The new season of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia will kick off next week with the return of the PNG Open at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.

A month since David Micheluzzi officially claimed the 2022-2023 Order of Merit at The National Tournament, the new season will commence with PNG’s national open, the first time it has been held since South Australian Peter Cooke’s win in May 2019.

First played in 1977 when Ted Ball won the inaugural event, the PNG Open didn’t become a sanctioned PGA Tour of Australasia event until 2016.

Winners since then include Brad Moules, Cory Crawford, Daniel Gale and Cooke, who won by two in his PNG Open debut four years ago and who returns to defend his title.

To be played from May 4-7, the tournament will feature many of the players who competed so strongly in the season just gone and includes recent tour winners such as Jay Mackenzie and Chris Wood.

Total prize money on offer is $180,000 as the South Pacific nation restores its connection to the Australasian Tour.

“It’s great to welcome the PNG Open back to our Tour after COVID-19 made it impossible to stage a tournament in Papua New Guinea,” said PGA of Australia Director of Tournaments Australasia, Nick Dastey.

“We are always looking to create more playing opportunities for our members but we also believe we have an important role in promoting the game throughout our island neighbours.

“Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Samoa have all hosted PGA of Australia-sanctioned tournaments in the past and we have no doubt that will continue in future.”

Other prominent players to have entered the PNG Open are Lincoln Tighe, Michael Wright, Josh Armstrong, adidas PGA Pro-Am Series Order of Merit winner Tim Hart.

Although the 2022-2023 season has only just drawn to a close, Dastey says the PNG Open provides an ideal opportunity for players to bank early points and potentially improve their category.

“The winner at Royal Port Moresby will be exempt on our tour for the next two years so there is always a lot at stake,” Dastey added.

“We will likely have a number of players go straight from Final Stage of Qualifying School to PNG where they will have a chance to improve their category position for the bigger events later in the year.

“We were really pleased with how the past season finished and we’re confident that the PNG Open won’t be the only new addition to the 2023-2024 schedule.”

There are 10 tournament invitations and 14 international tournament invites that will be distributed in the weeks leading up to the tournament.