Harisson Crowe wins National Tournament Anthony Quayle gains European Tour status


Harrison Crowe – his first win as a professional likely to be the first of many – image PGA of Australia 

On a day full of tension and possibilities for the immediate future of several players at the National Tournament on the Mornington Peninsula, New South Welshman, Harrison Crowe, has held on to win his second  PGA Tour of Australasia title, but his first as a professional, with a two-shot win over Queensland-based Anthony Quayle whose nine-foot birdie putt at the last has seemingly given him a DP World Tour card as one of the leading three eligible players on the Australasian Tour Order of Merit.

Beginning the final round tied in the lead with Queensland’s Quinnton Croker and New Zealander Denzel Ieremia, Crowe put together an outward nine of 3 under 34 in the demanding winds sweeping across the Gunnamatta layout at the National Golf Club and then held off challenges from several players with significant agendas over the losing nine to win the $A36,000 cheque and move to 8th on the season- ending Order of Merit.

Crowe was a winner of the prestigious Asia Pacific Amateur Championship during his stellar amateur career which ended in September of 2003 before turning professional.

“I’ve been hanging around for this win for quite some time,” said Crowe.

“It just feels great to finally get it done and I feel like this could be the one that kind of kicks the door down a little bit more.”


Anthony Quayle – might not have won but an important week  for him – image PGA of Australia

For Quayle, a win would have been icing on the cake of a great season but with now eight top-five finishes in the 2024/2025 season, he has been rewarded with a 5th place finish on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and a s a result will likely gain one of the three DP World Tour cards for next season’s schedule and other starts in significant events in Asia and elsewhere as a result.

Quayle squeezed past Jack Buchanan for the 5th OOM placing with his final hole birdie, breaking clear of what would have been a four-way tie for third place in the event.

Dependant on the decision of both Lucas Herbert and Cam Smith to take up their membership rights on the DP World Tour, which appear unlikely especially in Smith’s case, then Buchanan who tied for 6th this week might well gain the third card given OOM winner, Elvis Smylie already has status in Europe courtesy of his Australian PGA Championship.

Leaderboard 

Final Order of Merit

/by

Min Woo Lee and Ryan Fox prominent in Houston


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 3rd 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 6th of the season on the PGA Tour and with a best of 20th (at the Players Championship) at his previous five starts he needs to get things moving in a forward direction to improve his current 139th position in the FedEx Cup standings. Tomorrow he has that chance.

Leaderboard

/by

Crucial Order of Merit Milestones at stake at National Tournament


Already with two wins this season, Jack Buchanan could gain further spoils this week – image PGA of Australia

With the winner of the 2024/2025 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit title (Elvis Smylie) finalised over this past weekend at the Heritage Classic in Victoria, the battle for some of the remaining at this week’s final event of the season remains well and truly alive.

This week’s National Tournament at the National Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula could well prove crucial in the race of DP World Tour cards for the 2026 season along with the importance of finishing inside the top 50 for those looking just to retain their ongoing playing privileges in Australasia.

The leading three players on the Order of Merit at the conclusion of this week’s event will secure playing rights for next season’s DP World Tour beginning late in 2025 and, at this stage, those players are Smylie, Ryan Peake and Lucas Herbert.

With Smylie having already secured playing privileges in Europe courtesy of his win in the jointly sanctioned Australian PGA Championship, then Peake, Herbert and Cam Smith are the next three but with the possibility of either Herbert or Smith, or both, not taking up their membership then the door is open for those further down the list to stake a claim.

Jack Buchanan and/or Anthony Quayle could claim one of the three cards with a win this week and subject to the acceptance or otherwise of Herbert or Smith, a runner-up finish might be good enough.

Neither Herbert or Smith are in this week’s field, so the National Tournament takes on an additional dimension given what’s at stake.

Other players with outside chances are Curtis Luck, Corey Lamb and Jordan Doull although they too would need to rely on Herbert and Smith not taking up their cards.

At the other end of the scale are those players fighting for survival in terms of playing rights for next season with a number of players sitting either side of the top 50, anxious in their own performance this week and that of others.

ORDER OF MERIT 

/by

Hodge and Florimo lead Heritage Classic into weekend


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 3rd 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.

Leaderboard    

/by

Elvis Smylie leaving no stone unturned in Order of Merit chase


Elvis Smylie in action at the Heritage – image PGA of Australia

Current PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit leader, Elvis Smylie, is leaving no stone unturned to ensure he completes the 2024/2025 season on top as the benefits of doing so are significant.

Already a member of the DP World Tour courtesy of his win in the jointly sanctioned BMW Australian PGA Championship, Smylie will earn  start at the Open Championship and the USPGA Championship if he remains ahead of the pack after the remaining two events of the schedule.

Smylie is at the Heritage Golf and Country Club for this week’s Heritage Classic ahead of next week’s National Tournament at the National Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula although if he wraps the Order of Merit title up this week then he may not play next week.

While mathematically possible for Smylie to be caught it would require the most amazing set of circumstances for him to be headed.

Recent New Zealand Open winner, Ryan Peake would need to win both the remaining events and Smylie would have to essentially miss the cut, both scenarios remotely possible but highly unlikely.

Currently, Peake is 372.17 behind Smylie and with a total of 380 points available should Peake win both, then he could catch Smylie but Smylie would still need to earn no points and, given the quality of player he is, then it is almost impossible to imagine.

For Peake however whatever the outcome of the remaining two events he has secured his playing rights on the PGA Tour and Asian Tours, has a start at the Open Championship and in all likelihood will secure one of the three DP World Tour cards available for next season so to say the least his life has changed immeasurably since his fairytale win at the New Zealand Open Presented by Sky Sport.

There is still a race on for the third of the three cards available for the DP World Tour with Jack Buchanan and Anthony Quayle still in the running should they have a great finish to the season over the next two weeks.

Heritage Classic  Leaderboard 

Order of Merit as at March 16th 

 

 

/by

Ben Campbell adds US$1.5 million with 3rd place finish in Singapore

Ben Campbell (right) with his LIV Golf team mates in Singapore this week

New Zealand’s Ben Campbell secured the biggest cheque of his career when finishing third in the LIV Golf Singapore event, US$1.5 million now part of his growing returns from professional golf in recent seasons.

Campbell joined LIV Golf permanently at the behest of RangeGoats captain Bubba Watson over the Xmas period and in his first few starts has finished 15th in Riyadh, 23rd in Adelaide and 35th in Hong Kong before his great week at the Sentosa Golf Club.

“Yeah, it was big,” said Campbell when asked where this effort stands. “Obviously, I was very frustrated last week in Hong Kong to not play that great. So worked hard early on this week and made a few little changes, and yeah, it was good. Sort of had the team here and that, so it was nice to see the hard work paying off.

“It was nice to stick in there today. I haven’t probably felt like I had my best out there, but nice to stay patient and hole a couple putts coming in, which was good.”

Campbell finished six shots behind the winner Joaquin Niemann but only one shot out of second-placed Brooks Koepka.

Having earned a total of US$627,000 in his first few events Campbell is fast becoming one of the leading money earners in the 2025 LIV Golf season and will no doubt benefit from the confidence he will gain from contending so well this week.

https://www.livgolf.com/leaderboard

 

 

/by

Fox and Lee best of the Australasians at Players Championship

Ryan Fox – an improved showing early in his second PGA Tour season 

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox has finished as the equal leading Australasian at the Players Championship, recording his best finish in three starts at the TPC Sawgrass.

Fox shared 20th place with West Australian  Min Woo Lee who had led through 36 holes but struggled to rounds of 78 and 73, although a homeward nine of 34 recovered some of the ground lost earlier.

Fox finished 27th in the event on debut two years ago but missed the cut in 2024, his final round of 70 today improving his overnight position some 13 places.

Fox and Lee were the only two of the six Australasians entered for the event to make the cut although Jason Day was forced to withdraw on Thursday morning due to illness.

Having missed the cut in his two previous PGA Tour starts this season and finished 63rd in Phoenix, it was an encouraging week for the 38-year-old Fox in his second full season on the PGA Tour.

Both he and Lee will earn US$240,000 for their ten-way share of 20th place.

Fox will tee it up again at this week’s Valspar Championship in Tampa.

Leaderboard 

/by

Min Woo Lee shares Players Championship lead


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 6th 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 9th).

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.

Leaderboard 

/by

Six Australasians tackle the demands of TPC Sawgrass

Jason Day, the winner in 2016 is playing well at present – image PGA of Australia

Six Australasians, two of them previous winners of the event, will face the starter at this week’s Players Championship at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course.

The event has been relatively good to Australasians with Jason Day, Adam Scott, Cam Smith, Greg Norman, Steve Elkington (twice) and New Zealand’s Craig Perks having won previously

Jason Day, Adam Scott, Cam Davis, Min Woo Lee, Ryan Fox and PGA Tour rookie Karl Vilips each get the chance to shine in the US$25 million event, the largest purse on the PGA Tour where the winner will earn US$4.5 million.

Day and Scott have both won the event previously. Scott claimed just his second PGA Tour title when defeating Padraig Harrington by one shot in 2004, and Day was the winner in 2016 when home by four shots over Kevin Chappell.

In 19 starts since, Scott has recorded just three top tens and in the last few years has finished well down the field while Day has recorded two top tens in seven starts since his win.

Day is certainly beginning to play well, finishing 8th last week after contending late into the final day and with his game looking increasingly good shape then his chances of contending and finishing as the leading Australian appear very good.

Scott is perhaps not in the same form he was late in 2024 but he is playing solidly. It is however hard to imagine him contending for the title.

Scott did however describe his love affair with the event and the layout.

“Yeah, this is an event I look forward to every year. It’s one of my favorite golf courses on TOUR. It’s one of the best events that we play in every year.

“The event that I tell all my friends outside of the majors obviously I think they should all come and experience it. I think it’s a great atmosphere to play in. It’s a great atmosphere for people to watch. So it’s a real buzz to be here.”

Cam Davis has played the event on four previous occasions and while has missed the cut in three of those he did finish an impressive 6th in 2023.

Davis’ game is somewhat of a roller coaster at present, having missed his last two cuts but also finishing 5th at Pebble Beach a month ago.

Min Woo Lee finished a very impressive 6th in this event when on debut in 2023 and made the cut but finished well back last year. Other than a missed cut last week in Orlando, Lee has played very well to date this year and might well feature.

Ryan Fox will play the event for the third time having finished an encouraging 27th on debut in 2023 before missing the cut last year. Fox is now into his second PGA Tour season but having missed two of three cuts this season it is hard to get excited about his chances.

Karl Vilips will play the event for the first occasion but there is little doubting the significant talent he possesses. His win last week in Puerto Rico will have him playing the event with a lot of confidence and while it is hard to see him figuring at any stage this early in his professional career there will be a lot of interest in just how he follows up such a big win a few days ago.

The likely winner is the man who has won in each of the past two years but players worth a look at longer odds are Hideki Matsuyama, Brian Harman and Sepp Straka.

First round draw 

/by

Great week for Australasian golfers worldwide


Karl Vilips – secures his first PGA Tour victory – file image USGA

It has been a sensational weekend for Australasian golfers in several golfing arenas.

On Sunday, Minjee Lee finished runner-up and Cassie Porter 4th in an LPGA Tour event on the island of Hainan off Southern China.

In New Zealand a local, Tyler Hodge, won the New Zealand PGA Championship to record his first PGA Tour of Australasia victory.

In Hong Kong, Lucas Herbert finished 4th behind Sergio Garcia in a LIV Golf event.

Then this morning things got even better.

In Puerto Rico the highly talented US based West Australian, Karl Vilips, won the PGA Tour’s Puerto Rico Open, the alternative event to the Arnold Palmer Championship but a great boost for Vilips who gained access to the PGA Tour via the Korn Ferry Tour last year.

Vilips, a former student at Stanford University, won by three and earned US$720,000 in just his third PGA Tour event as a cardholder, having made the cut in each of his previous two starts in Mexico and Florida.

“Trying to soak it all in at the moment,” said Vilips. “I don’t know, just thinking ahead to next week already, PLAYERS, I’m getting ready for it. It’s been a bit busy, but I’m sure when I’m in my hotel room later I’ll be thinking about something

“Last night that was about the only thing on my mind was everything that comes with a victory here. I had a hard time getting to sleep. But on the course it was just staying in the present, doing what I can do and I think I did a really good job of that because it is tough to not think about everything. Once I hit that wedge close on 18, those thoughts definitely started flowing in my head.

“If you told me less than a year ago when I was at Stanford that I would be a PGA TOUR winner at this point in my career, I think I would be a little surprised. But I think I’ve just been so true to the process and everything that my team has me doing that it shouldn’t be a surprise when I make the putt on the last hole. But we’ve got to keep moving forward and try to win at an even higher level.”

At the Arnold Palmer Championship, Jason Day, a former winner of the event, finished in 8th place after a stuttering finish but after returning to his coach of earlier years, Colin Swatton, earlier this year he will no doubt be pleased with his progress ahead of next week’s Players Championship, yet another event he has won previously.

“We (Day and Swatton) stopped working together and then it was just trading texts on and off,” said Day over the weekend. “He was going on with his own life, and obviously I was trying to play competitive golf. We’ve got a lot of history together, so it’s nice to be able to pull the old-school team back.

“I’ve got Jason Goldsmith who is my performance coach, we got to No. 1 together. Cole, we got to No. 1 together. I got a new trainer, an old trainer from my injury days. Luke is doing a good job on the bag. So I feel like I got a really solid team, everyone’s kind of pulling in the right direction, which is great.

“That’s kind of the hardest thing is you, when you’re the leader of the team, you got to kind of nudge everyone where you want ’em to go. Everyone has to kind of pull their equal weight, and then if it doesn’t work out then you got to look elsewhere. So it’s nice to be able to have a team that really cares about what I’m trying to achieve out on the golf course.”

And then to top it all off, New Zealand’s Steve Alker produced a final round of 66 and eventually won a playoff over Jason Caron at the Colourguard Classic in Tucson in Arizona to win his 9th PGA Tour Champions title and move to #2 on the Charl Schwab Cup list for the season.

Despite winning the Charl Schwab Cup last season, this week’s win was the first for Alker since January last year, highlighting his amazing consistency in the period since. In fact, there had been six runner-up finishes since his last win.

“Yeah, I mean, just got to keep knocking on the door, Cookie,” said Alker when asked about the frustration of not winning. “You know how it is, you just grind away. I’ve been top-10s, top-5s, just been in the hunt, so it’s just being patient, just working hard on the body this pre-season.”

Australian Greg Chalmers led into the final round and eventually finished tied for 3rd with fellow Australian Rod Pampling.

 

/by