Damien Jordan would love nothing more than to record a second win on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia during a week when Australians and New Zealanders remember the ANZACs.

Jordan was part of the Australian Army and completed two tours of Iraq before beginning his career as a golf professional. 

He attended the ANZAC Day Dawn Service at Port Moresby this morning and given the close history Papua New Guinea and Australia share, a second career victory would mean a little more at the SP PNG Open this week, with a nod to his fellow service men and women.

“It would be great to win especially ANZAC Day week, it’s always a big week for me. I got up for the dawn service in Port Moresby this morning which was pretty special,” said Jordan.

“The day is obviously one I hold in pretty high regard so if I was to go on and get a win, it would be pretty fitting to be this week and in this country given what our armed services went through on the Kokoda Track in PNG all those years ago.”

Jordan enters the SP PNG Open this week off the back of a strong showing at the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series Morobe Open in Lae, having recorded just one bogey across 72 holes.

“I played really good last week, that’s why I wasn’t really disappointed to finish runner-up. I had 22-under with one bogey for the week so I was really rapt with how I played and just came home strong.” 

The Royal Port Moresby Golf Club clearly suits Jordan’s eye having played the last two SP PNG Opens since the tournament was added to the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia schedule and recording a T5 and T11 finish.

He says the course has presented the best he’s seen since he began playing the event in Papua New Guinea, already dialed in, Jordan hit an ace on the par-3 5th hole with his 8-iron during today’s pro-am.

“It’s the best I’ve seen Royal Port Moresby especially the greens they’re really good. Full credit to the green staff because it’s 100 percent better than last year,” added Jordan.

“I don’t mind the course, and you can hit a lot of drivers and if you hit the driver well you get a lot of wedges in your hand which suits my game as well so as long as you hit the drive in a good spot, you can shoot low numbers around here.”

Jordan will be relishing the chance to get aclimatised to tropical conditions in this week’s SP PNG Open ahead of tackling the PGT Asia circuit in the Phillipines.

A top-5 finish at the Tour’s qualifying school just under a fortnight ago signalled a return to form for the reigning Victorian PGA Champion who also finished runner-up at the Morobe Open in PNG last week.

“I went and played in the Philippines and got my card there and that gave me confidence to play well last week,” said Jordan. 

“Obviously you can’t beat momentum out here and when you’ve got it you’ve just got to roll with it.”

It will be Jordan’s first foray on the Philippines premier Tour and presents further opportunities to progress on to the Asian Tour.

He will contest the TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship in Kalgoorlie before beginning a short campaign overseas.

“It’s a feeder of the Asian Tour but it’s really good, it’s really well run and we’ve got 12 events up there this year,” added Jordan.

“I leave on the 27th of May and back on the 9th of June, so two weeks, it’s unbelievably cheap up there and your dollar really goes a long way.”

The goal of the overseas venture for Jordan is to stay match fit as the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia takes a two month break before returning in August for the Fiji International presented by Fiji Airways.

It’s a new tact for the Tweed Heads based professional who is hoping the extra tournaments under his belt will pay dividends come the end of the season in Australia.

“That’s why I’m doing it. We’re playing for a minimum of U.S. $100,000 every week. so I’ll play a few more four round tournaments now,” added Jordan. 

“Obviously I won’t be playing as many pro-ams but I mean you need those four rounders or week in week out tournaments to get ready for the big events in the back of the year.”

The SP PNG Golf Open will be played from 26-29 April at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea with the field vying for a prize purse of AU$145,000.

The winner will receive Official World Golf Ranking Points and become fully exempt on to the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia for the remainder of this season plus a further season.

To stay across live scores from Royal Port Moresby Golf Club please visit pga.org.au.

Damien Jordan, Brad Moules and Cory Crawford tee at 11:45am AEST. Round one tee times are available at pga.org.au.