Many Australasians get unique opportunity at Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
Victorian Cameron John gets his first chance in the event courtesy of his great Australasian Tour efforts last season
This week’s 25th edition of the $5 million Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, played over three layouts in the Fife and Angus Council areas to the north and east of Edinburgh, provides a great opportunity for several Australasian golfers to gain exposure to a high-class event on outstanding layouts and for a prize fund to which they are seldom, if ever, exposed.
Played in a pro-am format, similar to that of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and more recently the New Zealand Open, players are teamed with one amateur for the opening three rounds played at each of St Andrews Old Course, Kingsbarns Golf Links and Carnoustie Golf Links before leading professionals and teams, making the 54-hole cut, return to St Andrews for the final round.
That the purse of US$ million is no greater than that offered in 2010 tells the story of an event for which its popularity is built on the format in which many of the game’s leading players enjoy the opportunity to not only play for a reasonable purse on fine golfing facilities, but the opportunity to reward many of the friends and families the opportunity to join them as golfing partners for the week.
Many of the game’s modern-day greats have played the event, and several have won, although the only one to have done so from our part of the world is New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, who also teamed with Shane Warne to finish runner-up in the 2021 team’s section of the championship.
Ryan Fox is not in the field for this year’s event, which is understandable given his involvement in Chicago last week, but there is a long list of twenty-two Australians who have entered the event, many of them gaining a start in the event courtesy of their performances on the PGA Tour of Australasia last season.
Cameron John, James Marchesani, Will Florimo, Jay McKenzie, Marc Leishman, Austin Bautista, Jack Thompson, Matias Sanchez, Nick Voke, and Decland Donovan are in the field as a result of the Australasian Tour Order of Merit standings, but there are several others who also get a chance.
Wade Ormsby and Kevin Yuan compete based on their Asian Tour efforts, while Ryan Peake gets another chance to improve his standing in his rookie year in Europe.
New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier, who surprisingly did not play in France last week, is entered, hopefully over a recent injury, to allow him to improve on his already impressive 13th position in the Race to Dubai rankings and to consolidate his current 9th place in the list of 10 who earn PGA Tour cards at the end of this DP World Tour season.
LIV golfers Elvis Smylie, Cam Smith and Lucas Herbert are in the field, while Jason Scrivener, David Michelussi, Anthony Quayle, Jack Buchanan and Conner McKinney round out a large ‘down under’ brigade.
