Some golfers are remembered for what they do on the golf course, others for the way that they do it.

When evaluating the careers of Stuart Appleby and Ian Stanley it’s hard to look past the personalities to their actual accomplishments.

Both men had their grounding on the Melbourne sandbelt, Stanley becoming a much-loved figure at Huntingdale Golf Club and Appleby joining Yarra Yarra Golf Club after making the move down from Cohuna on the Murray River.

A two-time Victorian Junior champion, Stanley completed a three-year apprenticeship under Geoff Flanagan at Huntingdale and then in 1975 recorded his first win as a professional in, of all places, Papua New Guinea. Also that year Stanley was joint winner of the Martini International along with Christy O’Connor and won the Queensland Open by four strokes, the first of eight wins on the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Runner-up at the 1974 Australian PGA Championship when he lost an 18-hole playoff with Billy Dunk by a single stroke, Stanley’s greatest accomplishments on the course arguably came after his 50th birthday.

Shortly after joining the seniors ranks ‘Stan the Man’ won the 1998 Australian Senior PGA Championship and in 2001 claimed the Senior British Open, defeating New Zealand’s Bob Charles in a playoff in a field that boasted Jack Nicklaus, Dave Stockton and Gary Player.

The winner of 30 professional events in his career, it was Stanley’s charitable efforts following the accident to good friend Jack Newton in 1983 that endeared him to everyone within Australian golf.

He travelled the country raising money for the Jack Newton Trust and would later establish Tee Up for Kids that raises money for underprivileged kids in Victoria, passing away after a long battle with cancer in July 2018 at age 69.

Appleby too has used his profile to help others, establishing the Stuart Appleby Junior Golf foundation to aid the development of juniors in Victoria.

Winner of the 1991 Queensland Open as an amateur, Appleby turned professional the following year, his first win as a bona fide pro coming at the 1994 Victorian PGA Championship.

In 1995 Appleby made the move to the United States and made an instant impression, winning his first event on the then Nike Tour and adding a second title in October, finishing fifth on the moneylist to earn promotion to the PGA Tour.

It only took until Appleby’s second year on tour to earn his breakthrough PGA TOUR title at the 1997 Honda Classic but there would be two feats in particular that would make Appleby a household name.

Appleby had rounds of 62 and 63 in his victory at the 2003 Las Vegas Invitational which earned a return to the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in 2004, Appleby winning three years in succession to be dubbed the ‘King of Kapalua’.

The most recent of Appleby’s nine PGA TOUR wins came at the now-defunct Greenbrier Classic in 2010 and it was one for the record books, becoming just the fifth player to shoot 59 in a PGA TOUR event – in the final round no less – to win by a shot. Later that year he was awarded PGA TOUR Comeback Player of the Year.

Appleby boasts a top-10 finish in each of golf’s four majors, the closest he came to the trophy coming at the 2002 Open Championship when he and fellow Aussie Steve Elkington finished one shot behind Ernie Els in the four-hole aggregate playoff.

Within Australia Appleby has claimed three of our most enduring tournaments, the 1998 Coolum Classic, 2001 Australian Open and 2010 Australian Masters.

Stuart Appleby
Career wins: 17
PGA TOUR wins: 9
Australasian Tour wins: 3
Australian Open: Won (2001)
Australian PGA: T2 (1997)

Ian Stanley
Career wins: 30
European Tour wins: 1
Seniors Tour wins: 3
Australasian Tour wins: 19
Australian Open: T3 (1975)
Australian PGA: 2nd (1974)

If we were on a quest to discover the most influential people in Australian golf history, Graham Marsh and Karen Lunn would almost certainly qualify for the quarter-finals.

Both remain heavily entrenched within Australian golf, Marsh in his capacity as designer of two courses that have hosted PGA Tour of Australasia events in recent years and Lunn as CEO of the Australian Ladies Professional Golf, providing playing opportunities for members that she had to fight so hard for in her playing days.

Indeed, Marsh was integral in the establishment of accepted worldwide practices for the PGAs across the globe in the late 1970s and was voted in as the inaugural president of the Tournament Players’ Section of the PGA of Australia.

His first act of business was to campaign for Kel Nagle to be granted an exemption into the 1978 Australian Open, an exemption the Australian Golf Union finally granted.

But this is a measure of Marsh and Lunn as players and both possess resumes of such quality as to put them among Australia’s finest.

A maths teacher prior to pursuing a professional golf career, Marsh brought a methodical approach to the game and found success across the globe.

In 1973 he was the holder of five Open championships (Switzerland, Germany, India, Thailand and Scotland) and was the first player to win $100,000 in prize money without teeing it up in an event on American soil.

Ultimately he did try his luck in the US and claimed the 1977 Heritage Classic on the PGA TOUR, voted Australian Sportsman of the Year later that year, but it was in Japan where Marsh had his greatest success, winning 20 times between 1973 and 1990.

Although he finished inside the top-10 in majors on six occasions it wasn’t until Marsh joined the over-50s that he tasted major success, winning the 1997 US Senior Open and the 1999 The Tradition, two of his six wins on the Champions Tour.

Lunn’s crowning glory was a major triumph if not quite recognised in the record books.

The Women’s British Open was not considered a major championship when Lunn demolished the field at Woburn Golf Club by eight strokes in 1993, the tournament added to the LPGA Tour schedule in 1994 and elevated to major status in 2001.

After turning professional in 1985 Lunn wasted little time in asserting her talents in Europe, the 1986 Borlange Open the first of 10 tournament wins on the Ladies European Tour.

In addition to two wins on the Ladies Asian Golf Tour Lunn also won four times on the ALPG Tour that she now presides over.

Match 15 | Australia’s Greatest Golfer ?️

Two people who continue to contribute to Australian golf had playing careers to be envied; Graham Marsh meets Karen Lunn in our continuing search for Australia’s Greatest Golfer.

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) April 22, 2020

Graham Marsh
Career wins: 70
European Tour wins: 10
Japan Tour wins: 20
Australasian Tour wins: 7
Australian Open: 2nd (1979, 1986)
Australian PGA: Won (1972)

Karen Lunn
Career wins: 16
Ladies European Tour wins: 10
Australasian Tour wins: 4
ANZ Ladies Masters: 6 (1992)

There’s a case to be made that both Rodger Davis and Matt Jones are under-appreciated within Australian golf.

Davis spent much of his career swimming in the shadow of the Great White Shark while Jones has forged a career on the PGA TOUR and won two Australian Opens without any of the fanfare associated with contemporaries such as Adam Scott and Jason Day.

Indeed, Jones was introduced to Greg Norman in 1987 in a Channel Seven news segment at just six years of age after a hole-in-one at the local Kareela Golf Club in Sydney’s south, the next ‘blonde bomber’ waiting in the wings.

“I like his personality. He’s got a good swing, got a good attitude,” Norman said.

 In a career boasting 30 wins worldwide, Davis would likely have won even more tournaments if not for Norman’s presence yet revelled in the energy the Aussie No.1 brought wherever he played.

“It was great being in that era with Greg because he could flat-out play,” Davis said in a 2018 interview with Australian Golf Digest.

“You just hoped you could get in his slipstream.”

Four years Norman’s senior, Davis turned professional in 1974 but after early success – including a two-stroke win over Norman at the European Tour’s State Express Classic in 1981 – put family first and moved to the Sunshine Coast to run a motel.

The deal turned sour and left Davis and his family virtually bankrupt and with little choice but to return to tournament golf.

With renewed dedication to fitness and determination to provide for his family, Davis won four times in 1986 and by the time he won the 1991 Volvo Masters had risen to 10th in the world. His best finish in a major came in 1987 when he was runner-up by a stroke to Nick Faldo at the Open Championship at Muirfield, a tournament in which he opened with a course record 64.

Currently, the chairman of the PGA of Australia, Davis is perhaps best remembered for his win at the 1988 Bicentennial Classic played at Royal Melbourne.

In a field boasting local legends such as Norman, Ian Baker-Finch, Wayne Grady, Craig Parry and Brett Ogle along with US stars Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller and Craig Stadler competing for the richest prize in Australian golf history it was Davis and his famous plus-twos who rose to the top, defeating Fred Couples at the second playoff hole.

Davis also owns the honour of being the latest Australian to win on the Champions Tour, winning the 2003 Toshiba Senior Classic by four strokes.

In contrast to Davis and his unmistakable fashion choices, Jones has established his credentials in relative anonymity.

Save for his early star turn with the Shark, Jones has made steady progression throughout his career.

An All-American during his time at Arizona State, Jones turned professional in 2001 but took until 2008 to play his way onto the PGA TOUR courtesy of finishing seventh on the Nationwide Tour moneylist the year prior.

His sole win in America came at the 2014 Shell Houston Open where he chipped in to defeat Matt Kuchar at the first playoff hole but it is his performances at The Australian Golf Club that have elevated his standing most.

A junior member at the club, Jones holed a nervy putt on the 72nd hole to finish one stroke clear of Adam Scott and Jordan Spieth to win the 2015 Australian Open and endured another dramatic finale to his second Stonehaven Cup win last December.

Believing he had a two-shot buffer standing on the 18th tee of the final round, Jones was informed after finding the fairway bunker with his tee shot that South African Louis Oosthuizen had eagled the par-5 finishing hole to close the margin to one.

After his second shot clipped a tree branch Jones required a delicate up-and-down to become just the 14th player to win the Australian Open on more than one occasion, successfully holing out from five feet to win for the second time at the famed Kensington layout.

Showing his fondness for his national championship, Jones has also finished runner-up in 2010 and 2017 and was top 10 in both 2012 and 2013.

Rodger Davis
Career wins: 30
European Tour wins: 7
Australasian Tour wins: 14
Australian Open: Won (1986)
Australian PGA: 2nd (1984, 1990, 1996)

Matt Jones
Career wins: 3
PGA TOUR wins: 1
Australasian Tour wins: 2
Australian Open: Won (2015, 2019)
Australian PGA: T30 (2017)

The list of great Australian golfers not to have won a major is both extensive and heartbreaking yet few came as close as often as Bruce Crampton.

One of many successful Aussie professionals to have done time under Billy McWilliam at Beverly Park Golf Club in Sydney, Crampton announced himself by winning the 1956 Australian Open at Royal Sydney as a 23-year-old.

A year later he headed to America and soon began mixing it with the elite of world golf.

Tied for 13th at the 1956 Open Championship – won by countryman Peter Thomson – Crampton accrued numerous top-20 finishes in majors before making his presence known near the top of the leaderboard in 1963.

Tied for fifth at the US Open and tied for third at the US PGA Championship, Crampton was regularly in contention, his nearest misses coming almost a decade later, both at the hands of Jack Nicklaus.

At the 1972 Masters Crampton began the final round four shots back of Nicklaus and although the Golden Bear shot 2-over 74 Crampton was unable to bridge the gap, finishing three shots back and level with Bobby Mitchell and Tom Weiskopf.

Crampton would finish second to Nicklaus again at the next major, the 1972 US Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Tied with Nicklaus at the top through 36 holes, Crampton shot 76 in a fourth round played in strong winds to once again finish three shots shy of a breakthrough major.

It was the start of an extraordinary run of form for Crampton who won four times on the PGA TOUR in 1973 to finish second on the moneylist, in so doing becoming just the fifth player in PGA TOUR history to earn more than $US1 million in prizemoney, joining Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper and Lee Trevino.

In addition to his 14 wins on the PGA TOUR, Crampton was a dominant force on the Champions Tour, winning 20 times and falling short in the playoff at the 1993 PGA Seniors Championship.

Twenty-one years of age and an eight-time winner during her college career at Pepperdine University, Katherine Kirk (nee Hull) was named the 2003 NCAA College Player of the Year and rocketed into the professional ranks by winning the first two events that she played on the Duramed Futures Tour.

Later that year she finished 42nd at LPGA Tour qualifying school to earn non-exempt status for 2004 and has maintained that status ever since, boasting more than $5 million in career prize money.

Touted as the successor to Karrie Webb as Australia’s top-ranked female player, Kirk secured her first LPGA Tour title in 2008 at the Canadian Women’s Open and rose to a world ranking high of 19 after finishing runner-up at the 2010 Ricoh Women’s British Open.

Her biggest win in Australia was at the 2009 ANZ Ladies Masters at Royal Pines Resort where she won by five strokes and then went head-to-head with Webb in the final round of the 2010 tournament, Webb reaching a tournament-record 26-under par as she won by six.

Kirk’s most recent LPGA Tour win came at the 2017 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic and when she finished tied for third at the Evian Championship later that year returned to the top 50 in the world for the first time in more than five years.

Along with Lindsey Wright and Vicky Uwland, Kirk was also a member of the successful Australian team that claimed the 2002 Espirito Santo Trophy in Malaysia.

Bruce Crampton
Career wins: 45
PGA TOUR wins: 14
Champions Tour wins: 20
Australasian Tour wins: 6
Australian Open: Won (1956)

Katherine Kirk
Career wins: 11
LPGA Tour wins: 3
ALPG Tour wins: 6
Women’s Australian Open: T4 (2010)
ANZ Ladies Masters: Won (2009)

Ian Baker-Finch and Brett Rumford both knew how to make an impression.

Playing in his first major championship after winning the 1983 New Zealand Open, Baker-Finch shot 68-66 in the opening two rounds of The Open Championship at St Andrews to take the 36-hole lead, for a moment overshadowing the likes of Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros.

Rumford, a West Australian who took out the Australian Amateur in 1998, hadn’t even joined the professional ranks when he won the ANZ Players Championship a year later at the fourth playoff hole against Craig Spence, a controversial win given his amateur status.

With a fashion palette that wasn’t afraid to embrace pink, Baker-Finch was destined to stand out for more than just his prodigious talent.

After his major entrée at St Andrews, ‘IBF’ joined the European Tour and notched his first win in 1985 at the Scandinavian Open.

He was invited to play on the PGA TOUR for the first time later that year and continued to share his ability with the world.

He won twice in Europe, twice on the PGA TOUR, three times in Japan and 10 times back on the Australasian Tour, his crowning glory the 1991 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Sitting in a tie for 28th through 36 holes, Baker-Finch produced 27 holes of rare brilliance to set up his major triumph.

A 6-under 64 allowed Baker-Finch to join Mark O’Meara at the top of the leaderboard and when he played the first seven holes on Sunday in 5-under par – shooting 29 for the front nine – he had taken the tournament by the scruff of the neck.

Following his shock win at Royal Queensland in 1999 Rumford turned professional in 2000 and by 2001 was plying his trade in Europe, his five-stroke win at the 2003 Aa St Omer Open in France set up by a course record 64 in the opening round.

Hailed as possessing one of the best short games in all of professional golf to this day, Rumford won again in 2004 and 2007 before achieving the rare feat of winning in successive weeks in 2013, first claiming the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea and then the Volvo China Open a week later.

Those two wins and a top-10 at the Volvo World Match Play in his next event propelled Rumford to a career high world ranking of 74.

Ian Baker-Finch
Career wins: 17
Major wins: 1 (1991 Open Championship)
PGA TOUR wins: 2
European Tour wins: 2
Australasian Tour wins: 10
Australian Open: 2nd (1983)
Australian PGA: Won (1993)

Brett Rumford
Career wins: 9
European Tour wins: 6
Australasian Tour wins: 3
Australian Open: 3 (2014)
Australian PGA: 5 (2016)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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