Playing on an invite received after recently graduating from the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program, 23-year-old Joel Mitchell birdied his final two holes in the second-to-last group on Thursday to take the Round 1 lead with 5-under par 67.

An eight-stroke winner of the WA PGA Associate Championship two years ago, Mitchell had two eagles on the front nine – the par-4 third and par-5 ninth – to edge one clear of a group of five players at 4-under.

Round 1 takeaways

• Three par-5s around the turn (holes 8-10) played at a collective 84-under par. Round 1 scoring average was 75.85.
• Former champs Will Bruyeres (2024) and Peter Cooke (2019) both two strokes off the lead.
• Brock Healy the best of the Americans on debut, two back after a round of 70.

A recent winner on the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series back in Brisbane, Doug Klein was the first to post 4-under in the morning wave, Webex Players Series Perth winner Jordan Doull recovered from a disastrous start to also shoot 68 along with New South Welshmen Lincoln Tighe and Andrew Richards and Kiwi rookie Mako Thompson.

Defending champion William Bruyeres started brightly with a round of 3-under 69, as did 2019 PNG Open winner Peter Cooke, a group of six players a further shot back at 2-under.

Although playing on an Associate category this week, Mitchell also has a Tour category by virtue of advancing to Final Qualifying School in April and is acutely aware how a good result this week could impact his season.

“I need to take advantage of the ones I can get into on that Associate category but I did go to Q School early this year, so I got that Full Member tournament category,” said Mitchell.

“Got two dips at it sort of thing, which is a bit of an advantage. Just got to take advantage of it for the first six months and see where it can take me.”

There was a mix of both good and bad on Mitchell’s front nines, bogeys on two par-5s offset somewhat by his two eagles.

“A couple of sixes on par-5s leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but a couple of eagles made it just a bit sweeter,” said Mitchell.

“I knocked it on the third hole I think to about 25 feet and rolled that in. Then hit a short iron into nine and was able to hole the putt.”

Winner of the Windaroo Lakes Pro-Am late last month, Klein is hoping to convert strong pro-am form into a maiden Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia win.

“I just wanted to sort of see that everything I was doing in practice was translating sort of across into my game play,” said Klein, who was also tied second at the Ford NSW Open Regional Qualifier at Lismore.

“I’m really excited with the way it is.

“I mean the game’s exactly where I want it, doing a lot of things right. Just got to stay healthy.”

Doull kicked off 2025 with victory at Royal Fremantle Golf Club but made a horrid start to the new season.

Tied 15th in this event last year, Doull began Round 1 from the 10th tee and was 3-over through five after following up a bogey at the par-3 13th with a double at the par-4 14th.

A birdie on 15 was step one in rectifying his round, playing the front nine in 6-under to join the leaderboard logjam.

“I hit the ball quite well on the front nine,” was Doull’s simple summation of the turnaround.

“I chipped in on the first, my 10th, and then from there everything just seemed to go in.”

Of the 20 amateurs from Papua New Guinea in the field, national representative Cassie Koma led the way with 2-over 74, tied for 74th entering Round 2.

Round 1 scores

Photo: Joel Isbister/PGA of Australia