Mako Thompson leads by one at the halfway stage – image Australian golf Media 

27-year-old New Zealand PGA Tour of Australasia rookie Mako Thompson has the halfway lead at the West Australian Open at the MT Lawley Golf Club in Perth, consecutive rounds of 68 leaving him one shot ahead of his fellow New Zealander Jared Edwards.

Thompson gained his first PGA Tour of Australasia card at the Q School earlier this year and is playing his fourth event of the 2025/2026 schedule, having made a cheque in each of his starts to date.

After a solid opening round on Thursday, Thompson made a fast start today with three birdies in his first four holes, but the Maraenui Golf Club (Napier) member dropped shots leading to the turn, before an impressive back nine for one of his limited experience at this level.

“I got off to a nice start,” said Thompson. “I took advantage of the no wind and the softer greens, so it was a nice way to kickstart the day

“I’ve got off to a good start this season. Managed to just scrape through Q School, so really pleased with how I’ve started so far.”

In three starts to date this season, Edwards has recorded one top ten when 8^th at the PNG Open in August after earning his playing rights by finishing 17^th at the tour school earlier in the year.

In third place and two from the lead is West Australian Hadyn Barron, who is a former Rookie of the Year on the PGA Tour of Austrasia and who finished runner-up in this very event as an amateur five years ago.

Queenslander Anthony Quayle, Victorian Cameron John and tournament invite Marc Leishman are at 5 under and three off the lead and present a huge danger to those ahead of them over the final 36 holes.

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NSW Declan O’Donovan – finished runner-up in the Individual Race – image IGF

The Australian team of Declan O’Donovan, Billy Dowling and Harry Takis has finished in second position at the Eisenhower Trophy, eight shots from the runaway leaders, South Africa, at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore.

The Australians were able to close the gap on South Africa in the final round after trailing by eleven through 54 holes, but the result was never in doubt, South Africa’s Christiaan Mass winning the individual title by ten shots over NSW golfer Declan O’Donovan.

For Australia, it was their best finish in the event since winning in 2016. They did finish second in 2023, although on that occasion they were tied for the runner-up position.

In 33 appearances, the Australians have won 15 medals, the most of any country outside of the USA. With its silver on Saturday, Australia now owns four gold, five silver and six bronze.

O’Donovan was the leading Australian, birdies at the final three holes of his final round, making a huge difference in terms of getting Australia into the runner-up position, two shots ahead of England.

Queensland’s Billy Dowing finished 29^th in the race for individual honours while Brisbane’s Harry Takis finished 28^th, his third round of 79 proving very costly in his quest for a higher finish.

New Zealand’s Zackary Swanwick was the best of their team, finishing tied for 11^th in the individual race and assisting his side to a share of 14^th place in the team title.

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NSW’s Declan O’Donovan is the best of the Australians in 7th place in the indvidual standings – image IGF

The three-man Australian Eisenhower Trophy team finds itself in second place after 36 holes of the event being played at the Tanah Merah Golf Club in Singapore.

That’s the good news, the not so good is that they are now five shots behind South Africa, who produced some outstanding golf late in their rounds to move to 14 under par and into the five-shot lead over Australia, England, and France.

In a weather-disrupted day, all teams managed to complete their second rounds, Australia adding several late birdies to move close to the then leaders Mexico, after their morning round before the late charge by South Africa, who played in the afternoon field.

NSW’s golfer Declan O’Donovan is the best of the Australians in a share of 7^th place at 5 under in the individual standings but seven shots behind the leading individual Christiaan Maas of South Africa, whose consecutive rounds of 66 have him four clear of the field in the race for individual honours.

US-based collegiate golfer, Harry Takis from Queensland, is in a share of 11^th place at 4 under, while Queensland’s Billy Dowling is 20^th at 2 under.

The New Zealand team has slipped to 20^th place at even par, while their best-placed golfers are Robby Turnbull and Zackary Swanwick at even par.

Their third player, Cooper Moore, the Australian Junior Champion, is well back 9 over.

The pre-tournament favourites, the USA improved today but are struggling to recover from a horror opening day and are tied for 22^nd at 1 over.

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The extraordinarily talented Curtis Luck returns to tournament play in his home state despite ongoing injury issues – image Australian Golf Media

This week’s West Australian PGA Championship essentially begins a nearly six-month stretch of tournaments staged by the PGA Tour of Australasia.

Admittedly, the PNG Open and the Northern Territory PGA Championship, played in August, were also part of the 2025/2026 PGA Tour of Australasia schedule, but this week’s event gets things underway in earnest.

The PGA Tour of Australasia is, essentially, built around its three flagship events, namely the Australian Open, the Australian PGA and the New Zealand Open Championships.

But this week’s event over the spectacular Graham Marsh designed Kalgoorlie Golf Course in the mining town of Kalgoorlie, located nearly 600 kilometres north and east of Perth, is one of numerous $250,000 events providing continuity for the large cohort of domestic golfers who don’t have the luxury of status on other, more lucrative tours.

The pathways now created by an Order of Merit arising from these events offer opportunity for Australasian golfers to progress their careers onto other tours, more especially, the DP World Tour, and players such as David Muicheluzzi, Kazuma Kobori, and Elvis Smylie, amongst others, have benefited by leading the Order of Merit and advancing their careers at the next level.

The WAPGA Championship is a forerunner to next week’s WA Open in Perth, so a fortnight of good golf could assist a young emerging player to much greater success from his efforts in the West.

South Australian Jack Buchanan would have been the defending champion, having won in a playoff last year over local Jordan Doull, that pair finishing one ahead of the eventual Order of Merit winner, Elvis Smylie, but having played the Alfred Dunhill in Scotland last week perhaps it was too much of a rush to get back to Kalgoorlie in time for a proper defence for Buchanan and he will not take his place in the field.

New Zealand Open winner and the highest world-ranked player in the field, Ryan Peake, is entered, as are numerous other winners of titles last summer in Australasia, but there may also be a lot of interest in the performance of Perth’s Curtis Luck.

The winner of the US and Asia Pacific Amateur Championships in his last year as an amateur in 2016, Luck’s professional career has been plagued by injury issues in recent times, but he is a good enough talent to have finished runner-up at the Australian Open last December, and although playing on an enforced limited schedule, he is an outstanding talent who could do well.

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Ormsby with Asian Tour win # 5 – image Asian Tour

45-year-old South Australian Wade Ormsby has won his 5^th Asian Tour title, and his second International Series event with a playoff victory over Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent at the Jakarta International Championship at the Damai Indah Golf Club near Jakarta.

Ormsby was in or near the lead throughout the week after an opening round of 64 but was forced to dig deep on day four, holing a ten foot downhill left to righter at the 72^nd hole to not only force the playoff but avoid a six way share of second place, therefore adding perhaps as much as US$240,000 to his cheque which amounted to US$360,000.

Even if he had lost the playoff, that crucial putt was worth at least US$130,000 more than he would have received had he missed.

The US$360,000 cheque equaled the biggest previous cheque Ormsby had won, which came when successful in the International Series event in Thailand in March 2023.

“It was a bit of a grind,” said Ormsby, who hung in there by making nine straight pars on the back nine. “Probably didn’t have my best stuff out there today, but I was just hanging in there. Feel bad for Scotty, you know, he kind of let a couple slip at the end there. But I hit a couple of great shots in that play-off hole, so that makes me feel better about the whole thing.”

“It’s a special one for me this one. Haven’t been playing my best golf, had a few months off and worked hard the last week. I flew up and saw my coach, Grant Field, so a massive thank you to him. Flew up there, did the hard yards, and we had a day of grinding to try and get me back on track. And even though I didn’t play my best golf this week, I putted great early on in the tournament. And yeah, thanks to all my family obviously, lost my dad two years ago, so this one is for him.”

Ormsby has struggled for much of the year on the Asian Tour with just one top 20 in the six events he had played to date, but this win will move him to 5^th place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit and assure him of two full years on the Asian Tour.

All this came after Ormsby was penalised one shot for a situation on Saturday when he was deemed to have inadvertently caused his ball to move on the 4^th fairway.

On yesterday’s penalty shot, he said: “It was disappointing, you know, it is what it is. Decided to take a shot and, yeah. Anyway, I did reset last night, and I felt fine about it. I was happy to be in the last group, so that didn’t change. So no, I just had to go out there and put it to the back of my head and use it as a bit of a drive to get the job done today.”

The former University of Houston golfer has a strong pedigree in the game, his father, Peter, a highly regarded and notable figure in South Australian golf before his death two years ago.

Queenslanders, Aaron Wilkin and Maverick Antcliff, and NSW’s Travis Smyth were the next best of the Australians in a share of 11th place.

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