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The Australian golf community is calling on golf clubs around Australia to dedicate a members’ day to the memory of Jarrod Lyle and help raise much-needed funds for Challenge, a charity devoted to supporting children and families living with cancer.
Because of COVID-19, the campaign has been postponed from August and September to run in October and November, and will culminate in Yellow Day on Friday 4 December at the Australian PGA Championship.
Having been diagnosed with cancer three times throughout his life, Jarrod Lyle understood the hardship that young people and their families face when battling this disease.
For many years Jarrod was an ambassador for Challenge, a not-for-profit organisation that supports children and families living with cancer and aims to lighten the cancer journey for the whole family, 365 days of the year.
“I would like to encourage all golf fans and golf clubs to get behind the #DoingItForJarrod campaign so that Challenge can continue to not only honour all that Jarrod Lyle was, but also continue his mission to support other families living with cancer,” said David Rogers, chief executive officer of Challenge.
“Jarrod truly believed in the work of Challenge and spent all of his adult life supporting Challenge’s mission.”
In Jarrod’s memory, the PGA of Australia, Golf Australia and Challenge united to create a special fundraising event that could be enjoyed by the entire golf community.
This campaign, #DoingItForJarrod, is now an annual event throughout the country and sees many courses and club members swathed in yellow in support of Jarrod and Challenge.
Golf Australia interim chief executive Rob Armour was delighted to assist in keeping Jarrod’s passion and intentions alive.
“Many Australians know Jarrod was a great player, but I think those in the golf community came to learn that he was an even greater champion off the course,” Armour said.
“Working as a united community around the country, there’s no better way for us all to ensure his desire to help those in trouble lives on. We ask all clubs – especially those touched by cancer – to get involved in #DoingItForJarrod again this year.”
All clubs that participate in #DoingItForJarrod in 2020 will be entered into the draw to win an invitation to play alongside golf’s best in the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia and European Tour co-sanctioned Australian PGA Championship Pro-Am to be held in December at Royal Queensland Golf Club, incorporating the featured ‘Yellow Day’ fundraiser.
“Yellow Day was a true highlight of the Australian PGA Championship in 2019 and we are excited to turn Royal Queensland into a sea of yellow this December,” said Gavin Kirkman, chief executive of the PGA of Australia.
“It was incredible to see hundreds of golf clubs around Australia support this great cause in 2019 and the PGA is honoured to once again partner with Challenge and Golf Australia to be a part of this important initiative in 2020.
“PGA Professionals working in clubs around the country have thrown their support behind #DoingItForJarrod days and we look forward to seeing them bring their clubs together throughout October and November.”
Creating yellow-themed events, encouraging club members to don yellow and selling Challenge merchandise at your club are just some of the ways you can help raise money. All donations are tax-deductible.
“In 2019 more than 200 golf clubs around Australia participated in the inaugural #DoingItForJarrod campaign, resulting in an incredible $200,000 raised,” said Briony Lyle, Jarrod’s wife.
“With the help of golf clubs around Australia once again in 2020, we hope to continue raising money to support a cause that was so close to Jarrod’s, and my, heart.”
All monies raised through #DoingItForJarrod will go towards a special legacy, Jarrod’s Gift, that has been created by Challenge in Jarrod’s honour.
You can help Challenge by donating directly, or purchasing clothing and pins carrying the Leuk the Duck symbol Jarrod Lyle wore as a Challenge ambassador, by visiting www.challenge.org.au.
To register your club for #DoingItForJarrod in 2020, or for further information, please visit the Challenge website.
Will you be #DoingItForJarrod in 2020?
The 29th season of the Volkswagen Scramble officially teed off on 1 August ahead of a jam-packed wrap-around schedule set to run through to March 2021.
As restrictions change around Australia teams will begin their 2020/2021 Volkswagen Scramble campaigns from the event’s normal start date of August with the aim of earning a place at the coveted Volkswagen Scramble Championship Final next May.
While the COVID-19 delayed 2019/2020 season continues with Regional Finals underway around the country, PGA of Australia Events Manager Louise Meagher says the Volkswagen Scramble’s 29th season will be bigger and better than ever before.
“We are excited to launch the next season of the Volkswagen Scramble in a time where people are playing more golf and are excited about the game,” said Meagher.
“The Volkswagen Scramble is about fun, a bit of friendly competition and bringing people together so while the pandemic remains front-of-mind, we are doing everything that we can to ensure that our events are run in a safe and healthy manner for all participants while keeping the Scramble atmosphere alive.
“In our third season with Volkswagen we are committed to continuing the Scramble’s legacy as the largest and most successful team golf event and we know that this season will be one of the most exciting yet.”
Volkswagen’s Marketing Communications Manager, Rowena Kanna, also shared the PGA’s sentiments about the upcoming season.
“Volkswagen Group Australia and our national dealer network are delighted to support local golfing communities and bring them together in the healthy spirit of competition with the Volkswagen Scramble,” Kanna said.
“We can’t wait to share in the tales of triumph and comradery on the course as friends compete in the largest amateur golfing event in Australia to make their way to the coveted Volkswagen Scramble Championship Final.”
The ever-popular team format of the Volkswagen Scramble consisting of four golfers will remain and we have worked with our equipment partner Callaway to improve the prizes on offer across all levels of the event season.
“Thanks to the support of Callaway we have been able to bring back golf bags for 1st place at all local events. These have always been very well received by the winners” added Meagher.
Along with the new X Carry golf bags we have added Chrome Soft TruVis and the new Chrome Soft Triple Track golf balls, towels, caps and for the larger events we have also added four of the new Callaway MD5 JAWS wedges to the prize table.
Regional finalists for the 2020/2021 season will receive tee gifts, hospitality and the opportunity to compete for over $2,000 worth of prizes from Callaway when they team up with a PGA Professional to vie for a place at the Volkswagen Scramble Championship Final.
Broome Golf Club hosted the first Volkswagen Scramble event of the season on 11 July and clubs around Australia are beginning to schedule in local event dates.
To find a Volkswagen Scramble near you, visit www.vwscramble.com.au or reach out to your local club directly.
Golf clubs in Australia’s worst bushfire affected regions have received a funding boost, thanks to the generosity of the golf community around the world.
In January 2020, the Australian Golf Industry Council (AGIC) established the 2020 Australian Golf Bushfire Appeal Fund via a GoFundMe Page to raise funds for golf clubs who had been impacted by the fires.
The appeal generated $67,000 which has now been allocated directly to golf clubs impacted by the bushfire season across Victoria, South Australia, and New South Wales, as well as the South Australian Government Bushfire Appeal and Kangaroo Island Mayoral Bushfire Appeal.
AGIC Chair Gavin Kirkman applauded the golf industry for its support during Australia’s devastating bushfire season.
“Our industry was heartbroken at the destruction that was caused by these fires,’’ Kirkman said.
“And now with COVID-19, these communities are facing an even tougher challenge, taking a bigger hit due to the significant downturn in visitor numbers.
“I have no doubt that the monies raised will go a long way in assisting affected golf clubs in their recovery.”
Kirkman said that the funding was in addition to individual fundraising efforts made by clubs and golf organisations, as well as the Melbourne Sandbelt’s initiatives including the Premiers Cup in Victoria, which raised $500,000 through a charity event held at Royal Melbourne Golf Club over the Australia Day long weekend.
The funding breakdown is as follows:
Victoria
South Australia
New South Wales
So just how did two youngsters born 130 kilometres apart in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands and who both learned their golf in the state’s south-west end up sharing a place in the Texas Golf Hall of Fame?
Although Steve Elkington was born two years after Bruce Devlin shot to prominence by winning the 1960 Australian Open as an amateur, the pair trod an eerily similar path to reach the upper echelons of world golf.
Devlin was convinced by none other than Norman von Nida to quit his father’s plumbing business in Goulburn and take his golf talents abroad while some 20 years later Elkington blazed a trail by leaving his home town of Wagga Wagga to take up a scholarship at the University of Houston.
Already an accomplished amateur in his home country, Elkington quickly showed that Aussies could further their careers and be valuable additions to US college programs by playing a leading role in the Cougars’ squad that won national titles in 1982, 1984 and 1985.
That college career – and a runner-up finish to Nick Price at the 1992 Texas Open – secured Elkington’s place in the history books of the Lone Star State and provided the grounding for one of the best PGA TOUR records of any Australian player.
Only six Australian players have more PGA TOUR wins than Elkington’s 10 and his 1995 US PGA Championship at Riviera Country Club elevated his standing in golf history to the very elite level.
Starting the final round six strokes back of South African Ernie Els, Elkington’s aggressive approach led to a near flawless 64 and a playoff showdown with Scotland’s Colin Montgomerie, a playoff he would win with yet another birdie at the first extra hole.
Renowned as one of the game’s purest ball-strikers, Elkington would twice come to the fore at what is unofficially dubbed ‘the fifth major’, The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, the most notable of which was a seven-stroke demolition of the field in 1997.
As Elkington was a trailblazer for young Aussies considering using the college system to play their way into the opportunities offered by the PGA TOUR, Devlin was one of the first Australians to make a permanent base for themselves in the US.
A resident of Texas to this day, Devlin joined the PGA TOUR in 1962 when foreign players were few and far between and quickly established his credentials as one of the leading players on tour.
His first win came in 1964 at the St Petersburg Open Invitational and three of his eight PGA TOUR titles would come in Texas, the 1966 Colonial National Invitation, the 1969 Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the 1972 Houston Open, one of two wins that year that saw Devlin finish eighth on the moneylist with prizemoney of $US119,768.
Although he didn’t emulate Elkington’s feat of winning a major championship Devlin was a regular contender in golf’s showpiece events, with five top-10 finishes in each of the Masters, US Open and Open Championship, his five top-10s in The Open coming in successive years from 1964-1968.
At the completion of his playing days Devlin turned his talents to course design and made a lasting impression with designs at 16 Texas courses, including at TPC Woodlands that was a long-time host of the Houston Open.
Both Devlin and Elkington have been immortalised with their inductions into the Texas World Golf Hall of Fame; now they are seeking to stay in contention to be crowned Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Bruce Devlin
Career wins: 31
PGA TOUR wins: 8
Australasian Tour wins: 19
Australian Open: Won (1960)
Australian PGA: Won (1969, 1970)
Round 1 def. Frank Phillips
Round 2 def. Hannah Green
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)
Round 1 def. Peter O’Malley
Round 2 def. Rachel Hetherington
If you want to see the depth of talent in Australian golf anxiously awaiting a return to competition, look no further than the State Challenge.
A six-time European Tour winner, a boom South Australian amateur and emerging female professional all held strong against a collection of the best from Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.
While Covid-19 may have hindered Jack Thompson’s immediate plans to turn professional, the world No.67 amateur proved he has the talent to compete at the top level. The 2020 Isuzu Queensland Open runner-up and low amateur edged out fierce competition at Glenelg to take the South Australian State Challenge with a comfortable eight-shot margin.
The 22-year-old said “it feels good” to get one up on some of the state’s best, with consistent scoring the key to his victory.
“I didn’t think too much about them being pros,” said Thompson, who finished 11 under. “I just tried to play to my own game. Looking back now, it’s nice to know.
“Hopefully when events come back, I’ll be good to go.”
Local knowledge also came in handy for amateur Jack Buchanan, recording an ace on the par-three 14th.
In Queensland, Karis Davidson never relinquished her lead throughout the 108-hole tournament, pulling ahead by eight shots to win at Coolangatta Tweed Heads.
The 22-year-old shot a blistering eight-under-par 64 to squash any late advances, cashing in on her four previous sub-par rounds to run away with the title.
Southport amateur Elvis Smylie and professionals Shae Wools-Cobb and David Gleeson finished in a tie for second on 345.
Brett Rumford’s birthday celebrations might be a little bigger tonight as the 43-year-old left the WA field in his wake by a commanding 10 strokes.
The short game master produced five rounds of 67 plus a 73 to claim the title at Lake Karrinyup, with amateur Connor McKinney in second on 345. Hannah Green was the best placed female a further shot back.
The State Challenge – a joint initiative by Golf Australia, the PGA of Australia and the ALPG – was born as a contest for elite amateurs with a handful of local professionals invited to bolster the experience and to stay rust-free before they return to global tours. Participating states (Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia) each hosted three 36-hole stroke play events for fields comprising nine professionals and nine amateurs (12 men and 6 women).
To view the full State Challenge results click here.
Two of their most significant career milestones were separated by just 77 days.
Karrie Webb’s victory at the 2006 Kraft Nabisco Championship would represent her seventh and final major crown; little more than two months later Geoff Ogilvy etched his name into Australian golf history with an all-time up-and-down at the 72nd hole to claim the 2006 US Open at Winged Foot.
It’s been a tick over 14 years since Ogilvy’s triumph yet even more challenging than a Sunday showdown with Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie is the task of moving past our greatest major champion as we edge closer to identifying Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Few players – male or female – have asserted dominance in the manner of Karrie Webb at the turn of the century. In a two-year period Webb racked up four majors among 10 LPGA Tour victories, prompting Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez to declare the shy Queenslander as “the Tiger Woods of women’s golf” just as Tiger Woods was doing very Tiger Woods things.
From the moment Webb won the 1997 Weetabix Women’s British Open at 20 years of age she was on a path to greatness, even if the fame and attention that came with it never sat too well.
Her first official major title was the 1999 du Maurier Classic and in 2001 Webb won three of the biggest events that the ladies play for.
If Webb was dominant internationally what she did on home soil was downright unfair.
Anyone who wanted to win either the Australian Ladies Masters or Women’s Australian Open had to first go through Webb, and few were successful.
Webb won four straight Masters titles at RACV Royal Pines Resort from 1998-2001 and over the space of three years from 2000 didn’t finish worse than second in either of the ALPG Tour’s two most prestigious events.
Eligible for the World Golf Hall of Fame at 25 years of age – she was officially inducted in 2005 – Webb was regarded by none other than five-time British Open champion Peter Thomson as our most accomplished golfer of all time.
The sheer number of tournament wins dusts almost everyone who has ever played the game whereas Ogilvy seemed to save his very best for when the game’s leading players all congregated.
In addition to his Winged Foot wizardry, Ogilvy won three World Golf Championships in the space of three years, defeating major champions Mike Weir, Tom Lehman, Davis Love III, Rory McIlroy and Stewart Cink on his way to Match Play Championship wins in 2006 and 2009.
Two of his eight PGA TOUR titles came at the season-opening Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in successive years, demolishing the field of certified PGA TOUR winners by six strokes at Kapalua’s Plantation Course in 2009.
He has only two wins on the PGA Tour of Australasia, and they are the two most feted, the 2008 Australian PGA Championship at Coolum and 2010 Australian Open at The Lakes.
Not only do their playing records stack up against the best Australia has ever produced but their considered voices make them two of the most influential people in the game, even as their on-course commitments decrease.
Both are engaged in golf course design, highly sought-after for their insights and big supporters of the Oates Vic Open and the opportunities it provides for both male and female golfers.
Undisputedly two of our all-time greats.
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)
Round 1 def. Eric Cremin
Round 2 def. Peter Senior
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)
Round 1 def. Wayne Smith
Round 2 def. John Senden
Few stare down a shark and live to tell the tale but doing so set Aaron Baddeley on a path to history.
With his HSC exams completed only weeks earlier, an 18-year-old Baddeley faced his greatest test as a young golfer, closing out the national championship as an amateur as the Great White Shark lay in wait in the clubhouse.
Greg Norman’s brilliant birdie at the 72nd hole of the 1999 Australian Open at Royal Sydney Golf Club challenged Baddeley to play mistake-free golf over the closing holes, a challenge he met to earn immediate respect.
Even Norman himself, a five-time winner of the Stonehaven Cup, liked what he saw.
“He has it all,” Norman said after Baddeley became the first amateur to win the Australian Open since Bruce Devlin in 1960.
“You can see it in his eyes.”
Runner-up to Adam Scott in a Greg Norman Junior Masters at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Baddeley ensured he and Norman’s names would be etched together in history when he claimed the 2001 Greg Norman International at The Lakes Golf Club, besting another rising star in Spain’s Sergio Garcia in a playoff to further entrench his name as one of the brightest prospects in world golf.
Twenty years later Norman selected Baddeley to make his Presidents Cup debut at Royal Melbourne Golf Club and now the pair meet for a place in the semi-finals of our search to identify Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Like Baddeley, Norman burst onto the Australian golf landscape with fearlessness and daring.
He was 21 years of age when he claimed what would be the first of 89 professional titles at the 1976 West Lakes Classic in Adelaide but his ferocious tee shots and shock of blonde hair had already began to attract attention.
PGA Immortal Charlie Earp honed Norman’s natural aggression to develop him into one of the greatest drivers of the golf ball the world has ever known and a world No.1 for what was then a record of 331 weeks in succession.
He won successive Australian PGA Championships by eight strokes in 1984 and 1985 and the following year broke through for his first win in a major, the 1986 Open Championship at Muirfield.
Norman added a second at Royal St George’s in 1993 but is known as much for his major heartbreaks as he is for his triumphs, defeated in a playoff on four separate occasions at the 1984 US Open, 1987 Masters, 1989 Open and 1993 US PGA Championship.
His playing record is among the greatest the game has ever known and his playing style and ‘Great White Shark’ brand made him the most influential Australian golfer of all time.
Now he has to get past the kid who dared to defy the Shark all those years ago to earn a place in the final four of Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Greg Norman
Career wins: 89
Major wins: 2 (British Open 1986, 1993)
PGA TOUR wins: 20
Australasian Tour wins: 32
Australian Open: Won (1980, 1985, 1987, 1995, 1996)
Australian PGA: Won (1984, 1985)
Round 1 def. Stewart Ginn
Round 2 def. Wayne Grady
Aaron Baddeley
Career wins: 8
PGA TOUR wins: 4
Australasian Tour wins: 4
Australian Open: Won (1999, 2000)
Australian PGA: T4 (2011)
Round 1 def. Billy Dunk
Round 2 def. Jim Ferrier
Australian golfers have always known the courses they play on offer more than just a round of golf.
They know that playing the game can not only benefit the wellbeing and social connectivity of its participants, but also the significant role that Australian golf courses play in the protection of our environment.
Golf: Benefits to the Environment – a document released today by the Australian Golf Industry Council (AGIC), solidifies that knowledge, highlighting the range of unique ways that Australia’s golf courses contribute to the conservation and management of our natural resources.
AGIC chair Gavin Kirkman said the document was designed to highlight the environmental benefits of well-designed golf courses and promotes golf as a leader in sustainable sport and business.
“Golf has a significant role to play in the important endeavour of conservation and land management, offering a range of benefits to the environment and the overall wellbeing of its participants,” he said.
“Australian golfers and the people employed at Australia’s golf courses already know the vital role that courses play in conservation.
“It’s now time for the rest of the community to discover the significant contribution our golf courses make in preserving open space and protecting and enhancing flora and fauna within both rural and urban environments.”
The document outlines eight benefits – with case studies – that golf courses in Australia provide to the community, including:
“The purpose of this document is to inform the community of the broad range of benefits that golf courses offer to land usage, environmental management, vegetation and acting as a haven for native flora and fauna,” Kirkman said.
“We want to build community awareness around the land used by golf. Golf courses are more than just an asset for community sport and recreation; they are an integral component of effective town planning and design, offering significant environmental benefits, especially in urban areas.
“They provide an opportunity to enrich the environment by housing a diverse and rich ecology and serve as a valuable resource for education in schools, community interest groups, and the community as a whole.”
A copy of the document can be found at: Golf: Benefits to the Environment, 2020, Australian Golf Industry Council
In a true ‘Open for the ages’ there can only be one winner, and he’s an understated gent from Brunswick in Melbourne.
On Sunday night Fox Sports will broadcast ‘The Open For The Ages’, a joint initiative between the R&A and Sky Sports UK that has collated more than 300 pieces of archive footage from past Championships at St Andrews dating back to 1970 to determine golf’s ultimate Open champion at the game’s spiritual home.
Only two Australians have ever won The Open across the Old Course of St Andrews but it is Peter Thomson’s record both in the championship and at the course that would provide the blueprint to his own design philosophy that makes his case compelling.
Given that the R&A have only gone back as far as 50 years to the 1970 Open Championship – where at 40 years of age Thomson finished tied for ninth as Jack Nicklaus claimed his second consecutive Open at St Andrews – Thomson may not feature heavily in the broadcast but his record is unlikely to ever be equalled.
From the time he finished runner-up to South African great Bobby Locke in the 1952 championship at Royal Lytham, Thomson didn’t finish worse than second in seven consecutive Opens.
He won three in succession from 1954 – including the 1955 championship at St Andrews – was second again in 1957 at St Andrews and won his fourth Open in the space of five years at Lytham in 1958.
When great friend Kel Nagle triumphed over Arnold Palmer at the Old Course in 1960 Thomson was eight strokes back in a tie for ninth before claiming his fifth Open title at Royal Birkdale in 1965, second only to Harry Vardon for the most wins in golf’s oldest and most revered championship.
In 1978 at 48 years of age Thomson again showed his affinity for St Andrews when he finished tied for 24th and his final appearance at the championship came fittingly at the Old Course in 1984.
“I never got the chance to meet Peter Thomson but obviously I know his record,” said Marcus Fraser, an Open participant on six occasions and a contender in the final round at St Andrews in 2015.
“When you think about it it’s pretty amazing.
“To win five of them and be runner-up in three others is just crazy.
“I don’t care what era it is, that was the best players anywhere in the world at that time.
“It’s just amazing. It’s perhaps the most impressive record of anyone.”
Such was the reverence that Thomson was held by anyone who played The Open, Aussies would clamour for the chance to play a practice round with the five-time champion and pick his brain for any morsel of knowledge he cared to share.
The likes of Bruce Devlin, David Graham and Rodger Davis all benefited from spending some of their preparation in Thomson’s presence, his grace and confident ease conveying god-like status on the British links.
In the 50-year span that ‘The Open For the Ages’ covers we witnessed three Australian victories – Greg Norman’s triumphs at Muirfield in 1986 and Royal St George’s in 1993 along with Ian Baker-Finch’s brilliant weekend to win at Birkdale in 1991.
Norman and Baker-Finch both finished top-10 in the 1984 and 1990 Opens at St Andrews but the closest an Aussie has come to winning at the Old Course since Nagle did so in 1960 was Marc Leishman in 2015, the Victorian finishing tied at the top with Zach Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen before falling short in the four-hole aggregate playoff.
In order to create a sense of authenticity to the broadcast hundreds of digital corrections have been made to clips including the removal of caddies and playing partners from original footage and the introduction and removal of golf balls on greens to ensure that the viewer feels what they are watching is actually happening.
The winner of The Open For The Ages has been determined by a fan vote, which registered more than 10,000 responses, and a data model developed in partnership with NTT DATA that utilises this fan vote along with player career statistics and historical data from The Open to calculate the Champion.
‘The Open For The Ages’ will be shown from 8pm on Sunday night on Fox Sports 503.
The ‘Pymble Crusher’ versus the ‘Fremantle Flusher’. No, this is not a throwback to 1970s wrestling with audacious nicknames and questionable costumes but a match-up of two unlikely combatants in our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer. Perhaps no other sport on the planet could pit two such contrasting athletes who have played in such different […]
The ‘Pymble Crusher’ versus the ‘Fremantle Flusher’.
No, this is not a throwback to 1970s wrestling with audacious nicknames and questionable costumes but a match-up of two unlikely combatants in our search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.
Perhaps no other sport on the planet could pit two such contrasting athletes who have played in such different times and still deliver a fair comparison.
Despite starting as assistant to Tom Popplewell at Pymble Golf Club at 16 years of age Kel Nagle didn’t play his first tournament as a professional until 26 years of age. Minjee Lee is still two years shy of her 26th birthday yet already boasts seven professional wins and has risen to as high as No.2 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings.
When Nagle had completed almost five years in the Army and pursued professional golf he was known for his length off the tee but not so much his control. An ill-fated trip to Britain in 1951 highlighted just how important harnessing his power would be to greater success, returning nine years later to claim the defining win of his career, the 1960 Open Championship.
Nagle went head-to-head with Arnold Palmer to triumph at St Andrews but he was by no means a one-win wonder.
A second major championship narrowly eluded him when he lost an 18-hole playoff to Gary Player at the 1965 US Open but over the course of his career he would be victorious in the national championships of Britain, Canada, France, New Zealand, Switzerland and the 1959 Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club.
If his place in Australian golf history wasn’t already secure Nagle also boasts the record as the most prolific winner of the Australian PGA Championship, his six victories coming at Royal Perth, Royal Sydney, Kooyonga, New South Wales, Riversdale and Metropolitan golf clubs, four in matchplay format and the last two in strokeplay.
Where Nagle had a delayed introduction to professional golf, Minjee Lee was mixing it with the best players in the world – and beating them – whilst still a teenager.
At just 14 years of age Lee won the WA Amateur Open and two years later established herself on the world amateur scene with victory at the 2012 US Girls Junior Championship, the only Australian to have won that title to date.
Lee was still a few months shy of her 18th birthday when she streeted the field by six shots to claim the 2014 Oates Vic Open and subsequently climbed to No.1 in the world amateur rankings, a position she would hole until turning professional in September 2014.
In the 11th start of her LPGA Tour rookie year in 2015 Lee broke through for her first win on the leading female tour and has missed just 13 cuts in 135 starts between 2015 and 2019.
The 24-year-old has added four further LPGA Tour titles to her resume but is still pushing for that first major championship, her best finish to date a tie for third at the 2017 ANA Inspiration.
Although her career already stacks up well against the best players Australia has ever produced, time is well and truly on her side to join the ranks of our major champions.
Kel Nagle
Career wins: 78
Major wins: 1 (1960 Open Championship)
Australasian Tour wins: 61
Australian Open: Won (1959)
Australian PGA: Won (1949, 1954, 1958, 1959, 1965, 1968)
Round 1 def. Roger Mackay
Round 2 def. Craig Parry
Minjee Lee
Career wins: 7
LPGA Tour wins: 5
ALPG Tour wins: 2
Women’s Australian Open: T3 (2017)
Australian Ladies Masters: 2nd (2014)
Round 1 def. Brett Ogle
Round 2 def. Bruce Crampton
