Jasper Stubbs – photo APAC
MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia’s Jasper Stubbs claimed an impressive come-from-behind victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne today.
The local favorite, who lives two miles from Royal Melbourne, triumphed on the second playoff hole over China’s Wenyi Ding and Sampson Zheng to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur trophy and secure a place in the 2024 Masters Tournament and The 152nd Open at Royal Troon next year.
“It’s really special,” said the champion. “It was actually something my caddie said to me on the walk off the first tee (on Thursday). He said that it would be pretty awesome to have the first shot and the last putt on Sunday. I had to mark that little three‑inch putt so that I could have that last putt. But yeah, it’s awesome. It’s stuff I can only dream of, really. Yeah, I’m really grateful and really happy to be here.”
Stubbs started the day six behind Zheng, the third-round leader, but used his experience in the Sandbelt and dealing with the blustery wind conditions to card a two-under-par round of 69 and finish with a one-over-par total of 285 for the Championship.
The 21-year-old becomes the fourth Australian winner of the Championship and follows in the footsteps of Antonio Murdaca, who won at Royal Melbourne in 2014, as well as Curtis Luck, who won in South Korea in 2016 and Harrison Crowe, who won last year in Thailand.
As a member of Australia’s national team, Stubbs had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot on Thursday in what was his debut appearance in the AAC.
For much of the day Stubbs was under the radar with all eyes on the leader Zheng, who set a new amateur Royal Melbourne Composite Course record with his third-round 65.
The 22-year-old, who was part of the winning Asia-Pacific team in the Bonallack Trophy in August, led by four at the start of the day but endured a nervy start with a double bogey six at the second. In warm but blustery conditions, scoring was difficult for the entire field, but the 22-year-old gained a shot back with a birdie three at the fifth.
Consecutive bogeys at the 11th and 12th reduced his lead over Ding to one but Zheng bounced back with a birdie three at the 13th, a hole he birded in each of the four rounds.
Ding, the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, recovered from a dropped shot at the par-3 third with birdies at the ninth and the 11th but saw a birdie putt slip past the hole on the 15th to keep Zheng stayed two in front.
Zheng’s par putt on the par-4 15th didn’t make the hole so his lead was back to one shot with three holes to play.
At this point Stubbs made his run with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th to move to within one shot of Zheng. Stubbs’ 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th came up short and he finished one over par alongside Ding.
In the last group, Zheng’s approach to the 17th found a bunker short and right of the green and his subsequent birdie putt veered away from the hole, leaving him with a four-foot par putt, which he missed, to fall back into a three-way tie for the lead.
On the 18th, Zheng’s approach found a front-right bunker. He splashed out to a few feet and did well to save his par and finish one over par to go into a playoff.
The playoff saw the players go back up the 18th. Stubbs played an approach to the back of the green about 20 feet from the hole and Ding followed him to similar distance on the back right of the green. Zheng’s approach went through the back of the green to leave him with a difficult downhill chip, which he put well past the hole. In a moment of huge drama, Stubbs and Ding both holed their snaking downhill putts for the only birdies on the 18th all day to continue in the playoff with Zheng eliminated.
On the second playoff hole, Stubbs once again found the back of the green and rolled a 60-foot putt down to a few inches from the hole. Ding’s approach found a bunker right of the green and he chipped to 20 feet, but his putt lipped out to leave Stubbs with a tap-in to claim the title.
Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Tai Lin finished in a tie for fourth with Australia’s Max Charles at two over par. Kazuma Kobori from New Zealand was two shots further back in sixth and Anh Minh Nguyen achieved the best result ever for a Vietnamese player to finish in a tie for seventh with Malaysia’s Marcus Lim.
As well as an invitation to the Masters and an exemption into The Open, Stubbs receives an exemption into The 129th Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin in Ireland in 2024.
“The Masters is something every kid has ever dreamed of,” added Stubbs. “It’s the one tournament that every golfer wants to play in their life and now that that’s going to be a reality for me, I am speechless. It was always a dream, and now that it’s a reality, I don’t know what it’s going to look like. But I’m just really excited for April now, and also for The Open.”
The Asia-Pacific Amateur field consisted of 120 of the top male amateurs from the Asia-Pacific region. The 2023 field features players from 37 nations, all competing to secure an exemption into The Open and an invitation to the Masters Tournament in 2024.
SCORES
Kerry Mountcastle adds to great New Zealand golfing weekend
Kerry Mountcastle – image Australian Golf Media
New Zealand’s Kerry Mountcastle, currently ranked 1931st in the world ranking, will make a significant dent in that ranking and ensure access to all the upcoming events on the PGA Tour of Australasia with victory today in the Gippsland Super Sixes event at the Warragul Country Club in Victoria.
Mountcastle, a former New Zealand Eisenhower Trophy representative and a two-time winner on the Jennian Homes Charles Tour, claimed his first Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia title with a victory over Queensland’s Jake McLeod after Mountcastle had defeated amateur Joseph Owen in the semi-final and McLeod accounted for South Australian Jak Carter to reach his encounter with the eventual winner.
Mountcastle had survived a lengthy playoff on Saturday evening just to get into the final 24 to compete in today’s six-hole head-to-head match-ups.
Mountcastle earns A$36,000 and moves to the top of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia money list.
It would be the first of two New Zealand victories on Sunday, Ben Campbell winning in Hing Kong just a couple of hours later.
SCORES
Ben Campbell’s strong finish claims Hong Kong Open
Ben Campbell – image Paul Lakatos
In what is no doubt the most significant moment in the golfing career of New Zealander Ben Campbell, the 32 year old Queenstown based golfer holed a 15-foot putt at the final hole of the Hong Kong Open to defeat Australia’s Cam Smith and secure the US$360,000 first prize.
Always a considerable talent, Campbell has won only one tournament on a recognised tour since turning professional in 2012, that being at the New Zealand PGA Championship in 2018, but he has been plagued by injury and illness especially early in his career.
Today he produced a final round of 66 including birdies at his final two holes to edge out the prolific winner on the LIV Tour and the 2022 Open Champion Smith.
Campbell a former runner-up in both the New Zealand and Australian Amateur Championships, now moves to 4th on the Asian Tour Order of Merit for 2023.
Campbell had arrived on the final tee today tied with playing partners, Smith, and Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai.
Smith was forced to lay up and could only make par while Phachara three-putted for his bogey to finish tied for 3rd.
“It’s good to finally get the monkey off the back and yeah, sort of just battling away all day,” said Campbell referring to his first Asian Tour victory.
“Sort of didn’t get off to the greatest of starts and swing wasn’t feeling that great. Sort of went back to a few close losses and wrote a few notes down in my yardage book last night, and really used them on those last four or five holes.
“It was getting a bit tight in the swing and just from those past experiences managed to, I think, you know, put a couple of nice swings coming down the stretch which really helped.”
SCORES
Ten Australasians face DP World Tour Q-School
Haydn Barron – the best of the Australians after day one – file photo
Nine Australians and one New Zealander are amongst the 156 hopefuls chasing one of 25 cards on offer at the Final Stage of Qualifying for the 2024 DP World Tour.
Australians Haydn Barron, Hayden Hopewell, Andre Lautee, James Machesani, Connor McKinney, Matias Sanchez, Elvis Smylie, Justin Warren and Blake Windred will be joined by New Zealand’s Sam Jones to play the gruelling event at Infinitum Golf in Tarragona in Spain, hoping, initially, to survive the 72 hole cut for the leading 70 golfers and ties and then to secure one of the precious DP World Tour cards over the closing 36 holes.
Barron finished 4th at last year’s Australian Open at the Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne and in doing so gained a start at the Open Championship earlier this year. He also finished runner-up at the recent WA PGA Championship.
At the completion of the opening round, it is West Australian Haydn Barron who is doing best of the down-under brigade after an opening round of 67 has him in a share of 3rd place.
Those successful can look forward to the possibility of their opening two events as cardholders being at the Australian PGA and Open Championships in late November / early December.
SCORES
Cam Smith in form ahead of Australian PGA Championship defence
Cam Smith in action this week – image Paul Lakatos
Cam Smith is just one shot off the pace at the Hong Kong Open, the two-time winner on the LIV Golf Tour in 2023, trailing only Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai at the halfway stage of the Asian Tour event at the Hong Kong Golf Club.
Smith, who last played an individual LIV Tour event in Jeddah a month ago although he was in the teams event in Florida three weeks ago, followed up his opening round of 63 which had given him a share of the lead on Thursday with a round of 66 today and heads into the weekend in a great position to win his first Asian Tour title.
With just two weeks to go before Smith attempts to defend his Australian PGA Tour title at Royal Queensland, his form over the opening two rounds shows his game is in good shape to win a third Australian PGA Championship title having won his first two at RACV Royal Pines.
Smith, finished second on the individual LIV Golf rankings behind American Talor Gooch in 2023, played in this event in 2014, the year after he turned professional, and tied for ninth – providing a snapshot of what was to come.
“It’s been a long time since I have been here. It’s probably been too long,” said Smith, who played just the one season on the Asian Tour.
“Hong Kong is one of my favourite cities, the golf course speaks for itself and the Asian Tour is on the up, and I love it.”
Just one shot further back and tied for 4th is yet another Australian in Harrison Crowe, the former NSW Open and Asia Pacific Amateur Champion who earlier this year played in both the Masters and the Open Championship courtesy of his win at the Asia Pacific.
New Zealand’s Ben Campbell is also tied for 4th after his second round of 64, continuing some good recent form in Asia for the Queenstown-based 32-year-old.
SCORES
Four Australasians make Charles Schwab Cup field
Steve Alker finished 4th in regular season Schwab Cup – file photo USGA
Australasia will field its strongest-ever representation in the PGA Tour Champions Charles Schwab Cup starting in Phoenix on Thursday with Steve Alker, Richard Green, Rod Pampling and Mark Hensby making the select 36-player line-up, finalised at the completion of the last event of the regular tour season in Florida this morning.
Alker has finished the regular season in 4th place, Green, in his debut season in 14th place, Rod Pampling 18th, and Hensby 27th.
Alker, Pampling and Hensby have all won this season while Green’s consistency has seen him record five top tens including a playoff loss two weeks ago.
The Charles Schwab Championship has been played each year since its inaugural staging in 1990 but an Australasian has yet to win the event which this year carries a purse of US$3 million.
The Line-Up
Brad Kennedy’s late season form continues
Brad Kennedy – image courtesy of JGTO
Gold Coast golfer, Brad Kennedy, continued some good late-season form with a share of 6th place at the Japan Golf Tour’s Mynavi ABC Championship this weekend.
Following on from his best of the season 3rd place finish at the Japan Open three weeks ago, Kennedy finished alone in 6th place seven shots behind the winner Keita Nakajima, who recorded his 3rd win of the season and who moves clear of Takumi Kanaya on the Japan Tour money list.
Nakajima was the 2018 Australian Amateur Champion and was number one in the world amateur rankings for more than a year prior to turning professional late in 2022.
Kennedy moves to 32nd on the Japan Tour money list behind only Anthony Quayle (23rd) in terms of Australians on that list.
RESULTS
Amateur Phoenix Campbell rises to win Queensland PGA
Phoenix Campbell – image Australian Golf Media
22-year-old Victorian amateur, Phoenix Campbell, has staged a whirlwind finish to the Queensland PGA Championship at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane to win the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia event and with it the prospect of a professional career.
Currently ranked 811th in the World Amateur rankings despite winning the prestigious Riversdale Cup in Victoria earlier this year, Campbell gained a start in this event courtesy of the elite amateur invite category but after an opening round of 75 on Thursday the prospect of even being around for the weekend, let alone contending and winning, seemed a far off proposition.
He would make steady progress through rounds two and three but even so he began the last round eight shots adrift of the 54-hole leader, Andrew Kelly.
Campbell made steady progress until the turn when he had moved to 6 under for the tournament but at that stage he was still five shots behind Kelly who was treading water but still in command.
Then came the amazing finish of Campbell who, after dropping a shot at the 11th, would birdie the 13th, 14th and 16th and, as he stood on the 18th tee, he was just one back of the lead.
A 7 iron approach finished 2 feet from the hole at the par 3 and when that was holed he was tied in the lead with another unlikely winner, Jack Poutney, who had actually led the qualifiers on Monday just to get a start in the event.
Campbell then had a 45-minute wait to see whether the many players still within a shot of him could gain the extra shot needed to join a possible playoff but it was not to be and he was declared the winner after last year’s Order of Merit winner, David Micheluzzi, missed a ten-foot putt for birdie to force a playoff.
Campbell from the Yarra Yarra Golf Club joins a select group of amateurs in recent years to win a PGA Tour of Australasia event including Curtis Luck, Ben Eccles, Brett Coletta, Kazuma Kobori and Harrison Crowe but just where he goes from here may take a few days to decide.
His win gives him full access to the PGA Tour of Australasia without having to go through any qualifying process and a kick start to a professional career if he so chooses.
Seven players would share second place and with Campbell ineligible for the first-place prize money of $45,000, those tied for second place including Micheluzzi, Harrison Crowe, Deyen Lawson, Blake Proverbs, Nick Voke, Lawry Flynn and Jack Poutney would each secure cheques for $18,085.
New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, the Australian Amateur Champion and playing his first event as a professional produced the best final round of the day (66) to share 9th place.
SCORES
Voke and Kelly lead QLD PGA
Nick Voke – file photo
New Zealand’s Nick Voke and Victorian Andrew Kelly share the halfway lead at the Queensland PGA Championship at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane, the pair at 9 under and one shot ahead of Queensland’s Mitchell Varley.
Voke has spent much of this year on the Asian Tour after two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour although with little to show for his efforts to date. He is, however, a multiple winner in China in earlier years and did produce his best finish in Asia this year when 11th at the recent Macao Open won by Australia’s Min Woo Lee.
Voke only just made the field for this week as even earlier in the week his chance of a start was in doubt until he gained entry to the field via an alternate spot.
A former Iowa State attendee during a collegiate golfing career, the 29-year-old Aucklander was out at 6.30 on day two and took advantage of the benign conditions to reel off a second round of 62, a course record, which included a homeward nine of 30.
Voke’s co leader, Andrew Kelly missed the cut in last week’s event in South Australia but after an opening 69 yesterday he moved to the top of the leaderboard with a round of 66 today.
36-year-old Kelly, a professional for 13 years, has had a tough year to date on the PGA Tour of Australasia missing nine of 14 cuts, although a recent 3rd place in Darwin suggests he might have found something.
Neither player has won on the PGA Tour of Australasia to date and this weekend offers a great opportunity.
SCORES
PGA Tour of Australasia begins East Coast Swing
Kazuma Kobori exciting addition to the professional ranks – photo APAC
The 2023 / 2024 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia begins its ‘East Coast Swing’ this week when the Queensland PGA Championship gets underway on Thursday at the Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane’s east.
After events in Papua New Guinea, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, the schedule now includes six consecutive events leading into Xmas on the Eastern Seaboard and the opportunity for several new recruits to the professional ranks to get their careers in the paid ranks underway.
Perhaps the most intriguing of them is the current Australian Amateur Champion Kazuma Kobori of New Zealand who has full status on the Australasian Tour courtesy of his victory at the Tour School in April, following which he has recorded an outstanding final year in amateur golf.
Kobori, already the winner of an Australasian Tour event when successful at the New Zealand PGA Championship as a 17-year-old amateur, won the Western Amateur (Illinois) and was the leading individual at the Eisenhower Trophy in 2023 and appears on track for a very successful career in the professional ranks.
Other leading amateurs making their professional debut this week include the talented New South Welshman Jeffrey Guan, South Australian Jack Buchanan and Victorian Max Charles, all three coming off a week at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne last week, Buchanan and Guan members of the Australian Eisenhower Trophy team which finished runner up in Abu Dhabi last month.
Last season’s PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, David Micheluzzi, gets his new season underway ahead of becoming a full-fledged member of the DP World Tour when that tour begins its new season at the nearby Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland in late November.
One of the rewards for Micheluzzi’s outstanding last season is membership of the DP World Tour and although he has played sparingly of late his follow-up to last season will be watched with interest.
Anthony Quayle and Aaron Wilkin have been the winners of this event since its move to the rebuilt Nudgee Golf Club, Quayle though will not be at the event as he chases a strong finish to what has been a solid season in Japan this year.
Last year’s winner Wilkin is having a good season on the Asian Development Tour and is also not in this week’s field.
LEADERBOARD
Jasper Stubbs Australia’s 4th Asia Pacific Amateur Champion
Jasper Stubbs – photo APAC
MELBOURNE, Australia – Australia’s Jasper Stubbs claimed an impressive come-from-behind victory in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Royal Melbourne today.
The local favorite, who lives two miles from Royal Melbourne, triumphed on the second playoff hole over China’s Wenyi Ding and Sampson Zheng to win the Asia-Pacific Amateur trophy and secure a place in the 2024 Masters Tournament and The 152nd Open at Royal Troon next year.
“It’s really special,” said the champion. “It was actually something my caddie said to me on the walk off the first tee (on Thursday). He said that it would be pretty awesome to have the first shot and the last putt on Sunday. I had to mark that little three‑inch putt so that I could have that last putt. But yeah, it’s awesome. It’s stuff I can only dream of, really. Yeah, I’m really grateful and really happy to be here.”
Stubbs started the day six behind Zheng, the third-round leader, but used his experience in the Sandbelt and dealing with the blustery wind conditions to card a two-under-par round of 69 and finish with a one-over-par total of 285 for the Championship.
The 21-year-old becomes the fourth Australian winner of the Championship and follows in the footsteps of Antonio Murdaca, who won at Royal Melbourne in 2014, as well as Curtis Luck, who won in South Korea in 2016 and Harrison Crowe, who won last year in Thailand.
As a member of Australia’s national team, Stubbs had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot on Thursday in what was his debut appearance in the AAC.
For much of the day Stubbs was under the radar with all eyes on the leader Zheng, who set a new amateur Royal Melbourne Composite Course record with his third-round 65.
The 22-year-old, who was part of the winning Asia-Pacific team in the Bonallack Trophy in August, led by four at the start of the day but endured a nervy start with a double bogey six at the second. In warm but blustery conditions, scoring was difficult for the entire field, but the 22-year-old gained a shot back with a birdie three at the fifth.
Consecutive bogeys at the 11th and 12th reduced his lead over Ding to one but Zheng bounced back with a birdie three at the 13th, a hole he birded in each of the four rounds.
Ding, the 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur champion, recovered from a dropped shot at the par-3 third with birdies at the ninth and the 11th but saw a birdie putt slip past the hole on the 15th to keep Zheng stayed two in front.
Zheng’s par putt on the par-4 15th didn’t make the hole so his lead was back to one shot with three holes to play.
At this point Stubbs made his run with birdies on the 11th, 13th and 17th to move to within one shot of Zheng. Stubbs’ 35-foot birdie putt on the 18th came up short and he finished one over par alongside Ding.
In the last group, Zheng’s approach to the 17th found a bunker short and right of the green and his subsequent birdie putt veered away from the hole, leaving him with a four-foot par putt, which he missed, to fall back into a three-way tie for the lead.
On the 18th, Zheng’s approach found a front-right bunker. He splashed out to a few feet and did well to save his par and finish one over par to go into a playoff.
The playoff saw the players go back up the 18th. Stubbs played an approach to the back of the green about 20 feet from the hole and Ding followed him to similar distance on the back right of the green. Zheng’s approach went through the back of the green to leave him with a difficult downhill chip, which he put well past the hole. In a moment of huge drama, Stubbs and Ding both holed their snaking downhill putts for the only birdies on the 18th all day to continue in the playoff with Zheng eliminated.
On the second playoff hole, Stubbs once again found the back of the green and rolled a 60-foot putt down to a few inches from the hole. Ding’s approach found a bunker right of the green and he chipped to 20 feet, but his putt lipped out to leave Stubbs with a tap-in to claim the title.
Chinese Taipei’s Chuan-Tai Lin finished in a tie for fourth with Australia’s Max Charles at two over par. Kazuma Kobori from New Zealand was two shots further back in sixth and Anh Minh Nguyen achieved the best result ever for a Vietnamese player to finish in a tie for seventh with Malaysia’s Marcus Lim.
As well as an invitation to the Masters and an exemption into The Open, Stubbs receives an exemption into The 129th Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin in Ireland in 2024.
“The Masters is something every kid has ever dreamed of,” added Stubbs. “It’s the one tournament that every golfer wants to play in their life and now that that’s going to be a reality for me, I am speechless. It was always a dream, and now that it’s a reality, I don’t know what it’s going to look like. But I’m just really excited for April now, and also for The Open.”
The Asia-Pacific Amateur field consisted of 120 of the top male amateurs from the Asia-Pacific region. The 2023 field features players from 37 nations, all competing to secure an exemption into The Open and an invitation to the Masters Tournament in 2024.
SCORES