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Two late birdies have given Jack Wright a two-stroke buffer heading into the final round of the $35,000 NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club on the New South Wales Sapphire Coast.
Leading by one at the start of day three, Wright struggled on the par 5s early in his round but bounced back late to double his advantage by day’s end.
A first year Associate at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Wright bogeyed the par 5 second, sixth and 11th holes but, for the second consecutive day, birdied both the par-5 16th and par-5 18th for a round of 1-under 72.
His three-round total of 6-under par puts Wright two strokes clear of Concord Golf Club’s Joe Kim (71) who in turn has a one-stroke advantage from Daniel Nesbitt (73), William Bayliss (72) and Baxter Droop, whose 3-under 70 was the best of Round 3.
Based at the Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Resort on the Murray River, Droop’s round featured four birdies along with an eagle at the par-5 fourth.
Round 4 gets underway from 7.30am from the 1st and 10th tees with the lead group of Jack Wright, Joe Kim and Baxter Droop teeing off at 8.42am.
Strong winds from with south-west are predicted for Friday’s final round which will provide a stern test to close out the 2023 NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship.
First year associate Jack Wright delivered one of the rounds of the day to push one stroke clear at the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club on the NSW Sapphire Coast.
Based at Coolangatta-Tweed Heads Golf Club, Wright has won five Open matches already this year and earlier this month finished top-25 at the Tailor-Made Building Services NT PGA Championship.
He has brought that form to Tura Beach, bouncing back from an opening round of even par 73 that included a triple bogey to post 5-under 68 on Wednesday to be 5-under and leading by one.
First round leader Liam Reaper (73) is tied for second at 4-under with fellow Victorian Zac Wood, who matched Wright’s round of 5-under 68 to roar into contention.
Eleven players are within three strokes of the lead through 36 holes as 52 players made the cut to advance to the final two rounds.
Round of the day on Wednesday belonged to Wyong Golf Club’s Dylan Grogan, who went bogey-free in his 6-under 67, but shot of the day came from fellow Wyong Associate Joseph Liddle.
Playing the par-3 fifth hole, Liddle hit 6-iron, bounced once beyond the hole before spinning back for a hole-in-one, the first of his golfing life.
Round 3 gets underway from 7.30am from the first and 10th tees on Thursday with the lead group of Jack Wright, Liam Reaper and Zac Wood teeing off at 8.42am.
Three of this year’s State Associate Championship winners will go head-to-head at the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship starting Tuesday at Tura Beach Country Club on the New South Wales Sapphire Coast.
A total of 103 PGA Associates will tee it up from Tuesday vying for a slice of the $35,000 in prizemoney on offer.
Three players in particular will start the tournament full of confidence given their tournament success already this season.
Rosanna Golf Club’s Joel Mitchell comes in on the back of a dominant eight-stroke win at the WA PGA Associates Championship last week, one of three victories he has recorded in Membership Pathway Program events this year.
Prior to travelling to WA the Victorian won the Royal Melbourne Associate Invitational and he shared victory with Linus Yip at the Blacklocks Prestige Thurgoona PGA Associate Pro-Am in February.
Mitchell was also second at the Victorian PGA Associate Championship at Tocumwal Golf Club but was a distant seven shots from winner, Tim Walker.
A third year Associate at Peninsula Kingswood Country Golf Club, Walker was also victorious at The National PGA Associate Pro-Am in May and was 10th in this event 12 months ago.
With 73 of the 103 players in the field calling New South Wales home, William Bayliss shapes as the best hope among the locals.
Winner of the Tasmanian PGA Associate Championship at Barnbougle Dunes four weeks ago, Bayliss took that form to the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series where he finished tied for the win with Matt Stieger at the Gunnedah Pro-Am on April 11.
In his first year of the Membership Pathway Program at Pymble Golf Club on Sydney’s North Shore, Bayliss also boasts two runner-up finishes in Open Matches at Stonecutters Ridge and Pymble golf clubs this year.
Designed by five-time Open champion Peter Thomson, Tura Beach Country Club has the distinction of being Australia’s first golf course residential development and butts right up against Tura Beach.
The field will be cut to 50 plus ties following Wednesday’s second round with the winner to be crowned Friday afternoon.
Victorian Joel Mitchell has set his sights on more state success after cruising to an eight-stroke victory at the ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship at Chequers Golf Club.
Runner-up at the Victorian PGA Associate Championship at Tocumwal in April, Mitchell took what appeared to be an unassailable six-stroke advantage into the fourth and final round on Tuesday.
That margin ballooned to eight when Lakelands Country Club Associate Daniel Hoeve double-bogeyed the first hole of the day, Mitchell maintaining his eight-stroke lead until the very end.
A third-year Associate at Rosanna Golf Club in Melbourne, Mitchell will now turn his attention to the NSW/ACT PGA Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club starting next Tuesday followed by the Queensland PGA Associate Championship in October.
It’s all part of making his final year as a PGA Associate one where he maximises his playing opportunities.
“I always had eyes for playing a lot more this year, especially late last year when I was having a bit of success in the pro-ams,” said Mitchell.
“I’ll keep that going for the rest of the year and hopefully win a couple more.
“All that’s changed really is that I’m playing more days during the week rather than playing a match on Monday and then trying to get to the range.
“A lot more golf during the week has helped.”
With Hoeve’s early stumble, a closing round of 2-over 73 and 2-under total was enough for Mitchell to record a comfortable win.
One-under through 12 holes, Mitchell dropped four shots in the space of three holes but steadied with a birdie at 16 to keep the likes of Hoeve at bay.
“I tend to be a very aggressive player so taking the foot off the gas is not a style I like,” Mitchell added.
“I tend to feel a bit claustrophobic when I’m doing that so I had to still be aggressive.
“The game plan doesn’t change at all, it’s more a case of not letting the lead slip and to try and build it if possible.
“Even though today’s result in terms of the individual round wasn’t amazing and not what I was looking for, there was a little bit of a hiccup late in the round but I was able to hold it together.”
After his unfortunate start Hoeve closed with a round of 4-over 75 to snare outright second, seven shots clear of Jeffrey Ahn (79) from Hartfield Country Club.
Victorian Joel Mitchell produced the round of the tournament in Round 2 and then bettered it by one to take complete command of the ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship at Chequers Golf Club.
The tight, tree-lined layout 45 minutes north-east of Perth has provided a stern test to Associates from all around the country yet Mitchell mastered it on a 36-hole day two to move out to a six-stroke lead.
Tied with Daniel Hoeve (Lakelands Country Club) after Round 1, Mitchell shot 2-under 69 in Round 2 on Monday morning and then went one better with a 3-under 68 in Round 3 to build a handy buffer heading into Tuesday’s final round.
“I had the driver on a string, which was really good,” said the third-year PGA Associate at Rosanna Golf Club in Melbourne.
“The course is extremely tight and the greens are very small so picking your spots is very important.
“I hit a lot more greens today which helped out the putting a little bit; wasn’t too much stress on those up-and-downs.
“Then you’re just waiting for the putts to drop and a few of them did today.”
Starting from the 10th tee, three birdies in the space of four holes on his back nine gave Mitchell a three-shot lead heading into Round 3.
It was on the front nine again where he excelled, picking up shots at three, six and eight before really separating himself from the field with an eagle at the par-5 10th.
Back-to-back bogeys at 12 and 13 gave the chasing pack a brief respite before he steadied with five straight pars to be 4-under through 54 holes.
“Through 10 everything was going pretty good. Driver was going nice and straight, putts were dropping,” Mitchell added.
“I made one little mistake going into that par 5 due to a poor second shot. The other bogey I didn’t really deserve so it wasn’t like it was getting into my head, more holding on to the round.”
Playing in WA for the first time, Mitchell was full of praise for the playing surfaces on offer at Chequers Golf Club.
“Never played in WA before and I’m very impressed,” he said.
“They’re the best fairways I’ve played on in a while in terms of kikuyu. This is awesome to play on some good fairways.
“The greens are challenging. They’re a very, very strong grass so that is a challenge but other than that it’s been working for the week.”
The final round begins at 7.30am AWST with the final group of Mitchell (-4), Hoeve (+2) and Jeffrey Ahn (+5) to tee off at 8.18am.
Daniel Hoeve and Joel Mitchell will start Round 2 two shots clear of the field after the pair delivered the best scores on day one of the ADH Club Car WA PGA Associate Championship.
With three-time defending champion Josh Herrero now a full PGA Member, the small yet competitive field are fighting it out to add their name to an honour roll that also boasts Ritchie Smith, coach of Minjee Lee, Min Woo Lee and Hannah Green, among others.
The Chequers Golf Club 45 minutes north-east of Perth more than held its own in Round 1, Hoeve and Mitchell navigating the tight fairways and small greens best with rounds of 1-over 72.
Based at Lakelands Country Club, Hoeve had just the one birdie and two bogeys in his round, his patient approach not yielding the results he might have hoped on the greens.
“Quite a few two-putts. Hit quite a few greens in regulation,” was Hoeve’s summary.
“It’s pretty narrow. Tiny targets, tiny greens, greens are tricky to read. Condition-wise the course was great, you’ve just got to keep it in play.
“Hit fairways, hit greens in regulation and if you’re on the green you’re not going to have too long of a putt.”
Like Hoeve, Mitchell had two bogeys and a birdie in his round of 72, his birdie coming at his very first hole, the par-5 10th.
A third year PGA Associate at Rosanna Golf Club in Victoria, Mitchell dropped back to even par with a bogey at the par-4 16th and then joined Hoeve at 1-over with a dropped shot at the par-5 sixth.
Three players are in a share of third at 3-over 74, Fritz Arnold (Lake Karrinyup Country Club), Arno Madel (Busselton Golf Club) and Mitchell Jovic (Royal Perth Golf Club) all two strokes off the lead.
PGA Associates from Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria are competing to claim the WA PGA Associate crown, 84 amateurs playing alongside them in Round 1 on Sunday.
Players will complete 36 holes on Monday with Round 2 to tee off from 7am and Round 3 12pm AWST.
The PGA of Australia and Holmesglen Institute are opening up more opportunities for students to pursue a career in the business of sport as the next significant step in their innovative partnership.
The Australian-first PGA Institute, established at the prestigious Sandhurst Golf Club in Melbourne’s south, has a range of courses for students keen to pursue or develop careers in the golf industry.
Now the partners are announcing an automatic eligibility pathway to allow students who complete the Diploma of Golf Management to proceed to a Bachelor of Sports Business.
Students have two options – attending the PGA Institute on-campus at Sandhurst for 12 months followed by two-and-a-half years at Holmesglen; or undertaking two years online study with the PGA Institute and then two-and-a-half years at Holmesglen.
The Institute offers dedicated golf business training in an integrated and effective golfing ecosystem. Through the Hub collaboration, Holmesglen is delivering accredited courses in Sports Turf Management and Hospitality Management between its Glen Waverley campus, Zest training restaurant and Sandhurst. A tourism course is also available.
All courses, which are nationally accredited and endorsed by the PGA, provide practical training, industry placement and a focus on the golf industry, which employs over 25,000 people in Australia.
PGA General Manager – Membership and Education, Geoff Stewart, said: “We are proud of our partnership with Holmesglen Institute, Victoria’s largest TAFE, to provide an unrivalled golf education offering for our industry now and into the future.
“Our team at the PGA Institute, which is the number one location for people seeking a career in golf, is excited about this development in our collaboration with Holmesglen which will offer students the opportunity for further education that can benefit their careers not only in golf but the broader sporting industry.”
Andrew Williamson, Executive Director, Holmesglen Institute, said: “The relationship between Holmesglen Institute and PGA Australia – through the PGA Institute – continues to evolve.
“This new pathway initiative again works to the complementary strengths of both partners to provide a high-quality educational outcome for students. As with all PGA Institute activities, the Diploma of Golf Management to Holmesglen’s Bachelor of Sport Business pathway is securely underpinned by excellent industry connections, ensuring that graduates are highly sought after as they start their sporting careers.”
For more information on study programs and enrolment, click here.
Greg Hohnen was an Assistant Professional in his 20s when a long-time member at their beloved Killara Golf Club passed on some sage advice.
The young Hohnen had already tasted life as a pro on the old PGA Tour of Australia, won on the pro-am circuit and felt the culture of his established Sydney club.
“I remember the encounter clearly. An older Killara member, John Harrowell, said, ‘Son, you might contemplate another position or one with more money but the best advice I can give you is, ‘Don’t leave anything you are enjoying’,” Hohnen recounted.
“Well, it’s 2023 and I’m still here with a passion. Every day I come in the driveway of the club I know I’m going to enjoy myself.”
Much of that has to do with Hohnen himself, his upbeat attitude and the genuine connection between Killara and its Head Professionals over decades.
Remarkably, the club has only had three over the past 70 years through the late David Mercer, Hohnen and his fellow Head Professional, Patrick Fairweather.
Killara Golf Club recently honoured Hohnen, 66, with a cocktail party for more than 200 people to celebrate his 50-year connection.
“It was a great evening and I consider it a wonderful association over 50 years. Killara has always been very supportive of its golf professionals when a number of clubs have changed ideas and taken over pro shops, some successfully, some not,” said Hohnen, pictured with David Mercer and Peter Fowler at the 2018 David Mercer Pro-Am.
“I’ve considered it a privilege that the club has twice given me trips to try to qualify for the Senior Open just as they did Dave in 1973 when he did qualify for The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
“It cuts both ways. I have wonderful members to work for. There’s no retirement plan.”
The teenaged Hohnen caught public transport to Royal Sydney when he started his apprenticeship under Mercer’s brother, Alex, in 1973.
“I’d caddied for Dave as a kid and he said if I got my handicap down to three he’d look at starting me as an apprentice. A position opened for me at Killara later that same year,” Hohnen said.
Hohnen enjoyed his time playing on the local tour. In 1989, he finished joint 10th behind Greg Norman in the Australian Tournament Players Championship at Riverside Oaks.
It’s their third round together that he recalls with a classic story and a chuckle.
“Greg birdied the final three holes for a 69 and I birdied the final two holes for a 70,” Hohnen recalled.
“Greg said, ‘Great day, good luck, hope we play better tomorrow’.
“I had to say, ‘You might have felt you didn’t play great, but I did. That was my A game.’”
Hohnen is proud that his mentor’s name lives on so vibrantly through the David Mercer Senior Classic on the Legends Tour. This year, Hohnen will host at Killara on November 16 with a bumper purse of $100,000 thanks to the backing of Thompson Health Care.
“I always wanted a Pro-Am to honour David’s name. For it to be successful over the years with great member backing and showing off the renovated course is a great credit to Killara Golf Club,” Hohnen said.
Winning the PGA Professionals Championship has led to another honour for Scott Laycock.
The Tasmanian-based pro has been named as captain of the Australian squad which will play in the Four Nations Cup on home soil at Moonah Links against teams from South Africa, Canada and New Zealand in September.
The Four Nations Cup is a professional tournament with a difference. To be eligible for selection, players must be a Full Vocational Member of the PGA of their respective country and not hold a full Tour card.
Now a Teaching Professional at Royal Hobart Golf Club, Laycock had a long and successful career as a touring pro, gaining four Tour victories, playing in three majors and climbing as high as 69th on the Official World Golf Ranking.
The 51-year-old, who finished full-time touring life in 2016, won last year’s PGA Professionals Championship National Final at Yarra Yarra Golf Club in Melbourne and will be joined in the Australian team by the next three placegetters in that event – TJ King, Jayden Cripps and Bradley McLellan.
Laycock’s only previous golf captaincy experience is limited to being assistant captain for the great Peter Thomson at the Dongfeng Cup, a teams event pitting the Asia-Pacific against China.
And the challenge of leading the Aussies at Moonah Links is one he’s keen for.
“It’s exciting. I’m really looking forward to it,” the two-time PGA Tour of Australasia winner said.
“I’ve never been a captain of any team; unless you count being captain of a soccer team when I was 13 or 14-years-old.
“Even though I’m busy here at Royal Hobart, I still try to keep my hand in at the playing side with some senior events or playing with the members once a week.
“With the Four Nations coming up, I’ll try to get a bit more practice in to make sure I’m as ready as I can be and provide any help I can to make it a successful event for us.”
Laycock has been based at Royal Hobart since late 2019 and said the move to teaching had come quite naturally.
“Like most pros on tour, I was always trying to assist anyone I was playing with if they wanted to improve their game,” he said.
“It was probably a natural fit to do what I’m doing now which has been a great move for me personally.”
King, who is based at Mt Coolum Golf Club on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is the only member to back up from representing Australia in the inaugural Four Nations Cup at the Kyalami Country Club in South Africa.
McLellan is currently based at Cool Clubs Melbourne, while Cripps has been focussing on the playing side of the game after previously being based at The Ridge in Sydney’s south.
The Aussies finished second behind Canada in the 2022 Four Nations after finishing with a 15-13-2 record from their 30 fourball and singles matches.
This year’s Four Nations Cup, running from September 18-21, will be contested over six rounds, with each team playing three single matchplay rounds and three fourball matchplay rounds.
Each day will consist of four single games in the morning, and two fourball games in the afternoon, allowing a maximum of one team match point and six individual game points per day available to be won.
Spectators are welcome to watch the action at Moonah Links.
Updates on each day’s play will appear on www.pga.org.au.
As he chaperones Bob Vokey to and from product testing during the week of the US Open at LA Country Club, Corey Gerrard can’t help but to catch himself.
In moments between discussions centred around latest product releases, Gerrard wonders how it is that he came to be here. How a golf-mad kid from regional Victoria could conjure a pathway that would one day see him appointed as the Global Director of Vokey Wedges.
He tells graduates of the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program to not be afraid of diversions from ‘the plan’ yet, in some weird way, where he sits today at Titleist HQ in Carlsbad, California is exactly where he always wanted to be.
Growing up in Swan Hill four hours north of Melbourne, Gerrard was talented enough to be selected in Victorian state junior squads. But as he dreamed of a life on tour, his parents directed him to first advance his education.
He was accepted to study law at Victoria University but, with a golf bug that continued to itch, Gerrard married up the timelines and devised a new plan. Rather than spend six years studying law, he would study for a Bachelor of Business at Charles Sturt University’s Wagga campus and then begin the three-year training to become a PGA Member.
Playing remained a priority and after receiving the Norman Von Nida Rookie of the Year award from the Queensland PGA in 2009, Gerrard set off to play mini tours in the US.
“I missed my first cut at like 4 or 5-under and quickly realised that everyone’s really good at playing golf,” Gerrard recalls.
He returned to Australia and had stints at both Hyatt Regency Coolum and Twin Waters on the Sunshine Coast.
Working alongside the likes of Peter Heiniger, Grant Field and Steve Hutchison exposed Gerrard to the full scope of a PGA Professional but his transition into the equipment world was not entirely by design.
“In between giving lessons, I was kind of the accidental guy who was fitting product,” Gerrard adds of his time at Twin Waters.
“I got to meet the Acushnet team and then a year or so later a job popped up in Melbourne to run the fitting centre and fitting network for Titleist ANZ.
“Within the first three months I was flown over to California and shown the ropes. That was when I realised that they’d given this job to a guy that really had no clue.”
Self-deprecation aside, the combination of his university degree and “real-world” training through the Membership Pathway Program gave Gerrard the foundation to advance rapidly up the ranks, leading to his move to California in 2019 to take up the role as Global Product Marketing Manager for Titleist Golf Clubs.
“My PGA training opened my eyes to all of these different jobs within golf that I had never considered,” Gerrard explains.
“I still joke with people today that when I’m hiring, I look for PGA qualifications because I know they’re going to be a jack of all trades, that they put their hand up to do 15 different things at once and that they’re probably pretty good at all of them.
“The PGA brand is as strong as it’s ever been around the world because they know that if you’ve done that training, you’ve learned a lot, you’ve experienced something in the real world and it’s going to stand the test of time.”
And take you to places that you perhaps never thought possible.
If you would like to explore the opportunities available through the Membership Pathway Program and PGA Institute visit pga.org.au/education
