Elvis Smylie – file image courtesy of Australian Golf Media

Australian Elvis Smylie continued his impressive run of late-season form on the DP World Tour with a share of second place at the French Open, just one shot behind the winner, Michael Kim.

Smylie, who is playing his first season on the DP World Tour as a result of his victory at the Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane in November last year, followed up a recent 6^th place in Denmark a month ago with a final round of 65 at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche, Paris, France, after beginning the day two shots out of the lead.

The 23-year-old Gold Coast golfer played with the eventual winner, Kim, on the final day, and as they arrived at the last, Kim was one ahead of Smylie and Korean Jeong Weon Ko, Ko having finished ten minutes earlier.

Smylie found the green at the par 3 while Kim’s tee shot was left, into the greenside bunker. Smylie 2 putted for par, but PGA Tour player Kim, with a 16-foot putt remaining to claim the title essentially, holed the crucial putt to win his first event anywhere in seven years.

“It feels amazing,” said Kim. “I haven’t won a tournament since 2018 at the John Deere Classic and I really wanted to put on a good showing here this week. I’m just so happy and grateful that I was able to come out with the victory.

“I’ve had a really good year on the PGA TOUR this year. This feels like the perfect cherry on top and I hope to continue this throughout my career.

“To be honest, I felt like I hit a decent bunker shot. That green slides away so much that I knew it was going to be quick and it just didn’t run out as much as I thought.”

Elvis (Smylie) gave me a decent look from the side and it somehow stayed pretty straight through the middle, and I kind of blacked out when the putt went in.

For Smylie, however, the share of the runner-up position earned him a cheque for €239,000 and he now moves to 14^th place in the Race to Dubai rankings. Potentially, he is now in a position where he could claim one of the ten PGA Tour cards for season 2026, given to the leading ten players in the Race to Dubai rankings not otherwise exempt on the PGA Tour.

Min Woo Lee, who had begun the final round in a share of the lead with American Brooks Koepka, raced to the turn in 4 under, including an eagle at the 8^th hole, and had the lead at that poin,t but he would struggle on the way in and eventually finished in a share of 5^th.

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Sue Wooster in action today – image USGA 

63-year-old Victorian Sue Wooster had progressed to her 4^th US Senior Women’s Amateur Championship final after wins in her quarter and semi-final matches today in Hot Springs, Virginia.

Wooster has been in the final on three previous occasions but has yet to claim the title, so tomorrow she takes on South Carolina’s Dawn Woodward in the final of women’s amateur golf’s most significant title.

Fellow Victorian and defending champion Nadene Gole came from 3 down in her quarter-final morning match against Shelley Stouffer, but, despite a birdie at the last hole of her match against the Canadian, she would lose 1 down, and thus Wooster is the only remaining Australian in what has been a good week thus far for the Australian contingent.

Wooster overcame her American quarter-final opponent with some ease, but it was a different story against her semi-final opponent, Sarah Gallagher, finally winning at the first extra hole after a birdie clinched the match.

“It feels amazing,” said Wooster. “Whether I win tomorrow or I lose, just I’m 63 years old and I’ve been in three finals and lost all of them. To be honest I never thought I would make another one.

“I haven’t been playing that good this year, and something just clicked couple of weeks ago and started to get in a groove and I guess here I am. I can’t believe it.

“I mean, I’m happy I’ve come this far. Obviously, I want to win it, but I don’t want to — I think some of the other years, because I lost a few in a row, I just put too much pressure on myself. I don’t want to do that. I just want to keep doing what I’m doing and try and enjoy the day and soak up the experience and just have a good memory with it, whatever the outcome.”

Wooster’s opponent in tomorrow’s final is the 51-year-old Dawn Woodward from South Carolina who is playing in her second US Women’s Senior Amateur Championship after being beaten in the quarter- finals by Nadene Gole last year.

SCORES

Min Woo Lee – file photo courtesy of Australian Golf Media

Min Woo Lee made a valiant attempt to contend and possibly win the BMW PGA Championship on the final day at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water in Surrey, the 27-year-old West Australian moving within two of the lead when he pitched in for birdie at the par 4 15^th hole and when he also birdied the 16^th he was within one.

At that point, he was 7 under for the day and with two par fives to finish at Wentworth and his power to aid his cause, it was possible that Lee could have come from near the cutline on Friday evening to win the tournament.

Unfortunately, the 17^th, one of two par 5s to finish at Wentworth, is a dangerous driving hole. Perhaps looking for the extra distance he needed to set up a birdie and possibly an eagle, he pulled his tee shot out of bounds, double-bogeyed, and his bold bid for victory was gone.

Lee would, though, birdie the last after finding the green and would eventually finish in a share of 11^th place, although some five shots behind the playoff between the eventual winner, Alex Noren, and Frenchman Adrien Saddier.

For Lee, however, the finish ended a run of indifferent form since his breakthrough PGA Tour win in March and, with this week’s French Open his next assignment, he could well finish off his limited 2025 European campaign in style.

Lee’s weekend total of 133 was amongst the best of the leading players.

The tournament was won by the Swede Alex Noren, who won his second tournament in his last three starts, having won the British Masters three weeks ago. He did miss the cut in Switzerland at his last start, but this win and the one at the Belfry mean he has claimed two of the European Tour’s flagship events in 2025 despite playing much of the year in the USA.

Noren is a vice captain of Europe’s Ryder Cup side so he will head to Bethpage not as a member of the team but to play a significant role in the battle in 12 days’ time and perhaps, if needed, a late and in-form replacement should the need arise.

It was Noren’s second win in this most prestigious event and his 12^th European Tour victory.

For the runner-up Saddier who, despite being outside the world top 100, has, in the last three months, won the Italian Open and finished 5^th in Ireland last week.

Elvis Smylie was the next best of the Australians when he finished in 31^st place to maintain his 26^th position in the Race to Dubai rankings.

RESULTS 

Australians
Kevin Yuan – file photo courtesy of Asian Tour 

Kevin Yuan and Wollongong’s Travis Smyth have finished in a share of 3^rd place at the Asian Tour’s Mandiri Indonesia Open at the Pondok Indah Golf Club in Jakarta.

The pair were tied at 16 under and a massive eight shots from the winner, Suteepat Prateeptienchai of Thailand.

Smyth had started the final round three shots off the then pace set by Malaysian Shahriffuddin Arrifin, but a round of 70 saw him lose ground as the Thai golfer stormed home with a final round of 64 to win by seven.

Yuan stormed home from near the cutline on Friday with consecutive weekend rounds of 66 to finish in a share of third place with Smyth.

Yuan is now in 10^th place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit and Smyth 13^th, the current leader amongst the Australians on the Asian Tour in 2025 being the New Zealand Open winner, Ryan Peake, who stands in 6th place despite a run of disappointing finishes since his emotional win in Queenstown.

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Hannah Green – file photo 

Off the back of four consecutive missed cuts and a best of 12^th in her last nine LPGA Tour starts, Australia’s Hannah Green is contending at the halfway stage of the FM Championship in Norton in Massachusetts.

Weather, then darkness, caused play to be called at 7.15 pm with many of the field still to complete their second rounds.

Green added a second consecutive round of 68 to be tied for 3^rd and three shots from the lead held by China’s Miranda Wang.

Currently in a surprising 52^nd position in the Race to the Globe rankings, Green has struggled for most of the second half of the season but appears to have things back on track and heads into the weekend with a chance to add a 7^th LPGA Tour title.

“My ball striking has not been that good the last couple months, so I feel like I’ve had to rely heavily on my short game,” said Green. “It’s nice that I actually feel like where I want the ball to go is where it’s actually going.

“So, yeah, I definitely feel confident around the greens. It’s nice that I have been hitting more greens and actually have some opportunities to make birdies.

“I’ve been working with my coach for many years now, and I just fall into some certain tendencies with my swing.

“So I actually had a lesson with him on Tuesday. Well, it was supposed to be FaceTime, but as some people may not know, the reception here is not very good, so trying to call him when he’s back in Australia with a time change wasn’t easy. We sent videos back and forth and he was helping me with certain things.

“I almost feel like because I’ve been playing quite poorly I’ve been really technical trying to find what’s going on and not really just going and playing golf. I feel like I changed that mindset of worrying about technique and just working with what I have on this day.

“So that was really helpful. I put a new driver in the bag earlier in the week as well. It’s nice to feel confident with that club. Once you can hit fairways, you feel a lot freer on the course, so that’s been helpful.”

The 28-year-old Green has typically been one of the leading Australians, along with Minjee Lee, in each of her LPGA Tour seasons since first joining in 2018, and with three wins in 2014, her year to date has been a surprise, but with ten more events this season, there is plenty of time to turn things around.

Minjee Lee is the next best of the Australasians in the field, the West Australian in a share of 34^th place at 3 under and five behind Green, but Lee still has 14 holes to play of her second round.

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