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Want to recieve exclusive news, videos, tournament highlights, golf important tips and more ?
The 2020 CCA Event Series will incorporate an Education Seminar focusing on sharing CCA’s industry knowledge and trends in retail merchandising and sales, assisting golf facilities to grow revenues and profitability.
The Education Seminar will consist of a three-part program, with a CCA address, Industry Leader Panel Discussion and a strategic workshop, where attendees will work together to develop concepts that focuses on overcoming the COVID-19 challenges currently being faced by the industry.
Following the seminar attendees will head out on course for an 18-Hole Stableford competition
Each event will follow a similar schedule as outlined below:
8:30am Registration & Welcome
9:00am CCA Address
10:00am CCA Innovation
10:50am Industry Leaders Forum (Panel Discussion)
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm CCA Invitational State Events (18-hole stableford)
5:00pm Presentations, Drinks & Canapés 6:00pm Event Close
2020 Event Dates:
COVID-19 has seriously impacted businesses changing the way we interact and communicate with our customers. This year we are looking to promote those businesses who have taken steps throughout the last 12 months to be innovative and adapt to the ever-changing climate we are faced with
Now is the time to find new innovative ways to drive new revenue through the front door. With this in mind, we want to challenge those who are up for it to record a 60 -90 second video on how you’ve been innovative in the last 12 months, what new steps have you put in place to drive foot traffic, any changes you have made to drive new revenue?
A winner (Manager and Pro) from each State will be selected and will receive a trip to the 2020 Australian PGA Championship including flights, accommodation and hospitality courtesy of CCA*.
Once you are happy with your video simply submit it via email to [email protected]
*The trip to the Australian PGA Championship will be in accordance with Federal and State Government Travel and Health Advice.
The ADH Club Car Western Australian Virtual Golf Industry Awards will celebrate the contribution of the sport’s finest athletes, volunteers, administrators, and staff across the State. The awards also recognise the best courses and facilities in WA metropolitan and regional areas.
On Thursday 4 June the golf community will come together to celebrate the achievements of the Western Australia Golf Industry as we virtually announce the 2019 ADH Club Car Western Australian Golf Industry Awards.
We hope you will join us as we go live on YouTube from 7pm WST, and don’t forget to upload your fashion snaps to social channels using #ADHClubCarGolfBall.
You’ll be in the running to win some amazing virtual door prizes in the Best Dressed competition, with many thanks to our generous supporters at Joondalup Resort, Novotel Hotels & Resorts and On Course. Visit wagolfindustryawards.com.au for more information.
Date: Thursday 4 June
Time: Tune in live at 7pm via the video link below
Place: Your place, via pga.org.au
Dress: Black tie up top, optional pants!
The Open Championship will not be played in 2020 but golf’s most influential organisations have devised a proposed schedule that would see three Majors, the Ryder Cup and a full FedEx Cup Playoffs series completed between August and mid-November.
Golf’s professional tours throughout the globe remain suspended as the COVID-19 crisis continues to force communities to undertake social distancing if not complete lockdown.
Last week the PGA of Australia announced the extension of the postponement of all PGA Tour of Australasia-sanctioned events from Friday 1 May until Monday 1 June and golf’s major governing bodies remain hopeful that a large portion of the decimated schedule can still be salvaged.
Announced in what would have ordinarily been Masters week, the earliest proposed event would be a PGA TOUR event commencing on June 18 with the US PGA Championship (August 6-9 at TPC Harding Park), US Open (September 17-20 at Winged Foot) and The Masters (November 12-15 at Augusta National) all slated for dates much later in the calendar than is normal.
A shortened PGA TOUR season would conclude with the Wyndham Championship from August 13 prior to the three-event FedEx Cup Playoffs but in a joint statement released on Tuesday by Augusta National Golf Club, European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA TOUR, The R&A and USGA, the proposal remains dependent on a significant reduction in the impact of COVID-19.
“This is a difficult and challenging time for everyone coping with the effects of this pandemic,” the statement read.
“We remain very mindful of the obstacles ahead, and each organisation will continue to follow the guidance of the leading public health authorities, conducting competitions only if it is safe and responsible to do so.
“In recent weeks, the global golf community has come together to collectively put forward a calendar of events that will, we hope, serve to entertain and inspire golf fans around the world.
“We are grateful to our respective partners, sponsors and players, who have allowed us to make decisions – some of them, very tough decisions – in order to move the game and the industry forward.”
The most significant casualty of golf’s condensed calendar is The Open Championship, cancelled for the first time since World War II.
The next Open will be contested at Royal St George’s – site of Greg Norman’s 1993 triumph – from 15-18 July, 2021 with the 150th Open to return to the Old Course at St Andrews in 2022.
“I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing The Open this year but it is not going to be possible,” said Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of the R&A.
“There are many different considerations that go into organising a major sporting event of this scale. We rely on the support of the emergency services, local authorities and a range of other organisations to stage the Championship and it would be unreasonable to place any additional demands on them when they have far more urgent priorities to deal with.”
For the strong Australian contingent that plies their trade on the European Tour a sense of uncertainty remains.
On Monday the European Tour announced the postponement of the Trophée Hassan II tournament in Morocco and the cancellation of the Scandinavian Mixed hosted by Henrik and Annika, travelling throughout Europe an ongoing concern while the threat of COVID-19 remains.
“We will continue to monitor the global situation in relation to coronavirus and evaluate its impact on all our tournaments, with public health and well-being our absolute priority,” said European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley.
“Discussions regarding the possible rescheduling of all postponed tournaments will remain ongoing until we have clarity on the global situation.”
Last Friday the LPGA released its proposed schedule for the remainder of 2020 commencing with the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship from June 19 and concluding with the US Women’s Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston from December 10-13.
Although forced to cancel the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley hopes to welcome back 2013 champion Adam Scott, Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and US Mid-Amateur champ Lukas Michel to the hallowed grounds in November.
“We want to emphasise that our future plans are incumbent upon favourable counsel and direction from health officials,” Mr Ridley said.
“Provided that occurs and we can conduct the 2020 Masters, we intend to invite those professionals and amateurs who would have qualified for our original April date and welcome all existing ticket holders to enjoy the excitement of Masters week.”
Proposed 2020 calendar
CONFIRMED
August 6-9 – US PGA Championship, TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California
August 13-16 – Wyndham Championship, Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina
August 20-23 – THE NORTHERN TRUST, TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
August 27-30 – BMW Championship, Olympia Fields CC, Olympia Fields, Illinois
September 4-7 – TOUR Championship, East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia
September 17-20 – US Open, Winged Foot Golf Club, Mamaroneck, New York
September 24-27 – Ryder Cup, Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin
November 12-15 – The Masters Tournament, Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia
TO BE CONFIRMED
June 18-21 (formerly US Open week) – potential PGA TOUR event
July 16-19 (formerly The Open Championship week) – potential PGA TOUR event
July 30-August 2 (formerly Men’s Olympic Competition week) – potential PGA TOUR event
CANCELLED
July 13-19, The Open Championship, Royal St George’s GC, Sandwich, Kent, England
Golf is full of ironies. The moment that Michael Sim started talking about changing focus to coaching and getting off the touring merry-go-round, he has started playing some of his best golf.
Which leaves him in something of a dilemma.
As the Isuzu Queensland Open begins at Pelican Waters on Thursday, the 35-year-old will be one of the hot favourites to win, having secured the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship at Toowoomba last weekend in a playoff.
For live scores from the #QldOpen click here.
He also won the Western Australian Open late last year on the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series, even as he completes a bridging course at the PGA of Australia that is meant to lead him into another field: possibly coaching, or a day job as director of golf. As a new father with a wife, Michael Sim is at the crossroads professionally.
Do a couple of wins change his thinking? Not necessarily, because the Australasian tour, the only tour where he has status, goes into a few months of recess after next week’s New Zealand Open at Millbrook resort.
“The reality is that after next week in New Zealand, I potentially won’t play another four-round golf tournament until Darwin (the Northern Territory PGA), in September,” he said. “That’s the hardest part in Australia, and I’m sure most guys here face the same problem. Trying to get a card overseas, I think I’m still good enough to do it but I haven’t been able to.
“That’s why I decided to do the bridging program. I’m halfway through that at the moment. I’ll be completing that. Hopefully, I can play well in the next two events, finish the year off well and that gets me to the final stage of tour school rather than going through first and second stages.
“I still love competing. That shows last week and at the WA Open in October. It’s just a matter of getting the tournaments in.”
Sim is one of four past champions in the field, joining defending champion Jordan Zunic, Nick Cullen (2014) and David Bransdon (2015).
He won the title in 2017, as he continued a late-career resurgence.
An adopted Queenslander, who grew up in Western Australia, Sim was an outstanding amateur and his early success as a professional, where he reached a No. 34 world ranking, had many observers predicting big things for him. They never came to pass, although he has won multiple tournaments on the US secondary tour and he is still playing well.
“I’m married now with a little guy,” he said. “I don’t practise as many hours as I used to, but when I go to the golf course I tick everything off. My golf was good last week. So I’m not too sure what the future holds, but I certainly don’t want to give up playing. It’s just about opportunities and getting starts.”
Pelican Waters is hosting the Open for the first time, and after flooding in Queensland early this year, the course, opened in 2000, has come up beautifully. “The course is really dry,” said Sim. “It’s challenging. I’m not sure what the winning score will be. I think the guys who are members — Charlie Dann, Chris Crabtree, Shae Wools-Cobb — will get an advantage with the winds and the lay-out.”
Online lessons with Aussie swing guru Bradley Hughes has restored Scott Arnold’s love of golf and reinstated the belief that he can win again at the highest level.
Arnold was at the centre of scorecard confusion that constituted part of a chaotic conclusion to the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship at City Golf Club in Toowoomba on Sunday, ultimately losing at the fourth hole of a playoff against close friend Michael Sim in a frenetic finale.
When he handed in his scorecard it became apparent that Arnold had finished at 12-under par and not 13-under as everyone on course and PGA TV commentators Mark Allen and Ewan Porter believed.
The miscalculation stemmed from a bogey at the par-4 ninth for which Arnold had been credited with a par, tournament leader Brad Kennedy told halfway down the 72nd hole that a par would in fact be good enough to win.
But Kennedy’s double-bogey and Sim’s brilliant birdie resulted in a two-man playoff that was all the more remarkable given the pair were due to drive to the Gold Coast together at the end of the day’s play.
“I noticed on about 13 that they had my score wrong on a leaderboard,” Arnold said of the scoreboard error.
“I thought, That’s one out. Obviously Brad got told coming in that it was one shot wrong but I never honestly thought I would even be in a playoff.
“The way that the back nine was going, the last three days everyone had been making birdies and he was 16-under at one stage and I was only 12 or 13. I was still three or four behind and just trying to keep it in play and make birdies and if not stress-free pars and hopefully finish in the top three.
“When I saw that they’d told Brad and he laid up… I didn’t think he’d make six. I thought he’d definitely be in a playoff. And then I didn’t know Michael was there until I was walking out the door and heard Ewan say ‘Michael Sim’s not out of this’ and then I watched him hit it in close.
“I heard the groans when Brad missed and it was only going to be me and Michael in the playoff.
“I just wanted to give myself a chance to win. If I did I would have been super happy but I’m not disappointed one bit because I’ve worked so hard to be in this position.
“Now that I’m finally here all the hard work has paid off.”
Now 34 years of age, Arnold spent the majority of 2019 on the secondary Abema TV Tour in Japan but has been existing in golf’s wilderness for much of the past three years.
He played just 20 events attracting World Rankings points in 2017-18 but having recently linked with Hughes is starting to see a return to the type of golf that once made him the world’s leading amateur.
A former Australian Masters winner himself, Hughes has become one of golf’s most in-demand swing gurus due largely to the way he has resurrected the career of American Brendon Todd and he is having a similar effect on Arnold.
“I haven’t played well for quite a few years,” conceded Arnold, who was in the mix at the halfway mark of a star-studded Australian Open in December.
“I lost the love of the game for a little bit, got forced to keep playing and that wasn’t a great idea.
“I was going to tournaments and not really wanting to be there. I was never going to play to my potential not wanting to be there.
“The last couple of months I’ve had a few lessons with Brad Hughes in America online and things have turned around.
“I’m feeling a bit more comfortable and actually wanting to be out here playing which is a big difference.
“If I can be in that mindset in the next couple of weeks I can try and win one of the next two.
“I’m not really that disappointed to lose because I’ve been playing well of late but not putting everything together.
“This week was hopefully a turning point and I can kick-on the next couple of weeks.”
As for the car ride back to the Gold Coast, Arnold put to rest any notion that the pair would be sitting side by side silent for two hours.
“It’s so good to see Michael playing well again because he was in the same boat as me,” said Arnold.
“We didn’t really want to play but we were still playing but now we’re both playing well and enjoying it.
“It was so fun to play in those playoff holes. We’re best mates so I was much more relaxed playing those playoff holes with him than I would have been otherwise.”
PGA Professional Matthew Guyatt has made the eighth hole-in-one of his career in round two of the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship.
Teeing it up at the 113-metre par-3 8th hole with a 50-degree gap wedge, Guyatt was confident the shot looked good from the start.
“I hit a 50-degree wedge which was a really nice number today,” Guyatt said.
“I followed Quayley (Anthony Quayle) actually. He set the standard by hitting it long and trying to use a little back stop. I think it’s the most hole-in-one-able pin location on the green right where it is.
“We say that every year when they put it there that there’s a chance for someone to have a one. I just tried to pass and let the slope do the rest and I hit a little bit more of a draw than Quayley so it had a little bit more spin and speed on it coming off the bank.
“The boys said it went straight in the middle and I’m one very happy man.”
How good is this?! Matt Guyatt picking up his hole-in-one from the cup.
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) February 14, 2020
He aced the 113-metre par 3 eighth hole using his gap wedge.
Incredible!#QLDPGA pic.twitter.com/wsh1zwXQCo
Relief was the first emotion felt by Guyatt who confessed he had been struggling with the flat stick at the Toowoomba course.
“To be honest with you I have not holed a single putt all tournament so the biggest joy of it was that I didn’t have to get my putter out of the bag,” he laughed.
Guyatt, who is playing alongside his student and former NRL player Ben Ikin and ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia regular Quayle, posted an opening round of 5-over but remains at even-par so far in round two.
For live scores from the Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship visit pga.org.au.
The PGA and ALPG join forces to create new innovative tournament series
The PGA and ALPG are excited to announce a world-first joint tournament partnership called The Players Series.
The Players Series will see the creation of new events on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and ALPG Tour schedule where both men and women will compete in the same field for the same prize purse with one Order of Merit.
The Player Series will also look to the future of amateur golf by including juniors to the weekend play to rub shoulders with the professionals.
The Players Series’ primary goal is to provide quality playing opportunities and genuine pathways for Australia’s next generation of male and female professionals that complement the existing events on both tours.
We cannot wait to share with you more information.
Sports stars have an uncanny ability to perfect any sport they choose and when it comes to golf, former NRL great Ben Ikin is no different.
The NRL 360 host will tee it up in this week’s Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship.
He has always been skilful with a golf club in hand but to take his game to the next level for his second attempt at the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia tournament, he once again enlisted the help of PGA Professional Matt Guyatt.
Following almost two years of lessons and a get-to-scratch plan, Guyatt, a former Tour Professional, is confident that when they return to the fairways of City Golf Club on Thursday Ikin will be ready to compete.
“We’ve had a year since the last QLD PGA and we haven’t stopped working or connecting and trying to help his game get better and better,” said Guyatt, who will tee off alongside Ikin and Anthony Quayle at 12:35pm on Thursday.
“I think this year he’s a lot more relaxed coming in and he knows what to expect a bit more. Last year he got a big shock when he stood on that first tee and realised how nervous he was. Those nerves really never left him.”
With rounds of 81 and 85 at City Golf Club in 2019, Ikin faced a tough introduced to the world of professional golf but quickly realised it wasn’t just him who succumbed to the pressure of a tournament environment.
“He felt last year that he wasn’t supposed to hit bad shots when you’re in a pro tournament but he very quickly realised that A, he was going to do that and B, so did we as Professionals,” laughed Guyatt.
“I think he’s in a lot better space this year to really come up and enjoy himself. He knows he’s got to shoot two of probably the best rounds of his life to try and make the cut but he just wants to beat last year’s scores.”
While tournament golf still elicits nerves for Guyatt, the challenge for him this week will be swapping lessons for consecutive days of tournament golf. It’s a battle he will face alongside Head Professionals John Wright, Wayne Perske, Sam Eaves and Chris Britnell.
“We’re not used to playing four days in a row anymore when for all the tour guys, that’s what they do,” he said.
“The biggest challenge is to get ourselves around the golf course. We can all do it and shoot good scores but it’s a matter of putting 72 holes together. I remember Adam Scott telling me that when I played in an Aussie Masters a few years back.
“He won and I shook his hand afterwards and he said ‘mate, you’ve had a great week and it’s just about turning 63 good holes into 72’ and for us as club pros and teaching pros it’s trying to put 18 together and put another 18 on top of that and then another 36.”
For all of his students, including Tour debutant Connor McLachlan, Guyatt believes keeping it simple and sticking to your own game is the best approach.
“It’s a matter of forgetting about everyone else,” Guyatt said. “That’s a hard thing to do but the more you do it the better you get.
“For Ben it’s about playing his most comfortable shot as often as possible. Ben knows where his skill set is and what he’s capable of doing and I really encourage him to hit his favourite shot as much as he can.
“Don’t hit a shot because it looks like the golf course is telling him to hit it right to left if right to left is not his shot. Just choose the simplest shot, that’s my motto, then rehearse the feeling and then just go. Trust the work that he’s done.”
Guyatt and Ikin are among the 156 player field including reigning champion Daniel Nisbet that will compete for the winner’s share of the $150,000 prize purse, World Golf Ranking Points and exemption on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia until the end of the 2021 season.
The Coca-Cola Queensland PGA Championship tees off at City Golf Club in Toowoomba this Thursday 13 February. The final two rounds of the tournament will be broadcast of FOX SPORTS and Kayo. Visit pga.org.au for broadcast times.
For Coca-Cola QLD PGA Championship tee times visit pga.org.au.
See all the latest live scores from the 2020 ISPS Handa Vic Open from 13th Beach
The pain of falling short at the Australian PGA Championship three weeks ago has driven South Australian Wade Ormsby to a commanding win at the Asian Tour’s season-opening Hong Kong Open at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
Champion in 2017, Ormsby joins legendary figures Peter Thomson, Greg Norman and Frank Phillips as the only Aussies to win the Hong Kong Open on multiple occasions and he did so by leading from the front from day one.
A blistering start to the tournament where Ormsby birdied four of his opening seven holes gave him a share of the lead, a lead he would extend to as many as five shots over the following 65 holes before claiming a four-stroke victory.
A nervous start and a chasing pack that included Open champion Shane Lowry, US Presidents Cup representative Tony Finau and reigning Asian Tour No.1 Jazz Janewattananond applied some early pressure to Ormsby but a crucial up-and-down at the eighth hole and birdies at 11 and 17 ensured the walk down 18 would be one to savour.
Playing in the final group with good friend Adam Scott and Nick Flanagan, Ormsby bogeyed his final two holes to finish tied for third at the Australian PGA on the Gold Coast in December and admitted that making amends was important to start his 2020 campaign.
“Going through what I went through three weeks ago, that kind of hit me pretty hard,” Ormsby told Asian Tour Media of his PGA disappointment.
“I didn’t even want to know the game for three or four days.
“But to come back and do what I’ve done this week, like I said, proud of myself and proud of my team.
“I’ve been working my guts out the last 14 to 15 months trying to take my game to the next level. And like I just said, Australian PGA three weeks ago, losing that one really hurt me so I put a few changes in place.
“I worked out over the break and to come back here and get the win so soon, can’t put it into words really.”
A three-putt bogey on the 72nd hole gave Ormsby a nervous wait before breaking through for his maiden European Tour title in Hong Kong little more than two years ago with a one-stroke win.
However, a superb iron shot to four feet at the 17th hole on Sunday restored Ormsby’s four-shot buffer and left only the treacherous tee shot at 18 to navigate on his way to the title and a well-earned beer presented greenside by good friend Marcus Fraser.
“It’s still nerve-racking coming down the stretch,” Ormsby explained.
“That 18th hole, it can do anything to you. But I got the tee-shot in play and hit a weak iron shot into it… Four on the card and won by four, so I’m very happy.
“You’ve always got to play the Hong Kong Golf Club the same way. The wind obviously changes but you still try and fly it to the same spot.
“The game plan was the same. When you get in front there’s no point in changing that, no point trying to play defensive. The guys had to come and catch me basically.
“I have three wins on the main tours in my career and this is my first wire-to-wire. I’m very proud of my play this week.
“I was hoping to win this season but to do it in week two of the year in my first event is special and it will be one I’ll remember forever.”
The winner’s cheque for $US180,000 propels Ormsby to the top of the Asian Tour Order of Merit and with winning momentum heading into the European Tour’s desert swing.
In a strong showing for the Australian contingent, David Gleeson continued his resurgence with a tie for seventh alongside Terry Pilkadaris with Travis Smyth starting his Asian Tour season on a positive note with a tie for 13th.
Next stop on the Asian Tour schedule is the SMBC Singapore Open to be held at the Sentosa Golf Club from Thursday where Australia’s Japan Golf Tour regulars can take advantage of the co-sanctioned opportunity.
Asian Tour
Hong Kong Open
Hong Kong Golf Club, Hong Kong
1 Wade Ormsby 65-66-66-66—263 $US180,000
T7 David Gleeson 66-71-67-68—272 $21,200
T7 Terry Pilkadaris 68-69-64-71—272 $21,200
T13 Travis Smyth 66-68-69-70—273 $14,175
T28 Andrew Martin 72-68-65-71—276 $8,950
T41 Marcus Fraser 69-69-69-72—279 $5,758
T47 Scott Hend 70-71-70-69—280 $4,700
T47 Jason Norris 70-68-71-71—280 $4,700
T65 Sam Brazel 71-70-74-71—286 $2,900
MC Josh Younger 72-71—143
MC Daniel Fox 75-68—143
MC Jake Higginbottom 73-72—145
MC Daniel Nisbet 76-69—145
MC Gareth Paddison 75-71—146
MC Denzel Ieremia 78-68—146
MC Aaron Pike 73-73—146
MC Andrew Dodt 76-71—147
MC Adam Blyth 71-77—148
