Alejandro Canizares – photo Kirsty Wrice GA

The opening round of both the men and women’s ISPS Handa Vic Opens has been completed at the 13^th Beach Golf Club on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, both fields recording an impressive run of scoring on the Beach and Creek Courses being used for the opening two days.

Spain’s Alejandro Canizares was out in one of the last two groups of the day in the men’s field and put together ten birdies in his round of 63 to lead by one over long-time leaders on day one, Matthew Griffin, Travis Smyth, Justin Warren and Jake McLeod, all from Australia.

29 players however are within four shots of Canizares’ lead and 99 players broke par amongst the men and so no player has stamped their mark on the event at this early stage.

Canizares has been a two-time winner on the European Tour but the last of those came more than five years ago and he admits things have been tough over the past few years.

“Yeah, just surprised I played so crap the last three years,” he responded when asked if his play had surprised him. “It’s been complicated.  I got injured three years ago and it took a while, then some other things, and I became a dad a year ago.  Life changes, but I’m getting back to it, I’m starting to work harder.

“I’m still motivated, I still want to play.  I’ve been on tour for 13, 14 years and I still really want to do it.  Still got half of my career ahead of me, I think.”

The son of four-time Ryder Cup player, Jose Maria Canizares, Alejandro mentioned after his round that his father, who was amongst the group of continental Europeans to turn the tide of success for European against the USA, has had a significant impact on his own career.

“If he wouldn’t have been who he was, if I would have been here, so I’ve got to be really thankful for having a dad that has played four Ryder Cups and has played such a high level of golf.  Grew up watching him, motivated, wanting to do the same thing and here I am, so really thankful for all that.”

Haeji Kang – one of leaders in women’s field

The women’s field is headed by recent LPGA Tour first time winner, Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden, and former Australian based Korean, Haeji Kang, who lead by one over Taiwan’s Peiyun Chien, American rookie Hayley Moore and Sweden’s Linea Strom.

Kang spent three years on the Gold Coast at High School there in the mid 2000’s and won the Australian Junior Championship during that period. She was a contemporary of the very successful Amy Yang.

Sagstrom won her first LPGA Tour title in Boca Raton in Florida recently and credits a new found confidence for her continuation of that form.

“Yeah, I think after my first win there definitely added confidence to everything, just knowing that I can compete out here, knowing that I can win on tour.  I think that is definitely helping me out.  It’s also created kind of a little bit of a calmness; just okay, it’s going to be fine, it will all work out, it’s the beginning of the season.”

Sydney amateur Stephanie Kyraciou leads the Australians after her round of 68 left her in a share of 15^th place.

79 players broke par in the women’s field.

Those who played the Beach Course today will play the Creek Course tomorrow and vice versa before the final 36 holes of both events are player over the Beach Course.

Men’s Scores

Women’s Scores

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last year’s champions, David Law and Celine Boutier – Golf Australia – click to expand.

This week will see the Australasian, European, LPGA, LET and ALPG Tours joining forces at 13^th Beach on the Bellarine Peninsula for the ISPS Handa Vic Open, for the second occasion, the event offering a unique and trailblazing format to tournament golf.

While initially an experiment of sorts between the PGA Tour of Australasia, the Ladies European Tour and Australian Ladies Professional Golf when first played in 2013, the format has since expanded to include the LPGA and European Tours and now offers a concept being admired and considered in other areas of the world as a possible solution to improving economies of scale, attracting greater audiences and enticing the corporate dollar.

The Vic Open now brings together not only the Australasian and European Tours on the men’s side of the tournament but the LPGA, the LET and the ALPG also combine to provide just the second event of 2020 for the LPGA and the chance for several ALPG and LET members to play an LPGA Tour event and, potentially, earn an LPGA Tour card.

Prizemoney of A$1.5 million per event is up for grabs with the two courses (The Creek and Beach courses) at 13^th Beach utilised on the opening two days before the event focuses on the Beach Course for the weekend.

After a rather lacklustre effort by many of the leading LPGA players in 2019 to support the event when first involving their members, quoting too many events in a row as part of their concern, there is a greater participation of leading players in 2020 although, on the men’s side, the representation from European based players remains disappointing.

China’s Haotong Li, who won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2018 and the latest Dubai Desert Classic Champion, Lucas Herbert, are the leading world ranked players in the men’s field while, in the women’s side of things, two players from the top ten of the Rolex World Ranking, JeongeunLee6 (7) and Australia’s Minjee Lee (8) will head the field in terms of ranking strength.

The women have the benefit of a follow-up event at next week’s Women’s Australian Open in Adelaide and notable players such as major champions, Inbee Park, So Yeon Ryu, Stacey Lewis and Jiyai Shin are also taking their place. So they should, with the event providing a possible solution to a long held aggrievance by many members of the LPGA regarding the disparity in prize-money between men’s and women’s golf.

When the opportunity arose last year, however, there was a notable lack of effort by many to display their support in the best way possible, although to be fair to them it had been a late decision to include the LPGA.

Australian great, Karrie Webb, will be joined by her fellow Australian LPGA Tour players, Hannah Green, Katherine Kirk, Su Oh and Sarah Kemp.

The men’s Vic Open has struggled in attempting to join forces with the European Tour but as has been the case with the Australian PGA Championship, the difficulty in attracting leading players to a one-off event on the other side of the world without the lure of significant appearance money is proving problematic.

What the association with Europe does offer, however, is the prospect of worldwide coverage of the event through the distribution channels of the European Tour, ensuring the Victorian Government, who have played such a key role in the funding and growth of the event, are kept happy.