The Australian PGA Championship had a thrilling playoff finish to determine this year’s winner and the excitement generated by that win was matched by the enjoyment experienced by all who attended the tournament week at RACV Royal Pines Resort.

“RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast has been a fantastic host of the Australian PGA Championship for the past five years,” said Gavin Kirkman, CEO of the PGA of Australia.

“We are delighted to have enjoyed a home that offers our players, guests and their families a real holiday destination, with first rate facilities and outstanding golfing.

“We are thrilled that the Australian PGA Championship will return to RACV Royal Pines Resort from 29 November to 2 December 2018.”

The 2018 commitment is part of an expanded partnership which will see a number of PGA tournaments played at Victorian RACV Resorts.

The Victorian PGA Championship, part of the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, will move to the newly expanded RACV Cape Schanck Resort in October 2018 and new Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series events will be held at the RACV Healesville Country Club and RACV Torquay Resort.

RACV Goldfields Resort will also host a brand new two-day pro-am in the same format as the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth. Healesville and Goldfields will also host two new Ladbrokes Legends Tour events.

RACV’s golfing facilities are of the highest standard so it came as no surprise that last week the talk on course was the enjoyment experienced by the players in tackling the Graham Marsh designed course with many players commenting on the improvements and great quality of the course, including the 2017 Champion, Cameron Smith.

“I think we’ve played three years on this course now since the redesign.  Last year to this year was a huge improvement, just the grass filling in and you can actually play some shots that Mr. Marsh wants you to play,” said Smith.

Gold Coast local and former Masters Champion Adam Scott was also complimentary of the course.

“You can see the greens are starting to receive some shots and it’s probably playing more and more like the designer would have hoped,” said Scott.

“It’s really settling in nicely and I think it’s going to play a little better each year as we keep going.  So I’m very happy with the shape of the course this year.”

The work done by the course staff was also commended.

“The conditioning of the golf course for this year’s tournament was the best it has been since the Championship moved to RACV Royal Pines Resort,” said Andrew Langford-Jones, Director of Tournaments for the PGA of Australia.

“The players were in very high praise of the presentation and playability of the golf course and the head Superintendent, Lincoln Coombes and his team should be congratulated on the effort they made. The European Tour players and staff were also extremely complimentary of the golf course and thoroughly enjoyed their week at the venue.”

Off the course, players and guests attending the week enjoyed first class hospitality during the Greg Norman Medal Dinner that honoured Victorian Marc Leishman, and the resort facilities that RACV Royal Pines Resort is renowned for.

“We had a tremendous week on the Gold Coast last week and enjoy a strong and positive relationship with RACV as shown with this new agreement,” continued Kirkman.