TOUR career.

The 24-year-old Davis’s nine eagles this season places him 32nd on tour and his par-5 scoring average of 4.56 places him 35th, meaning there will be point-scoring opportunities at the four par-5s, two of which measure more than 600 yards.

With just one regular-season event remaining after this week prior to the FedEx Cup playoffs, it’s quite simply now or never for Davis.

Save for an extraordinary couple of weeks to come Curtis Luck looks destined to be headed for the Korn Ferry Tour finals if he is to play on the PGA TOUR again next season, starting this week in 171st position in the FedEx Cup.

Three legends round out the Aussie contingent this week with John Senden, Rod Pampling and Robert Allenby also expected to be in attack mode when they tee it up.

Former European Tour golfer John Wade is trying his luck at The Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St. Annes Golf Club. Wade, a vocational PGA Professional, will prepare a daily blog, detailing his experience during one of the Tour’s most prestigious tournaments.

It’s been a couple of really hot days here at Lytham St Annes to complete preparations for the Senior Open Championship.

The course is an incredibly tough test of golf and with more baking conditions forecast, the ball will be tough to control around this classic.

Preparing for this has been difficult given the cold in Melbourne, but I’m so fortunate working at Commonwealth Golf Club where the golf course plays so well over winter and gives you the opportunity to practice all the shots required.

My week started with pre-qualifying at Fairhaven Golf Club at 6:30am and after posting 1-under in strong winds, I was anxious to know whether I’d done enough to advance. I filled my time at the local coffee shops and returned later in day to see if my score was good enough to qualify. Thirteen hours after teeing off, I could finally leave the course with a place in the field achieved.

I’m feeling the effects of a long day yesterday and with the aches and pains flaring in the body I took the option of taking care of registration and other admin rather than grinding away on Tuesday.

A night at the world matchplay darts tournament at nearby Blackpool was an amazing experience to wrap up the day. I wish my putting was as instinctive as those skilled darts players!

It was nice to get the mind on another interest in searching for the right formula to play good golf.

At this event, rubbing shoulders with some of the best golfers of all time is special and sharing practice rounds with guys like (Bernhard) Langer, (Tom) Watson and (Jose Maria) Olazabal still gets my attention.

So far, the most enjoyable part of this venture onto the Seniors Tour has been catching up with familiar faces from my former days playing the European Tour.

My goal for this week is to simply enjoy playing in a tournament of this stature. Where that takes me I’m not quite sure.

All I know is that after struggling to swing a club for the past few years with injury, I just appreciate this opportunity to play at this wonderful venue and reflect on how natural this style of golf is.

It’s a test set by none other than Greg Norman himself and passing is no mean feat.

Ten Aussies and Kiwi Ryan Chisnall are taking part in this week’s Dongguan Open on the PGA TOUR Series-China tour which is being played at the Norman Course at Mission Hills Dongguan.

One of 12 courses on the extraordinary property, the Norman Course is considered by all who visit to be the toughest of the lot.

Considered one of the strongest tests of golf not only at Mission Hills but in all of Asia, the front-9 plays through dramatic mountain ridges that frame each hole while the back-9 opens up into one of the lush valleys of the region.

“It’s a brawny challenge emblematic of the man himself,” Steve Keipert wrote for Australian Golf Digest.

“The front-9 is enough of a handful before the back-9 squeezes in and goes for the golfer’s throat.

“The course tightens and lengthens, coupling that with several drastic elevation changes. Yet arguably the most difficult aspect of the Norman course is the way the greens want to repel any ball hovering near the edges, and how chipping and pitching back aboard the target is no easy task.”

With just four events in the schedule following the Dongguan Open, the Aussies in the field need to kick-start a strong run home if they hope to snare one of the five cards to the Korn Ferry Tour given to those who top the Order of Merit.

Fresh from his win at the Property Today & Innovative Planning Solutions Headland Pro-Am at Headland Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast, Christopher Wood is the highest-placed Aussie on the moneylist in 32nd position, followed just one spot behind by James Marchesani.

Kevin Yuan, Charlie Dann, Arron Wilkin and Max McCardle are all inside the top 50 with Tim Stewart (58th) just outside.

Other Australians in the field this week are Corey Hale, Dale Williamson and James Grierson.

Golfers in Western Australia will be able to take their game to a new level thanks to the opening of the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance at Wembley Golf Course.

Wembley Golf Course in Perth is delighted to launch Australia’s second PGA Centre for Learning and Performance in addition to its original location at the PGA National Office at the Sandhurst Club in Melbourne.

The Centre, which features Trackman and Sam PuttLab technology, allows golfers to improve their game in conjunction with coaching from Certified PGA Professionals.

Wembley Golf Course, a public facility, already boasts a strong coaching staff of PGA Professionals however this facility will enable them to harness technology to help further improve their clients’ games.

“We are very pleased to rebrand our coaching facility as a PGA Centre for Learning and Performance and align with the PGA, the peak professional golf body in this country,” said Josh Madden, a PGA Professional and the General Manager at Wembley Golf Course.

“We currently have 15 PGA Professionals on staff including two PGA Trainees and the PGA’s WA state office is also located on site.

“To add the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance to our facility is another feather in our cap and another great golf experience that we are able to offer golfers in Western Australia.”

As the largest public golf facility in Western Australia, Wembley Golf Course offers a 36 hole golf course, an 80 bay undercover driving range, a green grass pro shop, mini golf course and excellent dining options.

The opening of the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance forms part of their commitment to technology and growing the game.

“As arguably Australia’s busiest golf facility our commitment to grow the game and now enhance the game is at the forefront of this initiative,” added Madden.

“We want to continue working closely with the PGA Professionals who work day in day out to help people learn this great game and to now offer them access to this state of the art facility for their coaching services is just fantastic.”

Having launched the first PGA Centre for Learning and Performance in 2008 the PGA of Australia is pleased to bring the state of the art facility to Wembley Golf Course.

“We are delighted to provide Wembley Golf Course with access to the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance brand,” said Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the PGA of Australia.

“We are committed to providing services to our PGA Professionals and the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance provides an opportunity for PGA coaches and PGA Trainees in WA to come in and utilise state of the art technology to improve and learn.

“Tour Professionals are also able to access the facility to fine-tune their games making Wembley GC not just a centre for learning and growing the game but a home base for high performance.

“We have already seen a number of Australia’s best Tour Professionals visit the PGA Centre for Learning and Performance including Brett Rumford, Michael Long, Peter Lonard, Minjee Lee and Jarryd Felton.”

The PGA Centre for Learning and Performance at Wembley Golf Course is now open. More information is available within Wembley’s website or via social media channels.

Amputee golfer Geoff Nicholas will take his place among some of the greatest names in world golf after qualifying for this week’s Senior Open Championship at famed Royal Lytham & St Annes.

Losing his right leg at a young age due to a deformity caused by the morning sickness drug Thalidomide, Nicholas has won British and US Amputee Opens but will now share the stage with the likes of Tom Watson, Darren Clarke, Fred Couples, Retief Goosen and Jose Maria Olazabal in one of the biggest events on the seniors schedule.

A member at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney and a Senior Tournament Member (NSW) of the PGA of Australia, Nicholas is one of four Australians to qualify for the Senior Open and who will join tour veterans Peter Fowler, Peter O’Malley, David McKenzie, Stephen Leaney and Kiwis Michael Campbell and Greg Turner.

A former PGA Trainee of the Year, Paul Archbold has spent the best part of the past 25 years working as a teaching professional in Germany and was the only player under par in qualifying at Hillside Golf Club, birdies at 11, 15 and 17 setting him up for a round of 1-under 71 after starting from the 10th tee.

It will be the second consecutive appearance at the Senior Open for Archbold who also qualified for the 2018 tournament where he finished tied for 32nd at St Andrews.

Based at Cromer Golf Club in Sydney, PGA Professional Nicholas Robb also qualified at Hillside, four bogeys and two birdies in a round of 2-over 74 enough to secure one of the 12 places on offer for his Staysure Tour debut.

Former European Tour player John Wade, now the Assistant Professional at Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne, qualified at Fairhaven with a 1-under round of 71 but Nicholas had to earn his place at extra holes.

Tied for 12th with an even-par round of 72, Nicholas secured two of the places on offer in the five-man playoff, regrouping after a nervous finish to his round.

Starting with birdies at three of his first five holes, Nicholas was well inside the qualifying mark through 12 holes but bogeys at 13, 16 and 17 looked like proving costly until a birdie at the par-5 closing hole gave him a shot at qualifying.

Winner of the inaugural British Amputee Open in 1990 and fourth at last year’s All Abilities Championship at his home club, when Nicholas tees off on Thursday evening Australian time it will mark the next step in a remarkable journey for the 57-year-old who was taunted by his disability as a child.

“It’s been so good to me, even up to now,” Nicholas said in an interview for the European Disabled Golfers Association of golf’s impact in his life.

“It helps me and makes me forget [my disability].

“There are not many games that you can compete against able-bodied players. It is probably the only sport in the world that you can do that on an equal playing field.”

A playing field that he will share this week with major winners, PGA TOUR and European Tour legends.

Prominent names in golf Gary Nicklaus and Brandel Chamblee also came through qualifying to book their place at Lytham but there were near misses for both Peter Lonard and Michael Long, Lonard missing out by a shot at Southport and Ainsdale and Long pipped in a playoff at St Annes Old Links.

ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Tournaments Manager Graeme ‘Scotty’ Scott makes his first trip to Ireland for The 148^th Open where wild weather, slow play, and a record-breaking back-9 from Ryan Fox highlighted a hectic week.

The 148^th Open Championship – pre-tournament

Having been born in Scotland and brought up playing golf on the fifth oldest golf course in the world, it is hardly surprising that links golf is my favourite form of the game. With sand dunes naturally shaping the course and the salty sea air taking your ball flight on a journey that you seem to have no control over, links golf requires the player to have a full range of shots in their repertoire to cope with the variety of lies that you will undoubtedly face.

I have been fortunate enough to officiate at five Open Championships in the past, so to be given the opportunity to represent the PGA of Australia at the 148^th Open on its return to Ireland is indeed a great honour.

Arriving in Ireland for the first time on Monday afternoon, there was no time to relax as I dashed to Royal Portrush to collect my uniform for the week and familiarise myself with the venue layout. The infrastructure that goes into an Open Championship is massive and a huge amount of planning has to go into designing the site plan years in advance.

In the case of Royal Portrush, two new holes were introduced three years ago to allow the former 17^th and 18^th holes to be utilised for the tournament village and the significant structures that go along with it. Holes 7 and 8 were crafted from the natural sand dunes and blended in beautifully with the existing layout.

Tuesday morning arrived and it was time to meet and greet all of my friends and colleagues from the various Tours and Golf Associations around the world. I then headed out on my first course walk to survey the layout and look at any potential Rules issues that may arise during the Championship. My companion for the walk was Dave Mangan from NZ Golf, who had already taken a trip around the course the day before and was able to give me a heads up on several things that he had spotted.

Right from the first tee it was clear that course management and accuracy was going to be the key. The coastal wind had already switched direction from the day before meaning that players were going to have to adapt to changing conditions as the week progressed. The first hole has out of bounds down both sides and, although the chunky, juicy rough would prevent a ball from rolling over the white lines, the nerves on the first tee along with relative narrowness of the hole would undoubtedly result in a number of reloads.

The members at Royal Portrush have been playing off plastic mats for the last year to save the fairways and the result is an outstanding playing surface for the Championship. The positioning of the temporary structures on the course is extremely well planned with each of the grandstands and viewing platforms well back out of general play and this prevented many rulings from arising in terms of TIO relief.

The course shows similarities to Royal Birkdale in my opinion, with fairways that are bounded by natural sand dunes and several of the greens being tucked in amongst them providing a great deal of natural protection.

The fifth hole is a reasonably short par-4 that many players will take on from the tee. The big danger is that immediately behind the green is an out of bounds ditch which collects balls before they can tumble down onto the sandy beach below.

From a Rules perspective, Australian golfers who watch the telecast may see that the stakes that sit in the ditch behind the fifth green are white with black tops. Such stakes identify that the ditch is out of bounds but the stakes do not define the margin. They are in fact movable obstructions that may be removed by a player if they interfere with their area of intended swing. Australia is actually the only country in the world (that I am aware of) that have black topped stakes to define out of bounds. The R&A recommendation is that out of bounds stakes are white, with those identifying out of bounds in a ditch, such as at the 5^th, have black tops to show that they do not define the margin.

While there are several birdie holes on the course, the stretch from 14 through to 16 is very tight and the wheels could fall off several rounds at that point. A straight tee shot on 14 is imperative as the driving zone is tight and the green is difficult to hit in the right place. The drive on 15 needs to be taken over the left rough so as not to finish too far right and then once again, choosing your landing area on the well-designed green is crucial.

Hole 16 is a par-3 but really plays a 3 ½. Playing 230 yards uphill there is a good reason that the hole is named “Calamity”.

Walking down the final fairway of an Open course is always an unforgettable experience. The amphitheatre created by the horseshoe of massive grandstands is incredible and it is not hard to see why it has an emotional effect on many players.

Wednesday morning was an early start as the Rules meeting began at 8.00am. At this meeting time is spent going over particular issues that may arise and to ensure that a consistent approach is applied by all referees to given situations.

After the meeting, which takes a little over 2 hours, all officials conduct a further course walk in groups of six or seven to both review each hole and provide any feedback to R&A staff in regard to possible Local Rule changes. An example of this is how officials should treat the temporary bridge that crosses the red penalty area short and right of green 12. Initially the bridge had been deemed to be a Temporary Immovable Obstruction but, after considering the possible problems that this may cause if a player’s ball came to rest on the bridge, the R&A were asked to reconsider its status for the tournament and it was changed to an Immovable Obstruction.

The 148^th Open Championship – Rounds 1 & 2

We are given our assignments for round one and two early in the week and I was delighted to see that I would walk with Ryan Fox on Thursday and Podraig Harrington on Friday. I have known Foxy for a long time and I was keen to see how his game had progressed since his win at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth earlier this year.

Ryan had been struggling confidence-wise in recent weeks and when he three-putted the opening hole his body language said, “Here we go again!” Two further bogies on the front-9 saw him turn at +3 and there wasn’t a great deal of spring in his step. However, what transpired over the back-9 was fantastic to watch and will hopefully help him take a confident approach into the back end of the season.

The action all started on the par-5, 12^th where he finally holed a 4-metre birdie putt. This gave him the honour and he promptly dropped a short iron close to the flag on 13 to set up birdie number two. Hole 14 has a tricky upside-down saucer green but that really counts for nothing when you stump your second shot. Three birdies in a row and he was then back to even-par.

A well-positioned tee shot and approach left him a 5-metre putt on 15 and this was duly dispatched in true Foxy style to take him into red figures for the first time. The relaxed gait and chatty persona was back by this stage with both Foxy and caddie Jordan Dassler taking every opportunity to throw in some good banter as we walked round.

Foxy missed the green short and right on “Calamity” but made a great up and down to stay in the red but then a beautiful approach shot on 17 left him a relatively short putt for another birdie. To put the icing on the top of a great back-9, the 4-metre putt to the back right pin on 18 disappeared down the hole for a closing birdie 3 and an inward 9 of 29, a record for The Open Championship.

Friday’s round saw me joining Harrington, Matt Fitzpatrick and Andrew Putnam. This was a fairly uneventful round other than the frustration that a couple of the players expressed at the pace of play. Although one member of the group was very slow, the group maintained its position in the field so there was little that could be done.

The 148^th Open Championship – Rounds 3 & 4

Late on Friday night we received our assignments for Saturday, with the cut having been made at close of play. My role for round three was to be observer for the 3^rd to final group which featured “the baby-faced assassin”, Cameron Smith. It is always nice to catch up with Cam and his caddie Sam, both of whom I have known for many years. As an official we don’t generally interact with the players during a round and so it is more when we are waiting to tee off and after score recording that we have a chance for a quick chat. Cam’s round was a bit of a rollercoaster as he traded birdies for bogies, failing to make any ground on the leaders.

For the final round I was paired with Ernie Els and Lucas Bjerregaard, who is a seriously good player and someone to watch out for in the future. Ernie dropped a couple of shots during the round but he still has the big easy swing that he is renowned for.

As I mentioned earlier, the positioning of the infrastructure on course was such that there were very few TIO rulings to be made during the week and, in the main, the majority of rulings were just the usual things that you would come across during a round.

We were on hole 16 when the final group, featuring Irishman Shane Lowry, teed off which meant that I was able to follow most of the action and avoid the heavy rain that poured for most of Sunday afternoon. The local fans were going berserk at the prospect of an Irish winner, particularly after the disappointment of seeing Rory fall just short of the cut mark after a disastrous opening hole and round on Thursday.

Having access to the grandstand left of 18 as the Championship came to a close meant that we had a bird’s eye view of the excitement and drama of the final hole. Thousands of fans raced towards the green after Lowry hit his approach shot and he was genuinely engulfed by them before the marshals could rope of the entry point to the green, finally allowing him to burst through the throng with his arms raised aloft.

This truly was a great Championship which broke all sorts of Open records. The course was fantastic, as was the support for the tournament which saw tickets sell out weeks in advance.

Given the reasonably late finishing time and the Committee dinner that followed, it was close to 11.00pm before our bus pulled up outside our hotel for the week. My taxi to the airport was booked for 3.00am and so it seemed like I had only just fallen asleep when it was time to get up again.

I am looking forward to arriving in Memphis for the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational, where I will join PGA TOUR and European Tour staff for the week. Hopefully I will have more of a chance to catch up with our other international players that I didn’t get to see at Portrush.

Matt Jones has recorded his best round on the PGA TOUR in close to six years to finish fourth at the Barbasol Championship in Kentucky and all but secure a place in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Tied for 14th prior to the final round, Jones burst out of the blocks with birdies at his two opening holes and kept the hammer down, an eagle and a run of three straight birdies adding up to a front-9 of 29, three birdies and a bogey on the back-9 adding up to a 9-under 63, the equal best score of the day and his lowest since shooting 62 in the Wyndham Championship in August 2013.

Riding the bubble of the top 125 on the moneylist for the second straight year, by finishing tied for fourth four shots behind winner Jim Herman Jones has moved from 120th to 107th in the FedEx Cup with two regular-season events left before the Playoffs begin with The Northern Trust on August 8.

PGA TOUR rookie Cameron Davis did his level best to improve his playoff prospects but his Sunday 64 only advanced the New South Welshman eight places on the order of merit.

Sitting 169th prior to the tournament, Davis shot three sub-70 rounds to be tied for 32nd heading into the final round but rose 21 places on the back of a back-9 of 6-under 30 featuring four birdies and an eagle at the par-5 15th courtesy of a putt from 50 feet.

Veteran Rod Pampling was the only other Australian to make the cut, shooting 71 in the final round to be tied for 53rd.

PGA TOUR
Barbasol Championship
Keene Trace GC, Nicholasville, Kentucky
T4	Matt Jones	66-70-67-63—266	$US154,000
T11	Cameron Davis	67-69-69-64—269	$77,000
T53	Rod Pampling	68-71-68-71—278	$7,882
MC	Danny Lee	75-67—142
MC	Steve Allan	73-72—145
MC	John Senden	74-75—149
MC	Robert Allenby	76-74—150