Andrew Martin last man standing at Vic PGA Championship
Andrew Martin with his Vic PGA trophy – photo PGA of Australia.
38-year-old Victorian professional Andrew Martin has survived a five hole playoff against NSW’s golfer Lincoln Tighe, Victorian Brett Coletta and South Australian Adam Bland, to win the Victorian PGA Championship at Moonah Links, the 2003 Australian Amateur Champion eventually winning with a birdie after he and Tighe were the last men standing through just the first of the five holes..
It would be the much shorter hitter, Martin who found the green at the par 5 in two at their 5th attempt and after Tighe had found the front bunker and could do no better than par, Martin two putted for birdie and just his second PGA Tour of Australasian title.
Martin, who turned professional in 2005, had won an event on the Australasian Tour when successful in a TPS Series event in Sydney in 2021 but that aside his professional career has not really measured up to his success in amateur ranks. This might go some way to changing that.
While the near miss would have been disappointing for Tighe he will be delighted with a return to somewhere near his best after injury issues and poor form for much of this year turned into much better fortunes in recent weeks.
After failing to make the weekend in his first nine tournaments of 2022, Tighe, one of the Australasian Tour’s longest hitters, played very well in recent events in Western Australia and being able to continue that resurgence will be very encouraging for the 33-year-old from Wollongong.
Tighe has recently returned to a former coach Warwick Dewes and the improvement has been significant.
Coletta won the Queensland Open as an amateur in 2016 and has battled away on the Korn Ferry Tour where he missed eleven cuts in succession in 2022 but he too was a talented amateur and this might spark a turnaround in his career despite the playoff loss.
Bland has played the Japan Tour in recent years but his form until recently has been poor although a couple of good performances in Japan in recent weeks suggest he too might be coming right for the Australasian Tour to follow.
The PGA Tour of Australasia now heads to the Nudgee Golf Club in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane for the Queensland PGA Championship ahead of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland the following week.
