Brendan Jones retains Japan Tour playing privileges

Brendan Jones – file photo

Last week I made mention of the fact that Australian golfer, Brendan Jones, needed a good week at the final full field event of the year on the Japan Tour, the Casio World Open, in order to retain his playing privileges  in Japan for next season without the need to use a career money list exemption.

The winner of 15 titles in Japan and one of the most successful foreigners to play the Japan Tour since since first joining in 2001, Jones has struggled in 2022 in his first season back after a Covid enforced break for foreigners from playing in Japan.

Jones finished 18th in last week’s event and eventually 68th on the money list after a comparatively strong finish to the season and safely retained the right to play in Japan next season.

Two of Jones’ last three starts of 2022 when 17th at the Visa Taiheiyo event and when 19th at the Casio World Open resulted in his best two finishes of the year.

Jones’ 2022 results

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Cameron Smith’s claims 3rd PGA title and fifth of 2022


Smith claims his third Australian PGA Championship – photo PGA of Australia

Cameron Smith today won his third Australian PGA Championship, his fifth title of 2022 and although some would argue he should be the number two player in the world, in many eyes he is, so 2022 has been a breakthrough year in so many ways for the 29 year old and a year of change, but there is one more task to complete a remarkable 12 months.

That will be to win the Australian Open and after his near miss in 2016 when runner-up after a playoff against Jordan Spieth and Ashley Hall, the door is now open to claim every golfer’s wish other than a major title, their own national open when that event begins in Melbourne on Thursday.

The only thing that appeared capable of stopping Cameron Smith from adding a third Australian PGA Championship today was a forecast storm in Brisbane and that so nearly proved to be the case.

As the last group of Smith, Masahiro Kawamura and Yan Wei Liu walked to their approaches to the 10th hole at 1.25, storms which had been building all afternoon unleashed their fury on the Royal Queensland layout with Smith one ahead of Jason Scrivener at the time.

Smith’s three shot 54-hole lead had been reduced to just one and with Smith having missed the green at the 10th the possibility existed when play would resume that he and Scrivener would share the lead.

Another shot back was Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune whose score of 5 under through 11 holes included an eagle at the driveable 2nd hole. Hisatsune may well be the unknown figure amongst the final few groups but he has performed well in Japan in recent times and has a world ranking considerably higher than many of those around him.

When the threat of lightning eased and play did get underway again at 3.10, Smith saving par at the 10th, Scrivener also saving par at the 12th and Hisatsune producing a birdie at the 12th to get to 11 under and soon after he was tied with Hisatsune and Smith who would bogey the 11th.

Play resumed for only a short period and at one stage it appeared as if Monday morning might have to be used to finish the event but just after 4.00pm the rain lifted and there was enough daylight left to get the event finished.

Smith rebounded with a superb recovery shot over a tree for at the driveable par 4 12th and then birdied again at the par 5 13th and moved two ahead.

He was however just one ahead after Scrivener birdied the 15th and the title was on the line again.

Then however came disaster for Scrivener when he putted from just off the front of the green into a bunker at the 17th and took double bogey and when Smith knocked in a 12 footer for birdie at the 16th his lead was an near unassailable three, and he parred in to win by three over Scrivener and Hisatsune.

Having started the week with a satisfactory but hardly impressive round of 68, he steadily improved in a week where so much of his time was absorbed by the demands of being presented the keys of the city of Brisbane, the Greg Norman Medal for Australian Golfer of the Year and the burden of performing well in front of friends family and a growing fan base.

That he was able to hold off one or two spirited challenges to his lead given the distractions he faced this week gives further evidence of the growth of the man and the golfer.

“I really didn’t think I had it in me at the start of the week,” he said in his post-round interview.

“I was a bit scratchy and the game has got better and better as the week went on, other than the front nine today.”

“I guess it’s just a little bit frustrating,” he added referring to the rains delays You’re kind of in the mojo there a little bit and for it to be stopped not once, but twice, is a little bit frustrating. But just held onto it and played really solid those last eight holes.

“Obviously Scrivy (Jason Scrivener) is a great player and I knew he’d keep putting the pressure on me. It was a good last seven holes. I mean, lots of pressure and the golf course really wasn’t letting up even though it was a little bit softer.

“I think when we went in for that second time, I think I was just really tired. I came in, had a coffee, tried to get some energy back in me and went out there and played really solid the last seven or eight holes. It was kind of nice to know that I can do that with not much in the tank.”

Smith was also motivated by two significant family factors which played a role in keeping him going over the final stages.

“Yeah, I can’t believe she did it,” referring to his Nan who had walked with him every day. “Everyone at the start of the week was telling her to pace herself and she was out there all day every day, so it was pretty amazing. Definitely inspiring.  I don’t know how she did it, but it was also my Dad’s birthday as well.  After I got back to the tie for the lead there after 11, I really wanted to do it for those two.”

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photo – PGA of Australia

 

 

 

 

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Cam Smith on track for third Australian PGA Championship


Cameron Smith – enjoying massive crowd support – photo PGA of Australia

Cameron Smith heads into the final round of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane with a three shot lead after his third round of 69 has him ahead of Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura and China’s Yan Wei Liu.

Another shot further back are 36 hole leader, Jason Scrivener and Min Woo Lee, both of West Australia and Queenslanders Jake McLeod and Brad Kennedy.

It would appear a third Australian PGA Championship title is now Smith’s to win or lose, a bogey at this final hole in round three perhaps keeping the door open for his chasers although given Smith’s class and current form should make him a very hard man to chase down especially given the disparity in world ranking between he and those closest to him on the leaderboard.

Kawamura is currently ranked 288th in the world and Liu 908th compared to the 3rd place ranking of Smith and while world rankings at present are under the microscope for their authenticity, it highlights the difference between the leading players on the leaderboard.

Smith had mixed emotions about his round given the contrast between the manner in which he started and finished the day.

“I think it was a little bit frustrating there on that back nine, but in these conditions I would have taken 2-under at the start of the day, so it’s kind of the case that beggars can’t be choosers,” he said  “But yeah, it was really hot obviously on that front nine.  I felt really good and it’s just frustrating to end like that.

“I’d like to be six or seven ahead, to be honest, but it’s a good spot to be in.  I can’t complain.  Everything’s feeling really good, so feeling really confident and really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Smith was asked what a third Australian PGA Championship title would mean to him and he was quick to acknowledge the importance of winning again and that it would set up a title which would mean even more to him, the Australian Open next week.

“Yeah, it would be nice.  Like I said at the start of the week, I wouldn’t complain with another one of these.  My big thing down here was to have a really big crack at the Aussie Open.  I haven’t won one of those yet and I think that would be a really good end to a really good year.  Yeah, I’ll be trying my best tomorrow still.”

That Smith is a local and a former member of Royal Queensland and that he has developed into one of the best players in the game in 2022 has ensured massive crowds at the event to observe and support him.

“I think the crowds have been awesome all week to me.  I’ve really ridden it all week, to be honest.  It seems like every tee there’s a “C’mon Smitty” or a pat on the bum or something like that.  I’ve had a few kind of awkward ones this week, so I just keep looking forward.  No, it’s been awesome.  The reception’s been incredible.”

Golf works in funny ways and the possibility exists for him to be run down on day four but that is a possibility at this stage rather than a probability.

The final stages of the 2022 Australian PGA Championship may well result in the large crowds sure to flock to at Royal Queensland tomorrow acknowledging not only Smith’s standing in the game but him joining some of Australia’s greats as a three time winner of one of Australian golf’s most iconic titles.

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Brendan Jones facing important weekend in Japan


Brendan Jones- photo Japan Golf Tour

Australian golfer, Brendan Jones, faces an important weekend at the Casio World Open in Japan this week.

Jones finds himself in a share of third place at the halfway stage but after a year which has seen the winner of 15 Japan Tour titles record a best of 17th place in 19 starts leading into this week’s event on the island of Shikoku, he needs a big finish in order to retain his Japan Tour status.

Jones is currently 77th on the Japan Tour money list and likely needs a top then finish at worst this week if he is to avoid using an all-important one off career money exemption to play in Japan next season.

Jones begins the weekend in  a share of third place, three shots behind the seven time Japan Tour winner, Chan Kim of the USA after a second round of 65 at the Kochi Kuoshio Golf Club.

Like so many other of the foreigners who play in Japan, Jones suffered from the impact Covid had on the Japan Tour, especially for foreign players, and for Jones he played virtually no events in that country in 2020 and 2021.

One of the most dominant foreign players in Japan over the past twenty years, Jones performance over the weekend will be one of the most important of his 2022 season.

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Cam Smith moves within one at Australian PGA Championship


Cameron Smith – photo PGA of Australia

Jason Scrivener’s two shot lead on the field when he finished his morning round on day two of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship was reduced to just one by a brilliant afternoon round of 65 by pre-tournament favourite, Cameron Smith, setting up the prospect of a dream weekend for tournament organisers at Royal Queensland.

Playing in the more demanding afternoon conditions when the breeze strengthened across the riverside layout in Brisbane’s eastern suburbs, Smith recorded eight birdies and two bogeys in his round on a golf course where he is a member and moved within one of Scrivener and one ahead of the morning finishers Cameron John and Masahiro Kawamura.

Smith was a little more ready for his round today then was the case at 6.00am yesterday morning when his first round got underway.

“I definitely felt a little bit more alert out there today, I think,” said the current Open Champion and Brisbane local. “Yeah, just got off to a really good start I think. Had a really good warm up. I think the sleep-in definitely helped a little bit.  Yeah, it was just a good day.

“I only had a couple of bogeys, both on par 3s, which isn’t really a good sign most of the time, but I felt as though I hit my driver as best as I’ve hit it for a very long time, so it was nice to do that.  It gives me a little bit of confidence going into the weekend.”

Smith played in front of huge crowds drawn to Royal Queensland by the presence in the field of not only Smith but another Queensland golfing icon, Adam Scott, and enjoyed the opportunity to do so.

“It seems like last time I was home, obviously a lot’s changed in three years, that really wasn’t the case. It’s a little bit different, but the crowd was great today.  It seemed like they were three or four deep down either side of the fairway all day.  My old boy was whinging actually at me yesterday saying that he didn’t get to watch me play golf.  I don’t know what he’s whinging about (laughing)

“Lots of my mates actually that I went to school with were out here today and they were yelling at me on 17 so that’s why I was having a little bit of a chuckle to myself.  I’m sure they were giving me shit about missing that second putt as well.  Yeah, it was really good energy out there.  Golf should be more like that I think.  That’s what we need.”

Smith will play with Scrivener and although he played with him in amateur days it was not so much the case in recent times.

“I’ve played with him a fair bit in kind of amateur, junior days.  I haven’t played with him a lot recently, him being over in Europe and obviously me in the US. I’ve played a couple of practice rounds with him at one of the Majors this year, I’m not sure.  He’s a good player.”

After a slow start Adam Scott fought back to finish with a round of 72 to be at 4 under and six shots from the lead.

“I didn’t come home like a house on fire, but any shot anywhere is important,” said Scott referring to the late birdie he made in front of a huge crowd on the par 3 17th.

“Just to get one and start out tomorrow one better is a good feeling.  I’m going to have to really shoot the lights out on the weekend and play good, which I know I can. Just yesterday I played good.”

“It was nice something went in and it salvaged one shot for the round. It was a tough day. I had nothing out there good, nothing felt good today and I managed to get it in the clubhouse. I’m a good weekend away from being in the hunt at the end; so, it’s all good.”

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Perth’s Jason Scrivener takes morning lead on day two at Aust PGA


Jason Scrivener in action this morning – photo PGA of Australia

South African born, but West Australian raised, Jason Scrivener, completed his morning round at 10.45 on day two of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland and when he had done so, he held a two shot lead over Victorian golfer, Cameron John and by three over Poland’s Adrian Meronk and New Zealand’s Denzel Ieremia,

John and Ieremia still had holes to play so the gap may close as the morning field finishes off their rounds but for Scrivener it was a near perfect start.

Later in the morning Japan’s Masahiro Kawamura birdied his last three holes to join John in a share of second place as the morning field completed their rounds.

“The two days have been quite different,” said Scrivener. “Yesterday was stress free and I hit the ball tee to green very well. Today was a little scrappier but got away with a few things and scrambled well so all in all pretty happy with it.

In hot calm conditions Scrivener put together a second round of 67 to go with his opening 65 and at 10 under par he had established a break before the likes of Adam Scott and Cameron Smith had even teed off.

Scrivener has just completed another year on the DP World Tour with the occasional trip to the US to play Korn Ferry Tour events and although his results fell short of previous seasons he still has full status in Europe and with this event jointly sanctioned by the DP World Tour an opportunity exists for a breakthrough win at this level.

Scrivener’s only previous win as a professional was when successful at the 2017 NSW Open at Twin Creeks and to some extent the win might have signalled further wins to come but to date they have not although he has made steady but impressive progress with his game.

“It just shows that it’s just hard to win really,” said Scrivener when asked why more wins had not come his way.  “I definitely thought it was going to be kind of the start of something.  But yeah, it’s difficult to win nowadays.  You’ve got to play pretty flawless golf.  The level of play is pretty high, but yeah, another opportunity this weekend, looking forward to it.”

This writer has always described Scrivener as a very professional, professional. He looks the part and his ever-improving game and apparent work ethic suggests that he might yet develop into one of Australia’s better players.

John has played in Canada and Australia for much of this year with several top tens in Australian events in particular. His best finish as a professional was when runner-up in the 2018 NSW Open but this fine start opens up even greater opportunities.

Kawamura is a player good enough to have played the DP World Tour this season with a best of 5th place at the European Open in Germany, comfortably retaining his playing privileges there.

The weather remains hot for those heading out in the afternoon side of the draw but the gentlest of early breezes strengthened as the morning turned into afternoon and there is a good chance that Scrivener’s winning score will lead into day three.

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Afternoon trio edge ahead at Australian PGA Championship

Min Woo Lee – one of three leaders at the completion of day one – photo PGA of Australia

One of the features of the opening day of the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship was the consistency of conditions throughout the day.

From the early starters who ventured out onto the Royal Queensland layout at 6.00m to the afternoon who began their rounds at 1.00pm, gentle breezes and warm conditions prevailed, ensuring scoring over the par 71 layout would be good and so it was.

At the completion of the day’s play three players are tied at the top of the leaderboard at 6 under, further highlighting that conditions were no worse for the afternoon field than was the case in the morning.

Adam Scott was the best of the morning wave of players but it would be Perth golfers, Min Woo Lee and Jason Scrivener and NSW’s John Lyras who emerged as the day one leaders following their afternoon rounds of 65 to lead by one over Scott, fellow Queenslanders Brad Kennedy and Anthony Quayle, Korean Jeunghung Wang and South Australian Peter Cooke.

Lee is one of Australian golf’s brightest prospects, often living in the shadow of his US Women’s Open winning sister Minjee although slowly but surely emerging as a star on the DP World Tour in his own right having won two events there.

The 25 year old was delighted with his effort and after finishing his 2022 DP World Tour season off strongly in recent weeks he brings form to the event, along with a 4th place finish over this layout when the event was played here earlier in 2022.

“No, it was awesome,” said Lee.  “Very solid, one mistake, a bad drive on 10, but other than that, it was a very solid day approach-wise and off the tee and a very good day on the greens.  So, if I can do that the next few days, it will be very nice.”

Lee made reference to the benefit of having played the RQ layout previously.

“Just going back to a course that you’ve already played, it is a very beneficial thing.  Just to know where to miss it and just the ins and outs of the course.  So yeah, it definitely was helpful.”

Scrivener has also played the DP World Tour in recent years but by his own admission he has not had a good season perhaps diluting his focus on Europe by playing in the US when opportunities arose.

Until this year he had steadily been making good progress in Europe and intends to focus more on that tour in 2023 with just the occasional visit to the Korn Ferry Tour in the US where he now has conditional status.

When asked what his goals are heading forward he responded; “A lot of statistical goals and process goals that I’ve put in place with my team.  Probably going to focus on Europe next year more so than this year.  I tried to do a bit of Korn Ferry and a bit of European Tour, so my goal is definitely to get one of those PGA Tour cards at the end of the year.  That’s probably the main focus.”

Scrivener has played the layout previously and benefited with a round at Royal Queensland with defending champion Jed Morgan recently.

“I played in the Australian Amateur here years ago, but very different; a lot firmer and trickier than it was back then.  I had a practice round with Jed (Morgan) the other day, which really helped.  He’s a local and kind of helped us out, which is really important around here.  Local knowledge is pretty valuable.  Yeah, I played smart, picked my chances today to be aggressive and then others I was quite conservative.”

Lyras has been performing consistently in PGA Tour of Australasia events in recent months including when contending before finishing 5th at this year’s Vic Open. He made mention of such in his post round media chat.

“My form’s been pretty good,” he said. “I probably hit my irons as good as I’ve hit them in a long time today.  First, 10, 11 holes it could have been really, really low.  I struggled with the speed of the greens a little bit and had to kind of make some adjustments coming in.  It’s nice to hit a few good putts coming into the last four, five holes, but there was a lot of potential to be a lot lower today.

“It’s (The Vic Open) definitely an experience that has definitely helped me grow, a bit of character building.  It just helps me realise that I’m good enough to be out here and I belong.  That’s all I can ask for – just keep coming out here and putting in the work, doing the work behind closed doors and being able to put myself out here.

Scoring was very good on the opening day thanks to a golf course that perhaps needs wind to defend itself.

A massive 68 players are under par at the completion of the opening day suggesting a cut score of around 1 or 2 under will be required to make it to the weekend.

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Organisers dream gets Australian PGA Championship underway


Adam Scott acknowledges the large crowd at Royal Queensland this morning – photo PGA of Australia

The tournament promoters at the Australian PGA Championship could not have scripted a better start to the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship any better.

The two star attractions in the event, locals Adam Scott and Cameron Smith, completed their morning rounds in 66 and 68 respectively and as they left the course at 10.40 they held the first and second positions on the leaderboard.

They, along with the second highest world ranked player in the field, Ryan Fox, enjoyed near perfect scoring conditions after teeing off at 6.00am Queensland time in front of a large crowd, attracted by the international success of Cameron Smith in particular who is not only a local Brisbane golfer but a member of Royal Queensland.

But it was Adam Scott who produced many high quality iron shots to take the early lead with an outward nine of 31 to take the lead at 4 under before adding another at the 2nd hole (his 11th) to move to 5 under.

Bogeys at his 13th and 14th holes were followed by another birdie at his 16th and one final birdie at the last for his round of 66 and as he left the course at 10.40  he led by two over Cameron Smith whose closing nine of 32 allowed him to recover from a sluggish start to the round.

Scott acknowledged the perfect conditions and his pleasure at the manner in which he played.

“Yeah it was good, I mean, conditions couldn’t be better and you want to take advantage of those morning rounds.  Overall, there was some pretty solid play from me today.  A couple of squirrely shots on the back nine but yeah, I’m very pleased with that.  It was all really solid stuff.”

Scott also made mention of the return of Steve Williams to his bag and the ease of how they have slotted back into their old routine.

“Yeah, it was great. He obviously hasn’t been out at any events for quite a long time, so I think he was pretty excited. We came out and played Tuesday morning, it’s quite easy. I may have changed, but I know he’s not and so I knew what to expect when we came out and to fall back into familiar routines was pretty good.  So, it was a good start and hopefully we’ve got a few more good ones in it.”

Scott also paid credit to the manner in which Smith is handling his increased profile after such a great year, an experience he himself has had after winning the Masters in 2013.

“Cam has had a rise to stardom this year. He’s being pulled in all kinds of directions I’m sure, but it’s something he’s probably learnt pretty quickly to manage at big events.

“I get to observe from fairly nearby to Cam as practice round buddy or whatever, he does a really good job of focusing when he needs to focus and he has a good support team around him to take care of a lot of distractions.

“I really don’t have too many worries about Cam, but hopefully he can enjoy the experience as well, because that month of golf or so when I came home that year is one of the great memories of my career.  You bringing it up jogs my memory of it and I just had a great month kind of celebrating with everybody.”

Smith himself suggested it took him a while to get into the groove of things on day one.

“Definitely felt a little bit tired this morning, just the brain was a little bit foggy,” said Smith. “I kind of found it hard I guess to really concentrate out there and commit to shots.  I was actually hitting the ball pretty nicely on the range and just didn’t feel that comfy out there.  But it came round the back nine and finished off well.”

“I’ve definitely enjoyed it, but it for sure has been long,” added Smith referring to a week where he has had a lot of commitments.

“I had yesterday afternoon off; I couldn’t wait to get home and have a big nap.  So, I did that and had a good sleep last night.  Another afternoon off, another good rest, teeing off a little bit later tomorrow so hopefully the brain and the body are working tomorrow and we can go out there and try and chase them down.”

One of the latter players in the morning field, Maverick Antcliff, was another to shine. The Beaudesert golfer who has played the DP World Tour in recent years but who has struggled in 2022, played collegiate golf in the US before winning events in China and then joining the European Tour.

This season, however, he has lost status on the DP World Tour and unable to regain his card via the recent Q School in Spain, he is resigned to playing events on the Challenge Tour in 2023 unless of course something very special happened this week in an event jointly sanctioned by the DP World Tour.

Antcliff moved into a share of second place with China’s Yan Wei Liu when the morning field was done, his round of 67 having him just one behind Scott and one ahead of a large number at 3 under.

“To be honest, I don’t particularly love the golf course, it doesn’t really suit my eye, said Antcliff despite his impressive start. It’s in great condition though.

“But I’ve been playing well for a while, to be honest, I just haven’t really been putting that well.  So just to see a few go in and stuff like that.  Yeah, I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work, so I’m not really surprised, no.”

Liu is currently ranked 900th in the world and earned his place in the field as a result of making it to the final stage of DP World Tour qualifying recently. He missed out on gaining full status but gets a start courtesy of making it to the final anyway.

The afternoon field headed out in still near perfect warm conditions with gentle breezes, chasing the leader Scott who has made an ideal start in pursuit of his third Australian PGA Championship.

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Ryan Fox keen to finish off an already great year in style

Ryan Fox – smiling all the way to the bank in 2022 – photo PGA of Australia

It has been a long and successful year for New Zealand’s Ryan Fox but he is hoping there is enough juice remaining in the tank for a good finish to the year in Australia over the next few weeks.

One of golf’s biggest movers in 2022, Fox began the year outside the top 200 in the world and is now 27th after two wins and four runner-up finishes resulted in the 35-year-old finishing behind only Rory McIlroy in the standings on the DP World Tour.

Fox has this week’s Australian PGA Championship (in which he enters as the second highest world ranked player in the field behind Cameron Smith) next week’s Australian Open and a pro-am style events at the Cathedral Golf Club in Melbourne remaining on his playing schedule followed by an extended break at home in Auckland before embarking on 2023 with a schedule which will include more play in the USA.

Fox gets the chance to showcase his improved game in tomorrow’s opening round where a large crowd is expected to follow he, Cameron Smith and Adam Scott when that trio hits off at 6.00m Queensland time.

Today, Fox spoke to the media ahead of tomorrow’s opening round and indicated that whilst he is enjoying the prospect of a break after his commitments in Australia over the next two weeks, he is keen to finish the year off in the manner he has been playing all year.

“I hope so,” he answered when asked if there was enough petrol left in the tank. “I’ve tried to take it pretty easy this week, to be honest.  The golf game’s in decent shape, so I was just trying to get some rest and I will be straight back to bed after this I think.  Yes, we’ll see.

“I haven’t done a whole lot of long haul travel this year.  I’ve been based in the UK for the most part, so I don’t know how the body and the brain’s going to cope with the next couple of days. As I mentioned earlier, six o’clock is a pretty early start tomorrow, but I feel like if I can get some good rest tonight, I should be OK.  As I said, the golf game’s still in decent shape after the last couple of weeks, so hopefully I can contend this week.

“It should be easy to get up in the next couple of days at least, playing with two Aussie legends.  There’ll be plenty of support out there for them and hopefully a few Kiwis out there as well for me.  I’ll hopefully wake up and be fine on the first tee tomorrow.  I’d love to be in contention come Sunday afternoon.”

When asked if he has been able to come to terms with his success in 2022 Fox would say. “It’s definitely a blur at the moment.  Yeah, it still feels a bit surreal.  Obviously it’s not on the goals list to finish in the top 10 on the order of merit, to be honest.

“After the last couple of years I had where I was probably more trying to keep a card than finish high up.  I guess the big goal at the start of the year was to get another win and I got that under the belt pretty quickly and that just let everything kind of free roll the rest of the year.”

Fox’s progression in the game has been one of the features of world golf in 2022 and when asked what the main differences were he responded: “There’s a few things going on now.  Putting has been the big thing this year obviously as you said, but all my other stats have improved a little bit as well, which is kind of a nice thing.

“Obviously it’s been a tough couple of years travel-wise so having that all sort of disappear this year, felt like it went back to normal for the most part.  I’ve never been one of those guys that can compartmentalise it that well.  If I was struggling a little bit off the golf course, I’d kind of take it onto the golf course and that’s what I felt the last couple of years.

“So in terms of all of that going this year and knowing that when I was away I could get back home and see the family if anything happened or my family could travel and we could have our parents travel up and stuff like that.  So that made everything a lot easier and I think that just made it easier to play well on the golf course.

“Probably, the other thing was that I started working with Jamie Gough at The Open last year and that was purely because of COVID.  I work with Marcus Wheelhouse at home and still work with Marcus, but he couldn’t travel with COVID, couldn’t get back in the country, so I hadn’t seen him in about six months at The Open – maybe not quite six, maybe four months at The Open – last year and I was struggling a little bit.

“I started working with Jamie and he was travelling most weeks. I think just having eyes on basically every week on tour just sort of kept me on the straight and narrow a little bit more.

With his success this season, opportunities are opening up for Fox in terms of playing in the USA on a more regular basis.

“Obviously, I’ll get a few more starts in the States with those top 50 events, hopefully next year.  That actually probably makes my travel a little bit easier.  It’s only one flight instead of two or one and a little connecting flight to wherever in the States.

“My family’s probably going to stay at home for quite a while next year and I’ll do a couple of hit and run missions to the States, maybe four or five weeks, which I’ve always kind of enjoyed doing that.  Playing four or five weeks in a row doesn’t bother me too much.  It will be cool to get that experience over there and hopefully I can build on what happened this year.

“But regardless, to get that opportunity to be able to play in probably all the Majors and a bunch of those PGA Tour events that I grew up watching at home, THE PLAYERS and the Match Play and stuff like that, is going to be a pretty cool opportunity.  Obviously I’ll  have a lot of European stuff to play later on in the season and feel like I’ve probably got two bites at a PGA Tour card next year.

“We’ve got 10 spots for the ’24 season from the Order of Merit and I’ve also got a chance to play my way on through getting some PGA Tour starts as well.  So, it’s going to be an exciting year next year.

Fox will play the Masters for the first occasion in 2023 and like all golfers the prospect is a bucket list item for him.

“I mean, I’ve made bets with my mates before I turned pro, if I ever get to Augusta I’m taking you and then didn’t realise quite how many people I’d made that bet with.  Then I remember walking off the green at Dunhill and Tim Barter kind of interviewed me straight away and he goes, “That’s locked in The Masters” and I hadn’t thought about it at the start, I was just trying not to hit it over a fence on those last four holes and going, “Oh, OK” and then sort of started thinking about it from there and got a few things organised, which was pretty nice.

“It’s the bucket list for any golfer, whether to watch it or to play in it.  I probably thought it had passed me over a couple of years ago, that I maybe missed my opportunity and at 35 I’d probably be a bit more of a journeyman and never get that chance, but still enjoy what I do.

“Obviously this year’s been a little bit different in that regard and I’m certainly looking forward to all of next year, but definitely Augusta.”

First thing is first however and if Fox can find a way to finish off this year’s schedule in the manner in which he has been playing for so much of it there are more riches in store and the possibility of adding to the three titles he has won in Australia to date, the WA Open, the Queensland PGA and the Perth Super 6’s is a lot stronger than it might have been at the beginning of the year.

There will be a lot of New Zealanders and perhaps even Australians on both sides of the Tasman hoping that the affable long hitter is able to do just that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Australian PGA Championship shaping as something very special


Cameron Smith’s international success in 2022 and his local background will ensure huge crowds at RQ – Getty Images

Irrespective of how one feels about the impact of Liv Golf on the traditional golf tours of the world, there is little doubt that the breakaway tour has had a positive impact on this week’s Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in Brisbane.

In January of this year it was announced that the PGA Tour of Australasia had formed a strategic alliance with the DP World Tour, designed in some respects to counter the arrival of Liv Golf and one of the spin offs is an increase in prizemoney from the A$1 million of January to now $A2 million this week and the joint sanctioning of both the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open following with the DP World Tour.

Not that such an increase is of any real interest to the likes of Cameron Smith, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman etc as they are playing for ten times that on the LIV Tour and in the case of Scott more than five times that figure on the PGA Tour.

Those players are also likely to have been paid a significant fee just to tee it up this week and justifiably so given the level of interest they bring and their presence as home grown players with significant success internationally providing a great dynamic to the event.

Admittedly, the events clash with other DP World Tour events in South Africa over the next two weeks but the joint sanctioning provides a few additional European Tour players and a pathway, should a lesser Australasian player luck out and win the title (as was the case in January when Jed Morgan won the PGA Championship) the chance for status on the DP World Tour and other international opportunities.

It also provides the highest level of prizemoney on the PGA Tour of Australasia this season and the opportunity for many of this country’s fledgling professionals to play for a comparatively higher purse than has been the case for them previously.

The field is headed by two time winner, Cameron Smith but another two time winner, Adam Scott, with New Zealander Steve Williams back on the bag, has the chance to add to his two Australian PGA Championship titles.

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, a two time winner in Europe this season and runner-up in the DP World Tour standings for 2022, Cameron Davis, Marc Leishman, Min Woo Lee, Lucas Herbert, add lustre to this week’s field, as do DP World Tour winners in brothers Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard and Adrian Meronk, although the latter three are three of very few Europeans in the field with full DP World Tour status.

The 2022 Australian PGA Championship is arguably, however, the strongest field we have had at the Australian PGA Championship for many years with most of those in this week’s field also playing the Australian Open in Melbourne next week.

After a very hot start to the week when temperatures soared into the mid 30’s, the balance of the week will still be hot and in the late 20’s although the strong winds of Monday are expected to lessen in intensity.

It is expected that the success of Cameron Smith in particular in world golf this season and that he is a local is destined to make this week’s staging one of the most attended Australian PGA Championships since the days of Greg Norman.

 

 

 

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