Andrew Martin – photo PGA of Australia

Nearly 16 years after turning professional, former Australian Amateur Champion, Andrew Martin, has won his first PGA Tour of Australasia title with a one-shot victory at The Player Series Sydney event at the Bonnie Doon Golf Club.

The 36 year old Victorian began his final round eight shots behind the leader, Charlie Dann, who at one stage today led by five but an outward nine of eight under 29 (which four eagles, one birdie and a bogey) saw him on the heels of the leader and birdies at his 11^th and 18^th holes saw him take a two- shot lead into the clubhouse.

The four eagles in any one round is believed to be a record in tournament golf but for those four to come in his opening nine holes made it even more spectacular.

Dann was some 45 minutes behind Martin on the golf course and when he made the turn in 3 under he was at 19 under for the event and well clear of the nearest chaser.

Then came three consecutive bogeys to behind his back nine and with Martin putting together his final round of 61 he took the lead.

Dann was unable to close the gap and, looking to force a playoff at the last, eventually three putted to finish alone in second place but two behind Martin.

Martin has finished runner-up in events previously, namely the 2012 NZ PGA Championship behind Michael Hendry and the Coca Cola Queensland PGA Championship in Toowoomba the same year but given his significant amateur success it has been a long road as a professional thus far.

“It’s still a bit of a whirlwind,” Martin explained. “To shoot 10-under, that’s still hard to get through my head, but mainly just the support of my family and my wife Rachel has given me to be able to keep doing this because it is tough in Australia to make a living here.

“I’ve never really fallen out of love with the game. I’ve always wanted to do it and if I was ever going to stop playing it would be a hard pill to swallow because I still feel there is a lot I want to achieve.

“This is one little box ticked but there a couple more I want to do. It’s just good to show that my game is still there.”

Despite the relative lack of world ranking strength in the field, Martin will improve more than 300 places in the world ranking to just inside the top 500 as a result of his win and achieve his highest ever ranking.

For Dann, who was also looking for the first win on his two year professional career, to have let such a significant lead slip but he can rest easy in the knowledge that his defeat was more to do with the brilliance of Martin’s day rather than his own demise.

Dann’s second place finish was by some margin his best finish in tournament golf and that he was able to lead for as long as he did will stand the former Master of the Amateurs Champion in good stead for future endeavours.

Charlie Dann – near miss for the Queenslander – photo PGA of Australia

The main talking point of the week was the professional debut of the outstanding 18 year old Elvis Smylie who gave a further indication of just what a future he has when he finished tied for 3rd, one shot behind Dann.

But for a hiccup in the middle of his Saturday round where he dropped four shots in two holes in the middle of his back nine it might have been a much different story to report on but it was nonetheless an outstanding debut, providing confidence and a little bit of cash ($7,350)

Smylie tied for 3rd with fellow Queenslanders, the amateur Louis Dobbelaar, Shae Wools-Cobb, Brett Rankin and New South Welshman, Jordan Junic.

Scores

 

 

 

Charlie Dann – Photo courtesy of PGA of Australia Brett Costello

Sunshine Coast golfer, Charlie Dann, has a share of the the lead at the halfway mark of the Tour Players Series Sydney event at the Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Pagewood in Sydney’s south eastern suburbs.

Dann shares the lead with Victorian Peter Wilson,who, after a horror start to his afternoon round, fought back to play four holes in 4 under through the middle of his round and then added two late birdies to join Dann in the lead

The 28 year old Dann added a second round of 64 to his opening 67 and leads along with Wilson by one over Wollongong’s Travis Smyth, South Australian rookie Jack Thompson, Victorians Josh Younger and Blake Collyer and Queenslander, Shae Wools-Cobb

Dann was out early on day two and played his opening nine in 5 under 32 before adding two further birdies on the way in. The highlight came at the par 5 9^th which he eagled.

Dann, a professional for just over two years, was an accomplished amateur, winning events such as the Keperra Bowl, the Master of the Amateurs and the Mandurah Open but his time in the professional ranks has not been easy although like so many other domestic players he has been starved for opportunities over the last twelve months.

Dann has, though, played well in events in Australia this year and in 2019 played events on the China Tour where he recorded several reasonable finishes and appears to be finding his feet at this level.

The manner in which he handles the unique opportunity he has created for himself over the weekend will be watched with interest.

Wilson is 15 years older than his co-leader and has a Tier 2 PGA Tour of Australasia victory to his credit when successful at the WAPGA Championship in Kalgoorlie in 2012.

“Obviously I got off to a rough start but I knew that seven, eight and nine were the easier down-wind holes,” said Wilson. “I just had to stay patient and wait for those holes to happen and I played them in 4-under again like I did yesterday.”

Much of the lead-up to the event was dominated by the arrival on the professional scene of 18 year old, Elvis Smylie, and he did not let anyone down.

After an opening round of 3 under 68 yesterday, Smylie struggled early in his round today but like Dann he too would eagle the 9^th to turn in even par before an impressive homeward nine of 30 to be tied in 11^th place and four from the lead.

The $150,000 event continues over the next two days.

Elvis Smylie – impressive professional debut – photo PGA Australia

 

 

 

Collin Morikawa – photo Getty Images Sam Greenwood

Current PGA Champion, Collin Morikawa, continued his meteoric rise in the game with victory at this week’s WGC Workday Championship at Concessions in Bradenton in Florida.

Twelve months ago Morikawa stood outside the top 50 in the game but as a result of his PGA Championship win, and this week’s victory, he finds himself in 4^th place in the world ranking and, it would seem, with a bullet.

Morikawa won by three over Brooks Koepka, Viktor Hovland and Billy Horschel.

After his round Morikawa acknowledged the pressure he felt under during the final round.

“It’s so huge. No matter what anyone says, sleeping on a lead has its pressure, has its nerves. But I was excited to get back in contention, to have a chance to win. It’s something that I miss.

“Obviously I haven’t had it for a while, but this is what we love to do, we love to win. It’s a tough thing out here, but this tournament means so much. With how good the field was, how good my game felt, to close it out like this, with such a stacked leaderboard coming after me, really means a lot.”

Morikawa agreed when it was suggested that may have been a sense of complacency after his PGA Championship win at Harding Park last year.

“Yeah, there definitely was. It wasn’t like, oh, man, I should be winning every single week, but it just almost in that kind of fall portion, it was like, oh, I should be playing good golf, or on my bad days I should still be contending.

“It’s not the case. These guys are way too good. And I know that. When I sat down after my last event on the Tour, which was the Masters, or even right before the Masters, I sat down with Rick, my coach, and I said, you know — I told him the honest truth, that this is just — you know, I got complacent.

“I was getting lazy. I was getting a sense of where I didn’t want to just be the best every single week. And that doesn’t mean I wasn’t practicing right or it doesn’t mean all this, it was just a mental state of, you know, coming out, being ready to play great golf Thursday through Sunday.

“So I kind of reset that before the Masters, I was able to work on that throughout December, a couple times on that European Tour. By the time this year started, my game felt really, really good, I just need to put four good rounds together.”

Cameron Smith finished as the leading Australian when he tied for 11^th but he will rue two double bogeys during round three after visiting water at the 5^th and 13^th holes. He had made a fast start on Saturday and was contending for the lead before disaster struck and his eventual 77 cost him any chance before the final round.

Smith would, though, record a round of 67 today to head back in the right direction and improve nine positions.

Jason Day was the next best of the Australasians when he finished 18^th despite a last hole bogey, Minwoo Lee was unable to repeat the brilliance of his third round 66 but finished 28^th in just his second PGA Tour event, Marc Leishman was 39^th, Jason Scrivener 41^st, Wade Ormsby 52^nd, Adam Scott 54^th, Brad Kennedy 61^st and Lucas Herbert 70^th.

The PGA Tour now moves to Orlando for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

 

Sarah Kemp – file photo Bruce Young

35 year old New South Wales golfer, Sarah Kemp, has produced her second best-ever result on the LPGA Tour when finishing runner-up at the Gainbridge LPGA Tour event at the Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando.

Kemp, whose best had been when runner-up at the 2019 Women’s Australian Open over two years ago, birdied two of her final three holes in today’s final round to finish tied for 5^th in her first event of the 2021 LPGA Tour season.

Beginning the final round in 11^th place, Kemp took some time for the round to build momentum but over the final ten holes she produced five birdies and two bogeys for her round of 69 after playing some outstanding golf for much of the week.

Kemp spent time in Australia during the off-season including time in quarantine but this is an encouraging start to the season as she looks to consolidate her standing on the LPGA Tour.

Kemp finished five shots behind the winner and the current 4^th ranked player in the world, Nelly Korda, who is likely to move into the 3^rd position with this win. She also earns a cheque for US$75,000.

In the opening event of the season in January, Korda finished 3^rd behind her sister Jessica, both sisters former Women’s Australian Open champions.

For Korda it was her 4th LPGA Tour title but her first on home soil, having won in Australia and Taiwan (twice) previously.

Tied for 2^nd place were American Lexi Thompson and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko who finished three behind Korda.

Ko continues her return to the game that saw her as one of the dominant figures on the LPGA Tour four years ago, this her 5^th top ten in her last six starts after switching to coach Sean Foley in early 2020.

Victorian, Gabi Ruffels, in her very first event as a professional, made the cut and finished 36th to get her career underway.

 

 

 

 

Cameron Smith in action today – photo Getty Images Sam Greenwood

Australian Cameron Smith has once again put himself in the firing line of a significant PGA Tour event, this time the WGC Workday Championship at The Concession in south west Florida.

Smith has completed the opening two rounds of the US$10.5 million event just one shot off the pace set by Brooks Koepka and shares second place with Collin Morikawa and Billy Horschel.

Off the back of an impressive 4^th place at the Genesis Invitational last Sunday, Smith produced a seven-birdie round of 66 to again show his capacity to play big events well.

With now just six weeks to the Masters, where Smith finished runner-up last November, the 24-year old’s form appears to be falling into place at exactly the right time.

“I just feel like I’m playing really solid at the moment,” said Smith. This is probably the best my ball-striking’s felt to myself in a very long time. So yeah, really comfortable with the short and long stuff.

“I think it (the Nicklaus / Jacklin layout) is tough but fair. You can make birdies if you hit your tee shots in the right spots. I think the greens, if they firmed up a little bit, this place could be pretty interesting. I think they’ve done a really good job in prep for it. Hopefully the greens firm up a little bit on the weekend, we can see some more creative shots into the green.”

Compared to last week in California the temperature this week is considerably hotter but Smith is enjoying the warmer conditions.

“Yeah, I love being in the heat. Those early morning tee times in L.A. last week were pretty brutal. I grew up in Brisbane, it’s a very similar climate to this, so I love being out there and getting hot.”

Koepka continues to recover from injury issues and is returning to the sort of form that saw him as the world number one previously. His recent win in Phoenix had him back on track and despite a final hole bogey today, his round of 66 was good enough to edge him clear of the field.

“I’ve only been home like 25 days since Boston of the Playoffs last year, so I’ve spent the entire time in San Diego with my trainer Derek, just grinding, trying to make sure my knee’s right,” said Koepka.

“Once my body was right, it was only a matter of time before my swing kind of came into a groove I guess you could say. Then once — I mean, in December it finally was like it started to click, so I put in the work, it’s just now I’m starting to see it.

“Usually, I can never find my game until THE PLAYERS, that’s kind of when it starts to feel like it’s coming around, but the fact that it’s here a little bit early is nice.”

Jason Day is the next best of the Australians after Smith, a second round of 69 improving him to 4 under and in a share of 17^th.

Wade Ormsby was unable to repeat his first round effort and was round in 74 to be in 26^th place, a position he shares with Marc Leishman, Jason Scrivener went the other way with a round of 68 to be 37^th, Adam Scott is 43^rd, Min Woo Lee 49^th and Brad Kennedy and Lucas Herbert 69^th in the 72 player field.

There is no cut in this event so all players get to play all 72 holes.

Scores