Cam Davis contends at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am


Cam Davis – file photo PGA of Australia

Seattle-based Sydney golfer, Cam Davis, has opened up the possibility of yet another great payday and perhaps another win on the PGA Tour, a second round of 68 at Spyglass Hill to go with his opening 65 at Pebble Beach Links leaving the 29 year old in a share of second place and three off the lead of Sepp Straka.

Playing his third event of the year, following to 20 finishes at the American Express and Sentry events earlier in January, Davis began his second round in the best possible fashion when he eagled the first hole when holing from just off the green at the par 5.

Four more birdies and a bogey had him just two from Straka’s lead but a dropped shot at the last has him entering the weekend three off the pace but very much in contention.

“Yeah, it was great to get off to a hot start with an eagle on the first, that kind of got me moving in the right direction very quickly,” said Davis.

“Honestly, played pretty well for most of the round. It was getting a little tricky to read the wind through the trees here. I think it’s a little more open down at Pebble, but out here it’s a little more swirly.

“A couple more missed greens and a couple loose tee shots, but we recovered well. The bogey on the last was a little annoying, but same time 4 under felt like a pretty solid day today.”

Davis is currently 52nd in the world ranking although he has a previous best of 38th and many feel he will reach much higher standing in the near future.

Tomorrow Davis and the rest of the field will focus their attention on Pebble Beach Links over the final 36 holes.

Jason Day added a round of 69 to be at 5 under par and in a share of 38th, Min Woo Lee is another shot back and Adam Scott is in 75th position at 1 over.

The leader Straka is chasing his second win in three weeks having led for most of the eay to win the American Express Championship in La Quinta in January.

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McLeod and Wongras lead Webex Series Murray River event

Jake McLeod – image PGA of Australia

Queensland’s Jake McLeod and Thailand’s women golfer Cholcheva Wongras have taken the halfway lead at the Webex Player Series Murray River event at the Cobram Barooga Old Course, the pair tied at 14 under and one ahead of 52-year-old Jason Norris in the mixed gender event.

McLeod, a player good enough to have won the NSW Open, finished 3rd at the Australian Open in 2018 and played the European Tour in previous years, has been showing glimpses of his capabilities again in recent weeks and today he added a second round of 63 to go with his opening 65 to share the lead with 17-year-old rising Thai star Wongras.

“It’s nice to be in contention again on the weekend for the third tournament in a row now,” said McLeod who led the Order of Merit in 2018.

“I’ve learned a fair bit over the last couple of tournaments as well, so hopefully I can capitalise on that and do a better job.”

Wongras, who despite her young age has now been a professional for two years, won twice and finished runner-up on two occasions in Thailand last year, a country that continues to produce world-class players of both genders, and is well and truly a contender heading into the weekend.

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Hannah Green starts season well in Florida

Hannah Green file photo 

The 2025 LPGA Tour began overnight with the staging of the US$2 million Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions at the Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, Florida with Lydia Ko, Hannah Green and Minjee Lee the Australasians in the 32-player field.

The event is played in a pro-am format with 50 amateurs teaming with 32 professionals, all golfers to play 72 holes with no cut for either the professionals or amateurs.

After day one, Korean A Lim Kim has established a four shots break over fellow countrywoman Jin Young Ko and Thailands Patty Tavatanakit.

The leading Australasian after the opening round if Hannah Green whose round of 70 has her in a share of 4th place and although five shots from the lead of Kim she is just one shot out of second place.

Minjee Lee is in a share of 17th place at even par 72 while Lydia Ko is another shot back 1 over.

Green is coming off a three-win season but while the Olympic Gold was not one of those she sees the Olympics as he most enjoyable event in 2024.

“I think the Olympics is probably the coolest experience from last year even though I didn’t win that. Yes, it was nice to have three tournament wins, but the crowds we played in front of were probably the best I’ve ever played in front of. That was also fun, wearing green and gold aND having my team around me.

“2024 was such a good year. I felt like I somewhat flew under the radar a little bit. I’m looking forward to coming to some events and defending and hopefully not putting too much pressure on myself. I’m still hungry to get more trophies in my cabinet.

“Today was nice. I hit a couple of shots out there that weren’t great but I feel like that’s what happens when you take six, seven weeks without playing a proper competition.

“Yeah, been really nice to get back into competitive golf. I felt like I had a really nice off-season so nice to be back in the sunny Florida.”

World number one Nelly Korda opened with a round of one under par 71.

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Pebble Beach sees return of Scheffler and McIlroy


Pebble Beach Links – image USGA

With the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am now a Signature event on the PGA Tour, most of the tour’s leading players are on the Monterey Peninsula this week at one of the game’s most iconic venues to compete for their share of the US$20 million purse.

Four Australians, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Cam Davis, and Min Woo Lee, are among that group.

But with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Collin Morikawa returning to their first events of the season—Morikawa’s first since the opening event of the year at Kapalua—much interest will be focused on how their seasons start.

Scheffler is back after an injury to his hand in a kitchen incident at home, while McIlroy is here after an impressive Sunday surge to finish 4th in Dubai two weeks ago but just his second official world ranking event in nearly three months ago.

Scheffler has played this event just once when finishing 6th last year while McIlroy plays for the third occasion, missing the cut once and finishing 66th in the other.

Adam Scott has played the event on three previous occasions, including a best-of-20th last year after a slow start to the week.

Jason Day does enjoy a good record with eight top tens including a runner-up finish in 2018. Day was a disappointment last week at a venue where he had previous success after following an impressive week in the desert the week before.

Cam Davis has made four of five cuts in the event with a best of 14th four years ago. His strong final day at the American Express at his last start suggests he is playing well and could well feature in the finish this week.

Min Woo Lee has played the event for two missed cuts so his feeling for the layout and the pro-am format leaves a question mark.

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50 year old Michael Wright upstages youngsters to win Australasian Tour title

Michael Wright and caddy enjoy a special father/son occasion image PGA of Australia.

50-year-old Michael Wright, today turned back the clock with a playoff victory at the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Webex Series Victoria event at the Rosebud Country Club on the Mornington Peninsula.

It is the first time since Peter Senior’s win at the 2012 Australian Open that a golfer in their 50’s has won a PGA Tour of Australasia event.

Queenslander, Wright, the son of a professional, turns 51 in a month’s time but he has shown over the last twelve months, when earning the much sought after right to play on the PGA Tour Champions and now this victory, that he is playing some of the best golf of his career.

It is just the second PGA Tour of Australasia victory, 13 years after his first for Wright, although he was successful in several secondary (Von Nida Tour) events earlier.

13 months ago, he was one of only five players to gain access to the PGA Tour Champions. Although his season in the US was not perhaps quite what he had hoped for, he has retained sufficient status for multiple starts there again in 2025. Today’s win against significantly younger opposition will provide a great boost of confidence as he heads back to the US.

Wright survived a tense final-round battle against as many as five players, but it would be he and South Australian Jak Carter who finished one shot ahead of the field, requiring a playoff to identify the winner.

Wright would secure the trophy and the A$45,000 cheque when he parred the second hole after the consistent and ever-improving Carter double-bogeyed.

Queenslander Brad Kennedy and Victorian Andrew Martin shares 3rd place just one behind the playoff.

“It feels fantastic (to win) and to have my son (Noah) on the bag too made it even more special,” Wright told the PGA of Australia.

“This was one for the old boys. It’s pretty cool.

“Having played over on the Champions for a year now has given me a lot of experience,” he said referring to teeing it up against some of the game’s greatest names in the past 12 months.

“I’ve never been on a tour where I’ve played week in, week out. Playing on that tour, I played 23 events and it was like playing 23 Australian Opens.”

For Carter it was an agonising loss as it is the third time this season that he has lost a playoff but the 31 year old’s turn will surely come soon given the number of occasions he puts himself in contention.

Malaysian Ashley Lau was the leading woman in the mixed-gender event when she finished in a share of 7th.

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Australians prominent in opening event of Asian Tour season


Aaron Wilkin – file photo courtesy of PGA of Australia

The opening event of the 2025 Asian Tour has reached its halfway stage at the Manila Southwood Golf and Country Club in the Philippines, where several Australians have made good starts to their seasons.

Sadom Kaewkanjana leads the Smart Philippine Open at 9 under and three clear of Korean American Micah Shin but Queensland’s Aaron Wilkin is another shot back in a share of 3rd place, while Travis Smyth and Kevin Yuan are one shot further back in a share of 7th place and five from the lead.

The tournament is the first of 15 on the Asian Tour schedule in 2025, this week’s event followed by a US$2 million International Series event in New Delhi next week.

Wilkin, a former winner of the Queensland PGA Championship is in his second season on the Asian Tour after a year on the Development Tour, a runner-up in the Indonesian Open allowing him to retain his playing privileges for Asia this season.

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McLeod and Lamb share haflway lead at Webex Series Vic event


Jake McLeod in action today – image PGA of Australia

First-round leader Jake McLeod has followed up his brilliant opening round of 62 with a round of 66 on day two of the Webex Series Vic event at the Rosebud Country Club to share the halfway lead with NSW’s Corey Lamb who was round in 65 today to add to his opening 63.

The 30-year-old Queenslander and former European Tour player has recorded 14 birdies and an eagle in his opening 36 holes while Lamb has produced 13 birdies and just one bogey in his opening two days of golf.

McLeod has been a prolific winner of pro-am titles and runner-up on three occasions in PGA Tour of Australasia events, but his only victory came more than six years ago when winning the NSW Open in 2018.

Perhaps his best performance came when 3rd behind Abraham Ancer at the 2018 Australian Open in a period of peak form which led to him playing in Europe for a couple of seasons.

23-year-old Lamb, from the lower Hunter Valley region, has been inside the top 3 in PGA Tour of Australasia events on three occasions already this summer and so is beginning to build consistency in what is an already impressive game.

The leading pair are two clear of NSW golfer, Andrew Campbell while amongst those at 9 under and three from the lead in the mixed-gender event are Welshwoman Lydia Hall and West Australian Abbie Teasdale.

Queensland veteran Michael Wright, a member of the PGA Tour Champions in 2024, is at 8 under and four from the lead.

The event carries prizemoney of $A250,000 with a first prize of A$45,000.

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Corey Lamb – image  PGA of Australia
 

 

 

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Jason Day moves into contention on demanding day at Torrey Pines


Jason Day – file photo – now in contention after a round of 69 in tough conditions – image PGA of Australia

After a disappointing opening round of 74 over the South Course in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, Jason Day began round two some eleven shots from the lead set by Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg. However, by the time he walked from the course on day two, he was within just five of the halfway lead.

Several players have yet to finish their rounds due to weather delays and darkness preventing play on day two, but this will have little impact on the current leaders.

Day’s 3 under round of 69 over the admittedly easier North Course was made more impressive by the fact that round was completed in the most demanding of conditions so much so that late in the afternoon play was suspended due to the high winds sweeping across the clifftop layouts high above the Pacific Ocean.

Day has a good record at Torrey Pijes winning two Farmers Insurance Opens and a Junior World Championship and given the form he displayed at last week’s American Express his opening round of 74 had him fighting to make the cut all day.

As the winds increased throughout the afternoon, however, the potential cut score slipped from 1 under to 1 over. When Day birdied two of his final three holes he was not only comfortably inside the required score, he had improved from outside the top 100 to a share of 28th  and the leaders were now, all of a sudden, in sight.

Day’s round was one of only three in the 70s in gusting winds, which reached around 40 m.ph on occasions. At one stage, play was halted for nearly 90 minutes due to balls oscillating on the greens.

Aaron Baddeley was unable to produce the form he showed in round one and followed up his opening 67 with a round of 77 but it was about average over the South Course on day two and at even par he is just six shots from the lead.

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PGA Tour of Australasia resumes at Rosebud Country Club


Anthony Quayle – in form at present and a chance to improve his Order of Merit position.

The PGA Tour of Australasia resumes this week when the Webex Series Victoria event is played at the Rosebud Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula.

With eight more events remaining before the 2024/2025 schedule winds up with the National Tournament at the National Golf Club, also on the Mornington Peninsula, there remains much to play for not only in terms of the prizemoney available but for Order of Merit positions at season’s end.

The winner of the event last year was New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori whose fabulous run through this same stretch of events twelve months ago led him to the top of the Order of Merit and with it his card to play the DP World Tour.

Kobori is in the UAE this week where he will play the Ras Al Khaimah Championship, his first event of 2025 but in the meantime players such as the in-form Anthony Quayle, Corey Lamb. Jordan Doull and Harrison Crowe will look to advance their already encouraging standing on the Order of Merit to date.

The event is a mixed-gender event and some of the leading women include Kazuma Kobori’s sister Momoka, England’s Lydia Hall, Malaysian Ashley Lau, who finished runner-up to Kazuma Kobori last year, and Kelsey Bennett.

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Torrey Pines a favourite of Australians

The entrance to Torrey Pines 

The Farmers Insurance Open and its venue, Torrey Pines, have been good to Australians over recent years, not only in terms of the wins it has produced but also in terms of several other meritorious performances at the Southern Californian venue.

Jason Day has won the event twice, Marc Leishman once, and in their rookie years on the PGA Tour, both Nathan Green and Andrew Buckle led the event until late in the final round.

Day and Leishman have also been runner-up at the venue.

Day and Buckle were also winners of Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines and so the North and South Course clifftop layouts have provided several Australians early exposure and great success.

This week, the $US9.3 million Farmers Insurance Open is played, and Day is firming as one of the favourites given his history in the event and his recent good form, which including a third-place finish at the American Express event last week.

Day and Aaron Baddeley are the only two Australians in this week’s field.

“I am looking forward to the week, said Day today in his pre-event press conference. “It’s always fun to come back to a place that I’ve been coming to since I was pretty much 16 years old. It’s nice, it’s a fun place to play. It is very difficult. Obviously U.S. Open style golf course on the South and then the course conditions are fantastic right now, so I’m looking forward to hopefully a successful week.

“It’s obviously nice to see all the work — I took, what, four months off pretty much, three and a half months last year at the end of the year and worked very, very hard on my swing,” said Day in his media conference today.

“That was one thing that was holding me back last year. Even though I had some pretty good stats around the short game area, could have improved dramatically with the irons. So it was nice to be able to see that pay off.

“Even though I didn’t get the results that I wanted to at Sentry, it was nice to be able to get the results at Palm Springs and try to take that forward here even though this is a very difficult golf course, both sides actually since it changes on the North.”

Day was asked where the Farmers Insurance stands now there appears to be a two-level tour developing following the introduction of the Signature Series

“Well, there are two tours within a tour now if you could understand that. I think you have the top guys playing the Signature Events and you have the other side of it, too. I think that just happened purely because of the way that when LIV came about, and it’s unfortunate but that’s what — ultimately that’s what we’re dealing with now.

“I don’t know if I speak for the Tour, you know, as well as some of the other guys because I sometimes — sometimes the Tour sends me emails and I don’t even read ’em. I know there’s guys out there that are a lot more qualified than me to answer for that reason. Yeah, it is tough. “The two tours is difficult. I mean, ultimately I think at the end of the day you would probably, you know, if you wanted everyone to play in a tournament, you have to shrink the schedule down dramatically.

“You can’t have 40-plus events or I’m not sure where 5 it is, it used to be 48 events on the schedule and you knew that it wasn’t — you weren’t going to have the best players in the world.

“The only way you’re going to get the best players in the world is shrink the schedule down dramatically, and I think essentially that’s kind of what they’re doing now within the Tour is that you have the Signature Events and you have the major championships and then you throw in your Memorials, your Bay Hills, your Tiger events, all that stuff, those bigger events within that offer three-year exemptions instead of the typical two-year exemptions.

“Then you might sprinkle in some golf tournaments that you actually like and play well in. Then the rest of the guys that are not quite in those Signature Events yet. So like I said before, I would love to give you the correct answer, but I just don’t know where they’re even taking it.

“I just typically just keep my head down, I keep my mouth shut and try and play good golf because I’ve got a hard enough time trying to keep the ball down the middle of the fairway.”

Baddeley is playing the event for the 20th occasion having recorded top tens on two occasions.

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