Cam Smith in form ahead of Australian PGA Championship defence


Cam Smith in action this week – image Paul Lakatos

Cam Smith is just one shot off the pace at the Hong Kong Open, the two-time winner on the LIV Golf Tour in 2023, trailing only Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai at the halfway stage of the Asian Tour event at the Hong Kong Golf Club.

Smith, who last played an individual  LIV Tour event in Jeddah a month ago although he was in the teams event in Florida three weeks ago, followed up his opening round of 63 which had given him a share of the lead on Thursday with a round of 66 today and heads into the weekend in a great position to win his first Asian Tour title.

With just two weeks to go before Smith attempts to defend his Australian PGA Tour title at Royal Queensland, his form over the opening two rounds shows his game is in good shape to win a third Australian PGA Championship title having won his first two at RACV Royal Pines.

Smith, finished second on the individual LIV Golf rankings behind American Talor Gooch in 2023, played in this event in 2014, the year after he turned professional, and tied for ninth – providing a snapshot of what was to come.

“It’s been a long time since I have been here. It’s probably been too long,” said Smith, who played just the one season on the Asian Tour.

“Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities, the golf course speaks for itself and the Asian Tour is on the up, and I love it.”

Just one shot further back and tied for 4th is yet another Australian in Harrison Crowe, the former NSW Open and Asia Pacific Amateur Champion who earlier this year played in both the Masters and the Open Championship courtesy of his win at the Asia Pacific.

New Zealand’s Ben Campbell is also tied for 4th after his second round of 64, continuing some good recent form in Asia for the Queenstown-based 32-year-old.

SCORES

 

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Four Australasians make Charles Schwab Cup field


Steve Alker finished 4th in regular season Schwab Cup – file photo USGA

Australasia will field its strongest-ever representation in the PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup starting in Phoenix on Thursday with Steve Alker, Richard Green, Rod Pampling and Mark Hensby making the select 36-player line-up, finalised at the completion of the last event of the regular tour season in Florida this morning.

Alker has finished the regular season in 4th place, Green, in his debut season in 14th place, Rod Pampling 18th, and Hensby 27th.

Alker, Pampling and Hensby have all won this season while Green’s consistency has seen him record five top tens including a playoff loss two weeks ago.

The Charles Schwab Championship has been played each year since its inaugural staging in 1990 but an Australasian has yet to win the event which this year carries a purse of US$3 million.

The Line-Up

 

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Brad Kennedy’s late season form continues

Brad Kennedy – image courtesy of JGTO

Gold Coast golfer, Brad Kennedy, continued some good late-season form with a share of 6th place at the Japan Golf Tour’s Mynavi ABC Championship this weekend.

Following on from his best of the season 3rd place finish at the Japan Open three weeks ago,  Kennedy finished alone in 6th place seven shots behind the winner Keita Nakajima, who recorded his 3rd win of the season and who moves clear of Takumi Kanaya on the Japan Tour money list.

Nakajima was the 2018 Australian Amateur Champion and was number one in the world amateur rankings for more than a year prior to turning professional late in 2022.

Kennedy moves to 32nd on the Japan Tour money list behind only Anthony Quayle (23rd) in terms of Australians on that list.

RESULTS

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Amateur Phoenix Campbell rises to win Queensland PGA


Phoenix Campbell – image Australian Golf Media

22-year-old Victorian amateur, Phoenix Campbell, has staged a whirlwind finish to the Queensland PGA Championship at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane to win the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia event and with it the prospect of a professional career.

Currently ranked 811th in the World Amateur rankings despite winning the prestigious Riversdale Cup in Victoria earlier this year, Campbell gained a start in this event courtesy of the elite amateur invite category but after an opening round of 75 on Thursday the prospect of even being around for the weekend, let alone contending and winning, seemed a far off proposition.

He would make steady progress through rounds two and three but even so he began the last round eight shots adrift of the 54-hole leader, Andrew Kelly.

Campbell made steady progress until the turn when he had moved to 6 under for the tournament but at that stage he was still five shots behind Kelly who was treading water but still in command.

Then came the amazing finish of Campbell who, after dropping a shot at the 11th, would birdie the 13th, 14th  and 16th and, as he stood on the 18th tee, he was just one back of the lead.

A 7 iron approach finished 2 feet from the hole at the par 3 and when that was holed he was tied in the lead with another unlikely winner, Jack Poutney, who had actually led the qualifiers on Monday just to get a start in the event.

Campbell then had a 45-minute wait to see whether the many players still within a shot of him could gain the extra shot needed to join a possible playoff but it was not to be and he was declared the winner after last year’s Order of Merit winner, David Micheluzzi, missed a ten-foot putt for birdie to force a playoff.

Campbell from the Yarra Yarra Golf Club joins a select group of amateurs in recent years to win a PGA Tour of Australasia event including Curtis Luck, Ben Eccles, Brett Coletta, Kazuma Kobori and Harrison Crowe but just where he goes from here may take a few days to decide.

His win gives him full access to the PGA Tour of Australasia without having to go through any qualifying process and a kick start to a professional career if he so chooses.

Seven players would share second place and with Campbell ineligible for the first-place prize money of $45,000, those tied for second place including Micheluzzi, Harrison Crowe, Deyen Lawson, Blake Proverbs, Nick Voke, Lawry Flynn and Jack Poutney would each secure cheques for $18,085.

New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, the Australian Amateur Champion and playing his first event as a professional produced the best final round of the day (66) to share 9th place.

SCORES

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Voke and Kelly lead QLD PGA

Nick Voke – file photo 

New Zealand’s Nick Voke and Victorian Andrew Kelly share the halfway lead at the Queensland PGA Championship at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane, the pair at 9 under and one shot ahead of Queensland’s Mitchell Varley.

Voke has spent much of this year on the Asian Tour after two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour although with little to show for his efforts to date. He is, however, a multiple winner in China in earlier years and did produce his best finish in Asia this year when 11th at the recent Macao Open won by Australia’s Min Woo Lee.

Voke only just made the field for this week as even earlier in the week his chance of a start was in doubt until he gained entry to the field via an alternate spot.

A former Iowa State attendee during a collegiate golfing career, the 29-year-old Aucklander was out at 6.30 on day two and took advantage of the benign conditions to reel off a second round of 62, a course record, which included a homeward nine of 30.

Voke’s co leader, Andrew Kelly missed the cut in last week’s event in South Australia but after an opening 69 yesterday he moved to the top of the leaderboard with a round of 66 today.

36-year-old Kelly, a professional for 13 years, has had a tough year to date on the PGA Tour of Australasia missing nine of 14 cuts, although a recent 3rd place in Darwin suggests he might have found something.

Neither player has won on the PGA Tour of Australasia to date and this weekend offers a great opportunity.

SCORES

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PGA Tour of Australasia begins East Coast Swing


Kazuma Kobori exciting addition to the professional ranks – photo APAC

The 2023 / 2024 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia begins its ‘East Coast Swing’ this week when the Queensland PGA Championship gets underway on Thursday at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane’s east.

After events in Papua New Guinea, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, the schedule now includes six consecutive events leading into Xmas on the Eastern Seaboard and the opportunity for several new recruits to the professional ranks to get their careers in the paid ranks underway.

Perhaps the most intriguing of them is the current Australian Amateur Champion Kazuma Kobori of New Zealand who has full status on the Australasian Tour courtesy of his victory at the Tour School in April, following which he has recorded an outstanding final year in amateur golf.

Kobori, already the winner of an Australasian Tour event when successful at the New Zealand PGA Championship as a 17-year-old amateur, won the Western Amateur (Illinois) and was the leading individual at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2023 and appears on track for a very successful career in the professional ranks.

Other leading amateurs making their professional debut this week include the talented New South Welshman Jeffrey Guan, South Australian Jack Buchanan and Victorian Max Charles, all three coming off a week at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne last week, Buchanan and Guan members of the Australian Eisenhower Trophy team which finished runner up in Abu Dhabi last month.

Last season’s PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, David Micheluzzi, gets his new season underway ahead of becoming a full-fledged member of the DP World Tour when that tour begins its new season at the nearby Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in late November.

One of the rewards for Micheluzzi’s outstanding last season is membership of the DP World Tour and although he has played sparingly of late his follow-up to last season will be watched with interest.

Anthony Quayle and Aaron Wilkin have been the winners of this event since its move to the rebuilt Nudgee Golf Club, Quayle though will not be at the event as he chases a strong finish to what has been a solid season in Japan this year.

Last year’s winner Wilkin is having a good season on the Asian Development Tour and is also not in this week’s field.

LEADERBOARD

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