Stephen Allan – an important breakthrough – file image PGA of Australia

Just fifteen minutes before Perth’s Min Woo Lee put the seal on his first PGA Tour victory, another Australian, although from a generation before, Stephen Allan, held on to win his first PGA Tour Champions title with a one-shot win over American Tag Ridings at the Galleri Classic at the iconic Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage in California.

Ridings found the water with his tee shot at the last when within one of Allan but made par, although Allan was up to the task when he laid up at the par 5 and then two-putted for par to edge out Ridings who was playing in just his second PGA Tour Champions event.

“It was tough,” said the 51-year-old. “It was hard all day. I played really well. The other guys were playing well, too. Obviously made quite a few birdies on the front nine and then it’s just trying not to get ahead of yourself, and I’m not very good at it most of the time, so was really just trying to bear down.”

With such a long time since his second and what had been his last win until now, Allan reflected on the journey since.

“I won the Australian Open in 2002 and it was my second year, four years after my first win, and I told my girlfriend, now my wife, it won’t be four years until I win again. Unfortunately it’s been 23 years.

“It’s a big relief to get a win. I was close on the PGA TOUR a couple of times. Didn’t get over the line. Once it was completely my fault. The other time Kenny Perry had a hot finish and I didn’t. So it was really good to hang in there and finish it off.”

Allan paid credit to a recent suggestion from his fellow Victorian Cameron Percy while playing in a recent event.

“He played with me Sunday last week, and I played really well the first day, but I didn’t play well the second two days. I really struggled, particularly with some tough shots into the wind. I’ve had a few technical issues, I think, over the last five, six years. I’ve been getting on top of them.

“Last year was pretty good at times without really being good. I played with guys like Thomas Björn and Steve Stricker, and you watch their iron play, and I didn’t have it last year, so I was really fighting it the whole time.

“He just gave me a tip on the range when I was doing one of my drills, I wasn’t really — I had an overactive body at the start of my swing, and I’ve probably overdone it, and he’s like, you’re not turning at the start.”

Allan took advantage of the late withdrawal of Steve Stricker to gain a start in the event and will now enjoy the luxury of knowing he has full status on the PGA Tour Champions for the foreseeable future.

It was Allan’s 28^th start on the PGA Tour Champions since first gaining his right to play there via Final Stage qualifying in late 2023 where he finished 3^rd to earn one of the five cards on offer.

After finishing 38^th in the Schwab Cup standings in his first season he narrowly missed regaining full status but courtesy of Stricker’s withdrawal he gained his start this week and the rest is now history.

Allan was already enjoying the fact that he can now plan a schedule rather than experience the uncertainty of not having full status.

“It’s great. I can plan a schedule. As far as I know, it gets you into every tournament so it’s great to know that and to know what I’m in. I don’t have to play everything if I get tired at the end of the year. Last year I was sort of on the bubble at 36, and I wasn’t playing that good and had to play every tournament, so now you can sort of — if you need a week off, you can take it. Yeah, it’s fantastic.”

The former Australian Open and German Open Champion and twice runner-up on the PGA Tour during his lengthy career there won his first tournament of any kind since his win at the 2002 Australian Open at the Victoria Golf Club.

The Victorian golfer was greeted on the 18^th green following his win by several of his fellow Victorians now playing their trade on the PGA Tour Champions, including Richard Green, Cameron Percy, and David Bransdon.

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Min Woo Lee – file photo Australian Golf Media

Perth’s Min Woo Lee and New Zealander Ryan Fox are well placed through 54 holes of the Texas Children’s Houston Open at the Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, Texas.

Lee produced a third round of 63 to establish a four-shot lead over Argentinian Alejandro Tosti but New Zealand’s Fox is just one shot further back in a share of 3^rd place with none other than Scottie Scheffler and his fellow American, Ryan Gerard.

Lee, who is chasing a first PGA Tour title, was asked about his weekend demise at the Players Championship after leading through the opening 36 holes.

“Yeah, today I did an amazing job, didn’t do that (at the TPC Sawgrass). It was a very good learning curve the last PLAYERS just a few weeks ago being in the lead and just, I don’t know, felt like I wasn’t myself.

“Yeah, I want to be in this situation more and more, so I had to really look into it myself and yeah, just keeping my head down really and try and hit one shot at a time. It’s a long day so you can’t get ahead of yourself, and you’ve just got to hit one shot at a time and keep trusting your game.

“Yeah, again, it’s just trending so well. My coach and I, Richie, have done really good work and it’s starting to show. It’s just a lot of trust. We’ve been working on this for the last two, three years, but just the last couple weeks since PLAYERS it kind of clicked in.”

Fox produced a round of 65 after a slow start and was proud of how he handled himself for the remainder of his round, including his homeward nine of 30.

“I was a bit angry after starting bogey-bogey and I hit a bad drive on 3 as well. Then kind of gave myself a little talking to and said there’s plenty of birdie chances out here, let’s just hit a good wedge shot in here and see what happens, and hit it in there close, made birdie and kind of calmed myself down.

“Yeah, just turned in even par and got hot on the back nine, and I was proud of myself for staying patient and giving myself lots of chances on that back nine.”

The US$9 million tournament is Fox’s 6^th of the season on the PGA Tour and with a best of 20^th (at the Players Championship) at his previous five starts he needs to get things moving in a forward direction to improve his current 139^th position in the FedEx Cup standings. Tomorrow he has that chance.

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Tyler Hodge in action today – image PGA of Australia

Recent New Zealand PGA Champion Tyler Hodge has continued his impressive late season form by sharing the halfway lead at the Heritage Classic at the Heritage Golf and Country Club north-east of Melbourne, the 30 year old tied with Queenslander Will Florimo at 11 under and one clear of a group of four golfers.

In a share of 3^rd place are NSW’s Harrison Crowe, Victorian Nathan Page, South Australian Lachlan Barker and Queenslander Jack Munro.

On a day of low scoring, both Hodge and Florimo recorded second rounds of 65 to take the lead into the weekend in the penultimate event of the 2024/2025 PGA Tour of Australasia season.

In an event which saw the Order of Merit winner officially crowned, Elvis Smylie has secured that title by making the cut while the only man who could have impacted the outcome, Ryan Peake, missed the cut.

Smylie is five shots off the lead at 6 under and could yet finish his season in style by contending for a third title for the season over the final 36 holes.

The race for one of the three DP World Tour cards available via the Order of Merit remains alive with both Anthony Quayle and Jack Buchanan making the cut although with work to do over the weekend if they are to challenge in this event and in next week’s season-ending National Tournament and sneak into one of those coveted positions.

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Min Woo Lee – continues liking for TPC Sawgrass

Minwoo Lee has a share of the halfway lead at the Players Championship, the 26 year old West Australian looking to improve on his 6^th place finish on debut in this event two years ago.

Lee added a second round 66 to his opening 67 to bet at 11 under par and along with Akshay Bhatia one ahead of J.J Spaun.

Other than a missed cut at last week’s Arnold Palmer Championship  Lee has been in solid form in PGA Tour starts this season and with the benefit of an impressive debut over the demanding TPC Sawgrass two years ago he produced seven birdies before making a mess of his final hole (the par 5 9^th).

When asked why he plays so well at the TPC Sawgrass when so many of the game’s leading players often struggle Lee repied; “I think I’m not sure why, but I think my 2-iron, I’m using that a lot and it’s a pretty good weapon of mine.

“So I can kind of draw it and hit it straight and it goes a long way. When I hit it good it goes, ends up going a long way. That helps. Then you have short clubs into holes, so, yeah I would love to hit 2-iron everywhere but obviously you can’t, some holes and, yeah, I think that’s it. The 2-iron.”

Lee knows the conditions over the weekend are expected to be tough with gusty winds up to 30 m.p.h.

“It will be tough. We got the text message yesterday from the TOUR saying that they’re going to adjust the course to it. It is, again, it’s a tough course even without wind, and it’s intimidating. There will be holes where obviously it will be downwind and some that are into, so there’s going to be holes that could be easier, but holes that could be a lot harder. Again, just hopefully keep playing good golf and see how it goes.”

With the withdrawal of Jason Day just ahead of the tournament due to illness, the remaining five Australasians suffered mixed results.

Ryan Fox made his second cut in now three starts in the event but Adam Scott missed the weekend by three, last week’s winner in Puerto Rico, Karl Vilips, by seven shots and Cam Davis by a massive 13 shots.

Pre-tournament favourite Scottie Scheffler is at 5 under par and six from the lead, but former winner Rory McIlroy is just two from the lead and appearing rather threatening as the closing 36 holes approaches.

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