Rhein Gibson – file photo – important few events ahead for the Lismore golfer.
Several Australians are walking a fine line as they chase PGA Tour status via the Korn Ferry Tour over the next few weeks.
The completion of this week’s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho did little to help their cause, Rhein Gibson and Brett Drewitt missing the cut and slipping to 27th and 30th respectively in the year-long standings in which the leading 30 players following the completion of the Tour Championship in early October gain 2024 PGA Tour cards.
Both Gibson and Drewitt had begun the season well, Gibson winning in February and following soon after with two more top tens to be well inside the top ten at that point.
Drewitt also reeled off five top tens in his first seven starts and looked to be comfortably on his way back to the PGA Tour in 2024 but the further the season has gone on the more vulnerable the pair look in terms of returning to the big dance.
The Korn Ferry Tour now has a three week break before the Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee continues the Finals but, with just three events remaining, both Gibson and Drewitt will need to watch their backs.
Dimi Papadatos was the only Australian to make the cut this week when finishing 43rd, but he too has struggled after what had been a good start to the season which had included a runner-up finish in Chile.
Papdatos has now slipped to 63rd in the rankings and while reaching the top 30 is not beyond him he will need to improve sharply in the remaining events if he is to get to the PGA Tour for the first time.
Spare a thought also for Perth’s Curtis Luck who miscalculated his tee time on Thursday and was disqualified for not turning up on time.
Luck has now slipped to 62nd he, too, has a task ahead.
Interestingly, Luck was quite philosophical about his mistake as he indicated when talking to PGA Tour.com
“For some people, this would be a really, really big issue, because everybody out here is trying to play for a PGA TOUR card,” Luck said. “I’m not taking it that badly, to be honest … My theory is Columbus (the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, which he won in 2020) is where I’m looking to do the most damage … it is what it is.”
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Anthony Quayle finishes 3rd in Korea
Anthony Quayle – photo JGTO
Anthony Quayle has finished in a share of 3rd place at a jointly sanctioned event between the Korean, Japan, and Asian Tours, the Shinhan Donghae Open in Incheon, Korea.
The 29-year-old Gold Coast-based golfer, completed the event just two shots behind the playoff between the eventual winner, Guntaek Koh of Korea and Thailand’s Pachara Khongwatmai.
Quayle shared third place with Japanese star and former Australian Amateur Champion, Keita Nakajima, and American Richard Lee and added another US$53,000 to his Japan Tour earnings for 2023.
The finish will move Quayle to 14th on the Japan Tour money list with ¥26 million (A$270,000) and represents his second-best finish of 2023 following his runner-up finish at the Sega Sammy Cup in Hokkaido in early July.
Quayle will lament a double bogey finish to his round on Saturday but it was nonetheless an improvement on his most recent form which had seen two missed cuts in his last three starts.
The next best of the Australians was Travis Smyth who finished in 19th place.
Minjee Lee in touch at Kroger Queen City event in Ohio
Minjee Lee in Ohio – image courtesy of Getty and LPGA
Minjee Lee is in a share of 7th place and six shots from the lead at the halfway stage of the Kroger Queen City Championship in Cincinnati Ohio, but the Perth golfer is just two shots behind the joint second-placed players as the event heads into the weekend.
Lee birdied two holes late in her round to move within striking distance of the leader, 32-year-old Peiyn Chien of Taiwan who has a four-shot lead as she chases her first victory on the LPGA Tour.
Lee has produced a run of solid finishes on late but other than a 2nd place finish at the Founders Cup earlier in the year she has not contended often and has now slipped to 13th in the Rolex World Ranking.
This week does however provide the opportunity for her first win of the year as although the leader has a significant break on the field, she is new to this situation and will be under pressure over the final 36 holes.
Lee missed the cut in this event last year when it was being staged for the first occasion but she can put that wrong right in a big way over the final 36 holes.
The next best of the Australians in Victorian, Gabi Ruffels who in 2024 will enjoy full status on the LPGA Tour after a stellar season on the Epson Tour this year.
Ruffels is in a share of 11th place at 6 under and two behind Lee.
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko finally found a little bit of form after a run of outs and is in a share of 31st at 3 under.
Sarah Kemp and Stephanie Kyriacou also made the cut the New South Wales pair on the number at 1 under.
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Anthony Quayle’s strong finish has him contending in Korea
Anthony Quayle – photo JGTO
Australian Anthony Quayle overcame a slow start to his second round at the Shinhan Donghae Open at the Ocean Course at Club 72 in Incheon South Korea, reeling off four birdies in his last six holes to be tied in 4th position and four shots from the halfway leader, 21-year-old amateur, Wooyoung Cho.
Quayle, playing this event because of its joint sanctioning with the Japan, Asian and Korea PGA Tours, opened with a round of 65 on day one but today he was slow out of the blocks and on a golf course in which scores were low he had fallen behind the eight ball when he slipped to 2 over through 12 holes.
Then came the strong finishing burst to set up an exciting weekend for the 29-year-old Gold Coast-based golfer.
Quayle has had a season of mixed fortunes to date in Japan, finishing runner-up in one event in July but that has been his only top ten to date and this week has shown a sharp improvement on recent efforts.
Scott Hend and former Sydney golfer, but now Korean-based, Won Joon Lee are tied in 12th place while Zach Murray and Brad Kennedy are tied for 23rd.
Hend also produced a strong finish to his round after appearing to be headed out of the tournament early in his second round but a closing nine of 31 saw him finish at 7 under and now six from the lead.
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Sarah Kemp heads Australasians in Portland
Sarah Kemp – file photo courtesy of LPGA / Getty Images
North Coast New South Wales golfer, Sarah Kemp, continued her good season on the LPGA Tour when she led the Australasians in the field at this week’s Portland Classic in Oregon.
Admittedly, Kemp would finish in only a share of 21st but it continues a season which has already seen her finish inside the top 15 on four separate occasions and with earnings of now US$258,000 she is on track to better her previous best in 2021 when she amassed US$272,000 and finished 67th in the Race to the Globe standings.
Kemp is currently 66th in the rankings for 2023 and with another ten or so events on the schedule, many of which she will have access to, she has a chance of completing her best-ever season.
Kemp’s best finish of the year came at the Dow Great Lakes event in July when she finished 8th but of importance this week was that she bounced back from two consecutive missed cuts to perform well in Oregon.
LPGA Tour rookie, Grace Kim, did next best of the Australasians when she finished 26th.
Former winner of the event, Hannah Green missed the cut as did the out-of-form Lydia Ko who has finished no better than 31st in her last 13 LPGA Tour starts.
The winner of the event was yet another first-time winner from Thailand, the 19-year-old LPGA Tour rookie Chanettee Wannasaen (pictured).
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Chanettee Wannasaen – image LPGA / Getty
Fiona Xu leads Australasians at Stage One LPGA Tour qualifying
Fiona Xu – file photo – courtesy of USGA
One New Zealander and five Australians have safely begun the long and arduous path to LPGA Tour status in 2024 by finishing inside the top 95 of the 350 players who teed it up at Stage One Qualifying in Rancho Mirage in California.
New Zealand’s Fiona Xu, the 2022 Australian Women’s Amateur Champion, led the group when she finished in a share of 3rd place, while Australians Madison Hinson Tolchard (33rd), Amy Chu, Emily Mahar and Darcy Hapgood (55th), and Jordan O’Brien (70th) can now reset their mindsets to Stage Two which begins in Venice, Florida on October 17th.
Should they be successful in graduating from that Stage, they then open up the possibility of finishing inside the top 45 at the Final Stage over 144 holes in Mobile Alabama beginning on November 30th.
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Hannah Green records second best finish of 2023 in Canada
Hannah Green – in action this week – image LPGA / Getty Images
Perth’s Hannah Green has produced her second-best finish of the 2023 LPGA Tour season when sharing 4th place at this past week’s CPKC Women’s Open (read Canadian Women’s Open) in Vancouver.
Green, whose only other top ten of the year came when winning the JM Eagle LA Championship, finished three shots from the playoff between Jin Young Ko and the eventual winner Megan Khang and earned US$117,500.
“I’m feeling good,” said Green after her final round. “I played good today. I hit the ball much better which is good, because yesterday I really scrambled. Didn’t hit many fairways at all and was trying to hit as many greens as possible; not really trying to hit it close.
“So today I had that opportunity which was nice. Didn’t really read the greens as well as I did the first few days. Overall, really happy with my result.
“This is a great event. Playing Shaughnessy, it’s obviously a really great golf course. We feel very honored to be on this golf course.
“It’s a challenging one, as you can see by the scoring. Nothing particularly low so it makes you think a little bit. Compared to what course was like on Monday to today it was very different, so it was getting fast, getting quite hard.
“So it was good. I really enjoy that type of golf. It’s nice to find some form after a rough month I guess you could say going into a tournament that’s very fondly in my heart.”
Green was of course referring to next week’s event in Portland which she has won previously.
Victorian Gabi Ruffels who has LPGA Tour playing rights now firmly in her grasp for next season courtesy of her outstanding season on the feeder Epson Tour did well when playing the event on invitation and finished in a share of 19th.
Minjee Lee and Karis Davidson tied for 22nd while the struggles continued for Lydia Ko when she finished last of those who made the weekend and 24 shots from the playoff after a third round of 82.
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Australians on knife-edge in race for PGA Tour playing rights
Rhein Gibson – file photo – important few events ahead for the Lismore golfer.
Several Australians are walking a fine line as they chase PGA Tour status via the Korn Ferry Tour over the next few weeks.
The completion of this week’s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho did little to help their cause, Rhein Gibson and Brett Drewitt missing the cut and slipping to 27th and 30th respectively in the year-long standings in which the leading 30 players following the completion of the Tour Championship in early October gain 2024 PGA Tour cards.
Both Gibson and Drewitt had begun the season well, Gibson winning in February and following soon after with two more top tens to be well inside the top ten at that point.
Drewitt also reeled off five top tens in his first seven starts and looked to be comfortably on his way back to the PGA Tour in 2024 but the further the season has gone on the more vulnerable the pair look in terms of returning to the big dance.
The Korn Ferry Tour now has a three week break before the Simmons Bank Open in Tennessee continues the Finals but, with just three events remaining, both Gibson and Drewitt will need to watch their backs.
Dimi Papadatos was the only Australian to make the cut this week when finishing 43rd, but he too has struggled after what had been a good start to the season which had included a runner-up finish in Chile.
Papdatos has now slipped to 63rd in the rankings and while reaching the top 30 is not beyond him he will need to improve sharply in the remaining events if he is to get to the PGA Tour for the first time.
Spare a thought also for Perth’s Curtis Luck who miscalculated his tee time on Thursday and was disqualified for not turning up on time.
Luck has now slipped to 62nd he, too, has a task ahead.
Interestingly, Luck was quite philosophical about his mistake as he indicated when talking to PGA Tour.com
“For some people, this would be a really, really big issue, because everybody out here is trying to play for a PGA TOUR card,” Luck said. “I’m not taking it that badly, to be honest … My theory is Columbus (the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship, which he won in 2020) is where I’m looking to do the most damage … it is what it is.”
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Matt Jones goes down in history making playoff
Matt Jones – runner-up in St Andrews – image courtesy of LIV Golf.
Australian Matt Jones has finished runner-up at the Asian Tour’s International Series event at Fairmont St Andrews in St Andrews Scotland, but that tells only part of what was an historical final day.
The playoff between LIV Golf player, Jones and Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra lasted a massive ten holes (an Asian Tour record) before a two-putt par by Chaccara at the par 5 was unable to be matched by Jones who missed from five feet to keep the battle alive.
For Jones however, it continues a good run of late during which he was a member of the winning Rippers team in LIV Golf event in New Jersey three weeks ago, securing US$750,000 plus an individual prize of close to US$160,000 there, followed by a 4th place finish and another US$76,000 at last week’s International Series event in Scotland and now this runner-up finish and another US$220,000.
So around US$1.2 million in his last three events for the 43-year-old Arizona-based Sydney golfer.
Jones and Chacarra had both birdied the final hole of regulation to force the playoff but it would be the 23-year-old Chacarra who not only won his first Asian Tour event but his first event since turning professional last year. He won US$360,000.
Queenslander, Andrew Dodt finished in a share of third place and earned US$113,000, by some margin his biggest cheque of the year and, after a break from tournament golf and returning at last week’s event in Newcastle where he missed the cut, this is a major boost for three time Asian Tour event winner.
South Australian Wade Ormsby also had a good week when he finished tied for 8th place.
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Hovland and Morikawa lead by two at Tour Championship
Collin Morikawa – file photo courtesy of USGA
An intriguing weekend lies ahead for the 30 players duking it out for the huge prize fund at the Tour Championship at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland taking a two-shot advantage over Scottie Scheffler in an event where the winner will secure a US$18 million windfall.
Hovland and Morikawa both recorded second rounds of 64 although, for Morikawa, his opening round of 61 had given the early lead before being caught by Hovland’s last nine of 30 today.
Scheffler, who has taken all before him for much of the last 18 months on the PGA Tour and led the Fed Ex Cup standings, bounced back from a disappointing opening round of 71 yesterday with a 65 to keep his army of supporters with hope.
Keegan Bradley is another shot back and alone in 4th place while Xander Schaffele and Jon Rahm are one further back.
Jason Day is the only Australian in the field and after rounds of 67 and 70 finds himself in a share of 19th place and twelve shots from the lead.
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Jones and Dodt in contention at St Andrews
Matt Jones – in a rich vein of form of late
The second of two Asian Tour International Series events in Britain this August, the St Andrews Championship at the Fairmont St Andrews Torrance Course in Scotland, has reached the halfway mark, and Australians Matt Jones and Andrew Dodt are within striking distance in the US$1.5 million event.
Dodt and Jones are at 10 under, four shots from the lead held by Spain’s David Puig and tied in 3rd place, Jones’s following up his good week in Newcastle last week when finishing 4th in a similar event by adding a second round of 65 to move into contention.
Jones was also part of the winning Australian team at the LIv Golf event in Bedminster in New Jersey.
Queenslander, Dodt, on the other hand, missed the cut last week after lengthy break from tournament play but after an impressive start on Thursday when producing an opening round of 66 to be tied in the lead, the 37-year-old, three-time Asian Tour winner added a second round of 68 to remain well and truly in the mix.
The leader, Puig, is a 21-year-old LIV Golf player who has enjoyed commercial success in the team aspect of that series but who has yet to win an event as a professional.
The field includes many LIV Golf members taking advantage of the association the Asia Tour has with Liv Golf which allows them to compete in events such as this.
Wade Ormsby (15th) is the next best of the Australians in the field.
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