The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia is back underway for 2019 and that can only mean one thing…Tour Insider is back!

Punters dust off your Ladbrokes accounts because TI is ready to pick up their tipping form from where they left off in 2018….which was by tipping the Aussie PGA winner; Cam Smith!

So without further ado, the moment you have all been waiting for, TI’s 2019 ISPS HANDA Vic Open tips…

Dimitrios Papadatos – $41 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

Pretty easy pick this one with the women’s event being co-sanctioned with the LPGA tour. Dimi will have the EXTRA medium size shirts out, shoulders back and the beach muscles primed for maximum exposure for the ladies to enjoy. Not to mention Valentine’s Day is only a week or so away and Dimi will be looking for a win and his 2019 Valentine. But in all seriousness, Dimi has plenty of game on the course as well! A proven champion at 13^th Beach, $41 seems easy money!

Yuta Ikeda – $51 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

Yuta is a 20-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour and has recorded another 15 runner-up finishes in events around the world. He has been ranked as high as 31 in the world and is an absolute star of the game. TI won’t mince words; this guy has quality most guys in this field can only dream about. $51 is great value for such a proven winner.

Cameron John – $151 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

All regular followers know that Cameron is a favourite of TI and that hasn’t gone away over the summer break! This kid is going places, in his first year on Tour he finished 20th on the Order of Merit thanks to six top-10 finishes in 12 tournaments including a runner-up finish at the NSW OPEN when he ran into a hot Jake McLeod. He hits it miles, has a great head on his shoulders and putts is very well. I’d be surprised if he didn’t perform well around this venue especially being a local Victorian boy. $151 is juicy and even the top-10 or 20 prices are a good play.

Nick Cullen – $67 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

His results around this golf course speak for themselves. Nick has been in contention around here multiple times without getting the win. I genuinely believe this is a nice course for the lefties with some tough tee shots looking more favourable for them. His recent form hasn’t been great but the rumours are rife he and his wife are 18 weeks pregnant with his first child. He will be on a high and TI is expecting him to kick 2019 off with a bang. $81 looks a nice play to me.

Jason Scrivener – $13 @Ladbrokes.com.au

Scriv is the favourite with the bookies and TI can see why. It’s hard not to be impressed with the way this guy finished 2018 on the European Tour with a tied 3rd and tied 6th and he hasn’t missed a beat to start 2019 finishing tied 16th and tied 7th in the desert. Recently engaged to his longtime partner, life is good for the West Australian and he will give this event a huge nudge.

As TI has already mentioned we are joined by the ladies from the ALPG and LPGA this week, which everyone is loving! So while TI’s expert knowledge isn’t as strong on the ladies side of the draw, TI is going to take a crack at tipping a winner anyway…

Minjee Lee – $5 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

Where do you start, this girl blew the women away last year, announcing herself around the world as star of the game so I don’t think anyone will be surprised with TI’s selection. Everything TI is hearing is she is flushing it and eager to show she is the still number one in the family since her brother, Min Woo, posted his best result in a tour event in Saudi Arabia last week.

Georgia Hall – $8 @ Ladbrokes.com.au
Again TI is going with one of the favourites but this girl is all class! Won the British Open last year and has started 2019 how she ended 2018. She looks a real danger to push for another title.

Hannah Green – $41 @ Ladbrokes.com.au
Relatively new on Tour and already 143 in the world. Her results as an amateur were strong and she has taken that straight into the pro ranks. Hannah has already established herself as 6th highest ranked Aussie in the world. Another one of WA’s strong contingent of pros – just further shows the depth of talent amongst the sandgropers.

Katherine Kirk – $41 @ Ladbrokes.com.au
A little more seasoned on tour but with conditions forecast to get difficult she is one that will keep a level head and won’t let go!

Karrie Webb – $81 @ Ladbrokes.com.au

Where to start? Arguably Australia’s most successful golfer; multiple Majors, Karrie has won more tournaments than some of these Ladies have even competed in. Admittedly her recent form isn’t what she would normally expect but you can’t beat class. She is and always will be a great of the game and TI thinks this course is definitely a set up she likes.

Jake McLeod is the 24 year old winner of the 2018 PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit. This is his first year on the European Tour and ahead of the Vic Open, he wrote this week’s Player Blog talking about how one month late last year may have changed his career.

My life has changed a lot in the last few months. Don’t get me wrong, it’s been a good change but life has changed.

In the space of a month last year, I went from middle-of-the-pack finishes on the Australasia Tour to a fully fledged member of the European Tour with a ticket to play in The Open in July.

Since I turned pro in 2015, my goal was the European Tour. I love playing in Australia and it’s been great for my golf but the ability to play against the best fields and travel the world is something I’ve always strived for.

In October I missed the cut at the Victorian PGA Championship by five shots and I could feel my season was burning out. I only had three or four more starts but something wasn’t working, so I went home for a couple of weeks and worked my ass off. I got back to the fundamentals and focused on the last month of the season.

I made the cut at the Queensland Open and shot 66 to get into contention but played crap in the final round, shot 78 and finished way down the leaderboard. Despite that Sunday, I knew that the work I had done was paying off and I just need to be patient.

A week later, it all clicked.

I was three shots off the lead after two rounds of the NSW Open and in the penultimate group. I had probably the best warm-up I’ve ever had and just felt composed and ready. Whether it was the work I had done in the weeks prior, or a feeling I got that morning on the range, something felt different and I walked to the first tee with more confidence than normal. The whole day the hole looked huge and I birdied six of the first seven holes and took the lead. One mental mistake on the last led to a bogey but by the end of the day I had shot 62 and was leading by four.

Looking back, that’s the day I became a European Tour member. The confidence I got from that round was priceless. I played solid in the final round and managed to win by two. That put me number one on the Order of Merit and a third place finish the next week at the Aussie Open was enough to get me into The Open.

I booked my accommodation for Portrush last week so it’s starting to feel very real. It’ll be my first Major. Being in Northern Ireland and at Royal Portrush is a bit of a bonus. I think it already sold out a while ago so the crowds are going to be phenomenal and I just can’t wait to get there and get started.

The Aussie PGA was the last event of the season and I needed a solid week to win the Order of Merit. I played well but Matthew Miller was playing great and very nearly did enough to bump me from the top. By the end of the week, I’d finished 19th and won the Order of Merit.

What a month. What a year!

After that, I shut things down for Christmas. Firstly, I wanted to recharge and get ready for a big year in 2019 but secondly I wanted to take time to soak in the season and what I had achieved. Success in this game doesn’t come around that often and I think it’s important to appreciate the highs, as much as you analyse the lows. I spent time with family, had a few good celebrations and began planning this year.

I played Saudi last week as my first event of the year and it was a great experience. It was my first time in the Middle East and I played pretty well. I’d love to have back my middle two rounds but all things considered, it was a solid week and nice way to start the season.

I’ll still based out of Brisbane so until May I’ll mainly be playing in Australia, Middle East and Asia, so I’ll do a few of those and come home in between. And then I’ll do two blocks, from May up until The Open and I’ll stay in Europe. I’ll come home after The Open for about four weeks and then go back over and hopefully play the final events in the Race To Dubai, assuming I play well enough to earn a place in those events.

As for this week, it’s a big bonus for us in Australia to have these co-sanctions with the European Tour. It’s a big opportunity if one of the boys can get a win, they get the rest of this season and then next on the European Tour. So there’s a lot at stake but it’d be awesome if an Aussie wins to have another one out there because it doesn’t seem like there’s too many of us out there. Would be nice to have a familiar voice at dinner throughout the season!

Regardless, I’m stoked for this week. Stoked for this year and can’t wait to experience at lot of firsts.

Courtesy of  Europeantour.com

The ISPS Handa Vic Open enters a new era from Thursday and Geoff Ogilvy, one of the most thoughtful people in the game, says the tournament is set to capture the imagination of the world.

Six years ago, when Golf Victoria chose to bring the dual male/female event to 13^th Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula it was a catchy regional event with a unique format that gave it a point of difference, worth a total of just $300,000 in prizemoney.

Those handful of years on it is worth 10 times more at a combined $3 million, and for the first time is co-sanctioned by the European Tour (men’s) and the women’s LPGA Tour. Live television coverage on ABC and Fox Sports (as well as the Golf Channel in north America and Sky across Europe and Asia) is another huge bonus that has been added in 2019.

Ogilvy, who is playing his home state Open for the first time since he was the leading amateur in 1998, says it is the formula that has brought about the growth: the equal prizemoney, the duel men’s and women’s tournaments, the lack of any boundary ropes beside the fairways and greens.

“The Vic Open is a relevant tournament in the world this week,’’ he said today. “People are noticing because of the equal prize money and the LPGA and the guys and girls’ thing.  That’s a big deal.  We would have the same effect if it was the Australian Open.”

Ogilvy did not play the event from 1998 until this year because he was in the US on tour, but he jumped at the chance now that he has moved back to Melbourne with his family, now a part-time golfer a such with a strong interest in course architecture that he is pursuing.

“This two real golf tournaments played at the same time on the same … like the Australian Open tennis is kind of, like it makes sense, right?  You need 36 holes do it, I guess,’’ he said. “So I want to be part of that.  Equal money on both sides, spectators on the fairways, you come into this rural-ish  — not rural, but rural relative to Melbourne communities — that always embraced tournaments.  Always the great venues are the ones in smaller communities because everybody jumps in and everybody volunteers.

“You usually get a feel whether a tournament is good because people come back, the guys come back in the locker room the next week or the weekend and everybody has just been praising on this for the last four or five years.  ‘You’ve got to come if you get a chance, it’s a great tournament, Vic Open’s great, Vic Open’s great’.  That’s all you’ve been hearing in the locker room.

“So I wanted to … I’m glad that I had an opportunity and I was never going to miss that opportunity not being here to do that, so I think it’s hopefully setting a pretty good trend with some of the stuff they’re doing.’’

Ogilvy, one of Australia’s finest players with a major championship and three World Golf Championship titles to prove it, said Golf Australia (and previously, Golf Victoria) was “ticking every box” with the tournament at 13^th Beach. “They’re just running a quality event and the field is getting better every year because of that, because everyone leaves and says it’s a great tournament.”

He said an Australian Open with both men’s and women’s titles running concurrently would work, too, possibly in February. “I think you could easily run them now, for sure.  And this is a bigger tournament than the Australian Open right now by a long way.  Maybe not in prestige, but in every other factor, every other measure.  So clearly it can work.”

Ogilvy is one of the bigger names to enter this year, but Karrie Webb is here, too, and Perth’s Minjee Lee, the world No. 7 and now Australia’s top player at just 22 years old. Lucas Herbert, one of Australia’s best young male players, is in the field and looking for his first title at home.

Webb who makes her return to 13^th Beach after a gap of two years, was delighted to make the commitment especially now she is spending more time in Australia.

“I think all of us here in Australia have known how great this event is since its conception of equal prize money for men and women,” she said.  “And the way it’s done, too, because a lot of people think, ‘Oh, the women will be on one course, the men will be on the other’.

“The way it’s alternating groups of men and women, I think it’s great for the golf fan that comes to watch because they can watch the best of both men and women and sit on one hole and watch that all day. But I just think now that it’s reached the level where the LPGA has co-sanctioned it and the men’s European Tour, it’s caught the world media, the golf media’s attention.”

First tee-off is at 7am with play on both the Creek and Beach courses at 13^th Beach.

TELEVISION SCHEDULE

ABC

Thursday 7, February: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Friday 8, February: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Saturday 9, February: 1:00pm – 7:00pm
Sunday 10, February: 1:00pm – 6:00pm

You can also catch the broadcast on your computer, tablet, smartphone and other devices through ABC’s streaming platform iview.

Fox Sports Australia

Thursday 7, February: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Friday 8, February: 3:00pm – 6:00pm
Saturday 9, February: 1:00pm – 7:00pm
Sunday 10, February: 12:00pm – 6:00pm