Millar holds on to win in Rockhampton

Matthew Millar has fired a final round of 4-under 68 to claim victory at the 2019 Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro-Am.

Having placed runner-up on three previous occasions at Rockhampton Golf Club, Millar played the consistent golf he is known for over four rounds to hold off a fast finishing Andrew Martin.

Millar joined the leading group at the halfway mark of the Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro-Am recording rounds of 66, 68, 66 and 68 for a tournament total of 20-under 268 to finish one shot clear of the field.

On a perfect afternoon for scoring, spectators were treated to an exciting final round and a master class in shot making from the lead group of Matthew Millar and Andrew Martin.

Millar held a two-shot lead starting the final round. Playing the more challenging front-9 at the Rockhampton Golf Club he got off to a steady start, level-pegging with fellow professional Andrew Martin, both players making the turn at 2-under 34.

Millar extended his lead out to three shots courtesy of a birdie on the 10^th hole where he hit it in close and made the putt.

Martin then applied the pressure with a birdie on the 12^th hole, edging within one shot of Millar before stumbling at the 13^th hole and recording a bogey five.

The pair made birdies on the 14^th hole then Millar hit it into 4 feet on the 17^th, making the birdie and snatching a two-shot lead heading down the final hole.

“I played steady golf and just tried to roll with things this week,” said Millar.

“I really like the layout here in Rockhampton, it suits my game and I like that you have to shape the ball around this course and think about where to position yourself.

“I could feel Andrew was making a good run out there for the lead and I figured I needed a two-shot lead standing on the 18^th tee because I knew he was a chance of getting close to the par-5, 18^th hole in two shots to set up a birdie opportunity for himself.

“It is a great feeling winning the Ian Weigh Toyota Rockhampton Pro-Am here today as I love playing this tournament, the club and sponsors do an amazing job and make us feel so welcome.”

Finishing in second position was Bendigo’s Andrew Martin who recorded a solid performance, firing a final round score of 5-under 67 and a tournament total of 19-under 269.

“I really enjoy the course here in Rockhampton and although it has been three years since I played the event the course is by far the best I have ever seen it,” said Martin.

“I gave myself plenty of opportunities this week and I’m thrilled with the way I played, I thought that 20-under par would be what would be needed to win here.”

The next best placed professional was Tim Hart finishing a further six shots back on 13-under 275.

The next stop on the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series schedule is the Emu Park Golf Club Pro-Am where play gets underway at 10.30am on Tuesday 25 June 2019.

ACT local and crowd favourite Matthew Millar has won his second consecutive Yowani Pro-Am by two shots at Yowani Country Club.

Millar’s flawless round of 6-under 66 was bogey free and featured a neat 3-under 33 across both nines, further cementing his status as one of the most consistent players in Australian golf.

“The course is the best I’ve seen it for a while and it was nice to finish with such a neat card,” said Millar.

“I enjoy playing here and the course seems to suit my game. I have a good record here and it’s nice to play well again.”

The Yowani Pro-Am is a regular event on the ACT swing of the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series and a strong field of 70 professionals including Marcus Fraser and Brendan Jones enjoyed perfect course conditions.

Strong scoring across the day saw a trio of players finish in second place with Luke Paroz, recent Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series winner Rory Bourke and Anthony Choat completing their rounds on 4-under the card.

Finishing tied for fifth were Brendan Jones, Sam Lee, Jay MacKenzie and BJ Taylor with rounds of 3-under 39.

The ACT swing of the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series will conclude on Friday at the Murrumbidgee Country Club Furphy Pro-Am.

He is 42 years of age and never played better.

Reigning ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Player of the Year Matthew Millar is part of a 15-strong Australasian contingent making their 2019 Asian Tour debuts at the SMBC Singapore Open this week on the Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club.

Millar has spent sparse time in Asia in recent years but received an invitation to play in Singapore due to his stellar play in 2018 that sees him enter his 21st year as a professional with a career-high ranking of 205 in the world.

Winner of the Rebel Sport Masters this time 12 months ago, Millar made a late play for the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit courtesy of top-five finishes at both the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship, eventually finishing second behind Queensland’s Jake McLeod.

As McLeod was already exempt due to his finish on the Asian Tour Order of Merit in 2018, Millar was extended a tournament invitation as the next highest player on the Australasian moneylist.

Millar continued his excellent form from 2018 – albeit in a vastly different format – by taking out the Blitz Golf event played at Curlewis Golf Club earlier this month and will have the opportunity to play two World Golf Championship events this year courtesy of his runner-up finish on the Order of Merit.

Like Millar, Glenelg Blitz Golf champion and rookie professional Zach Murray will play in Singapore this week by invitation as will Dimi Papadatos, who will likely spend the majority of the year playing in Europe.

Former European Tour regulars Marcus Fraser and Andrew Dodt are teeing it up in Singapore after finishing inside the top-62 on the 2018 Asian Tour Order of Merit with Daniel Nisbet, Terry Pilkadaris, Kiwi Ben Campbell, Jake Higginbottom and Travis Smyth also retaining their cards for the 2019 season.

After a year on the European Tour Jason Norris returns to Asia due to his win at the 2017 Fiji International while Matthew Griffin, Won Joon Lee, Anthony Quayle and David Bransdon have all taken advantage of the co-sanctioning with the Japan Golf Tour to also start their year in Singapore.

Frank Phillips claimed the inaugural Singapore Open in 1961 to start a proud history of Australian winners, Ted Ball, Terry Gale, Peter Fowler, Paul Moloney, Kenny Druce, Steven Conran and Adam Scott all among the list of past champions.

Spain’s Sergio Garcia returns to defend the title he won by five shots last year with England pair Paul Casey and Matthew Fitzpatrick the other headliners at Sentosa.

Matt Millar has teed off 2019 by winning Blitz Golf at Curlewis Golf Club after an exciting day of golf.

Golf’s answer to T20 cricket, Blitz Golf sees 40 players start the day, separated into two groups of 20 and playing just 9 holes in the first blitz.

The top-12 players from each group then advanced to a six hole blitz before the field was reduced again.

Just the top-6 players from each group advanced to the three hole blitz before the final blitz, consisting of Millar, Curlewis crowd favourite Deyen Lawson, Vic Open champion Simon Hawkes and WA Open champion Zach Murray, played the 18^th hole sudden death until just one remained.

It took just one trip down the par-4 18^th for Millar to emerge victorious in his second time playing the Blitz Golf format.

“I am thrilled to come and take out the Curlewis Blitz,” said Millar.

“I played well this morning and had 3-under in the first round to advance then played quite well in the other two rounds.

“I love the Blitz Golf concept, we don’t want to go away from traditional golf all together but it’s great to change it up with a different style. You can play well, you can play poorly or you can play average and you might stay in there the whole day or you may be knocked out early.”

Millar believes his prior experience with the format contributed to his win today in the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series event.

“I enjoyed the Glenelg Blitz last year and I have certainly enjoyed playing it again today,” added Millar.

“Playing Glenelg last year helped, particular with scoring. To start with you might think, with 20 guys in one bracket, you need to shoot 2 or 3-under, but now we have seen that it doesn’t quite work that way.

“Knowing you don’t have to press, particularly when it was tough this afternoon, I think that experience helped and was a great asset.”

The Curlewis Blitz champion will now head to South Australia for the Blitz Golf event being played at Glenelg Golf Club and Millar is aiming for the double.

“Winning again on Sunday would be great. I certainly enjoyed playing Glenelg last time; I thought it was a fantastic course so I am looking forward to that challenge.

“I am playing well; I’ve had some time off which was fantastic because I was pretty well cooked at the end of the year. I’ve come back and not a lot has seemed to have changed, there were a couple of rusty ones but I only just picked up the clubs a couple of days ago.”

The Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series players were joined at Curlewis Golf Club by ALPG Tour players with rookie pro Montana Strauss claiming victory in just her third pro start.

“I am pretty excited and happy with the win,” said Strauss.

“This was really different; it’s not something you usually see in golf tournaments. I liked that we had different playing partners each round.

“I really enjoyed the day.”

In addition to Matt Millar, golf fans heading out to Glenelg Golf Club on Sunday can expect to see Ian Baker-Finch, Hannah Green, Matt Griffin, Jason Norris, Max McCardle, Jarryd Felton and Michael Sim in action.

Matthew Millar emerged victorious at the Singapore Airlines Pro-Am over a stellar field.

Being played at Federal Golf Club, plenty of ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia winners lined-up in the Ladbroke Pro-Am Series event including WA PGA champion Dimitrios Papadatos and Vic Open champion Simon Hawkes,

Firing 7-under 65, local favourite Millar claimed the title by two shots and will now head from the Ladbrokes Pro-Am Series to the European Challenge Tour.

“I’m glad I could play in these events at home before I go over to Europe for the next few months,” said Millar.

“It’s great to have a hit with a lot of my mates this week in the ACT and I had a very enjoyable day out there today.

“Jason Pavese and the team out here at Federal have done a superb job and it’s great to notch up another win.”

Finishing runner-up on 5-under 67 was Neven Basic and Aaron Townsend while Nathan Green and Martin Dive rounded out the top-5 on 4-under the card.

Australian Matthew Millar has won the inaugural REBEL Sport Masters by four shots at the Wainui Golf Club.

Beginning the final round two shots behind leader, New Zealander Daniel Pearce, Millar fired a round of 4-under 67 for a tournament total 11-under 273 and to become the first winner of the 2018 ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia season.

“I went out there today just trying to mind my own business, just trying to play my shots and knuckle down on every single one of them, I didn’t want to see any leader boards,” said Millar.

“I’m thrilled with the win and just really happy not to have dropped any shots out there today.”

Playing in gusty winds, Millar showed his experience and patience around the Wainui layout to remain bogey free and take out the tournament in fine style.

“I felt really good, there were just a couple coming in at the end, I hit a clunky wedge shot at the last,” added Millar.

“I had the ball under control and thank god I did because it was quite tricky today. I set myself a goal if I could get to 11 or 12-under today I’d be pretty hard to beat.”

The win is a just reward for Millar who is one of the most consistent Professionals on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, he recorded five top-10 finishes on the Tour last year including a seventh at the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth.

“I’ve run second plenty of times and in a way that’s been a help because it focused me today to worry about what I’m doing. That was a real positive for me this week,” Millar added.

The win marks Millar’s second in New Zealand following his victory at the 2015 NZ PGA Championship.

Enjoying playing across the Tasman he has his eyes on completing the trifecta of events with a win at the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

“We should move an Australian Open over here I might get a win then,” laughed Millar.

“I love coming to New Zealand, the people are great and I’ve never not enjoyed a trip here or played badly.

“I’d love to win the New Zealand Open, that’d be great but I’ve got a lot of work to do and it’s a different style of golf course to this.

“Some holes play similarly but I do like playing those courses (Millbrook Resort and The Hills).”

As an added bonus, Millar and his amateur partner Peter McCormack also won the pro-am tournament which was played in conjunction with rounds three and four.

Runner-up David Smail of New Zealand set the course alight in the fourth round with a blistering 7-under 64, to set a new course record at Wainui.

“I played a bit rough yesterday and couldn’t get going, I thought I was in for another bad week when I got here today,” said Smail.

“I started off with four birdies in a row and holed some long putts; it just felt like it was my day.”

Luke Toomey was another New Zealander who has a reason to smile; he hit a 6-iron in to the 160m par-3 11th for a hole-in-one.For his efforts he receives return flights to Europe thanks to tournament sponsor Cathay Pacific.

For his win, Millar receives AUD$15,000 and leads the 2018 ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.

To view the 2018 ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit, visit pga.org.au.

For round four scores, visit pga.org.au.

The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia now moves to Thirteenth Beach Golf Links in Victoria for the Oates Vic Open from 1- 4 February. Please visit pga.org.au for the full schedule.

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