Hacker Golf News courtesy of the PGA of Australia

*UPDATED for week beginning August 24th, 2010

NEWS

Wild Thing returns to Coolum

CROWD favourite US dual major winner John Daly will play in Australia in December for the third consecutive year at the Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola. The PGA of Australia yesterday confirmed that Daly will tee it up at the Hyatt Regency Coolum course for the prized from December 9– 12. Daly said at the weekend he was happy to be playing in Australia’s oldest professional event at a course where he has helped generate record crowds. “I really love coming to Australia,” Daly said. “The Coolum course is great, the fans love their golf and I hope I can come back this year and really put in a good performance.” Max Garske, the Chief Executive Officer of the PGA of Australia, said John Daly was always welcome to play in Australia and is looking forward to seeing him back on the Sunshine Coast. “We are very grateful for the support John has given the PGA Tour of Australasia particularly in the past three years,” Garske said. The Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola, in December will be the final event on the PGA Tour of Australasia, with players competing for a total prize pool of $1,500,000. The PGA Championship will be showcased on OneAsia’s television platform with live coverage for four hours a day across all four tournament days, and broadcast to over 260 million homes in more than 40 countries. Full coverage of the event will be available domestically on Network Ten, as well as internationally on ESPN Star Sports, Jupiter Golf Network, SBS Golf Channel, Fox International, Sky Sports NZ, ESPN3 & America One in the USA, ViaSat & Bloomberg Television among others in Europe. Tickets for the Australian PGA Championship presented by Coca-Cola will go on sale from Wednesday.

13 Australians make Fedex Cup

AUSTRALIANS will make up more than 10 per cent of the qualifiers in the $11 Million US PGA Tour’s Fedex Cup series with 13 teeing it up this week in the $8.25 million Barclays, the first playoff event. The 13 Aussies who made the 124 Cup qualifiers are Robert Allenby (qualified in 17th place) Jason Day (28) Stuart Appleby (30) Adam Scott (32) Geoff Ogilvy (39) Marc Leishman (48) Matt Jones (56) Michael Sim (67) Steve Elkington (68) Greg Chalmers (69) Aaron Baddeley (93) John Senden (99) and Nathan Green (119). Sim was the big improver on the qualifying list this week, rising 35 places after his finishing third in the Wyndham Championship. Conversely Australia’s Aron Price blew his chances of gaining a Fedex Cup qualifying spot by making a bogey at the last hole this week to drop back from 129 to 138. In the next three events, players need to reach the top 30 point scorers to make the Tour Championship, presented by Coca-Cola on September 23. The top 100 make the next event, the Deutsche bank Championship, the top 70 the BMW Championship and the top 30 the Tour Championship. World number one Tiger Woods only qualified for the Fedex Cup playoffs in 112 spot.

Kennedy and Bylsma still hitting it long

SYDNEY’S Steve Kennedy and defending champion Mark Bylsma are expected to dominate the Australian final of the RE/MAX World Longdrive Championship at the Palm Meadows Driving Range on the Queensland Gold Coast this weekend. With the winner to qualify for the world championship in the US next month, organiser Jason Gruber is expecting top performances this week. “Now we're on the final stages of this 10-round long championship, there will be some big expectations and some big swings on these final two days,” Gruber told the Courier Mail newspaper in Brisbane. Bylsma, the Australian record holder with a hit of 401m and Kennedy, a former Australian champion, have dominated the events this year. The organisers will stage a final qualifying event for the national final at the Drummond Golf Ashmore store in Brisbane. For more information visit www.longdrive.com.au

Four Australians tackle US Amateur

AUSTRALIA has four starters in the US Amateur Championship which teed off today at Chambers Bay in Washington state.  Melbourne-based South Korean Jin Jeong, the British Amateur Champion, and Ryan McCarthy both shot three over 74 to be in 60th place midway through day one. Jason Scrivener and Matt Smith had late tee times. After two rounds of stroke play today and tomorrow the field will be cut to the low 64 scores and six rounds of match play will decide the winner on Sunday. Jin Jeong is trying to be the first player since 1967 to win the US Amateur and British Amateur in the same year. 

Surge in golf tourism

THE Australian Financial Review newspaper carried an interesting article on Friday regarding a surge of interest in golf tourism for the upmarket New Zealand golf resorts Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers. In an interview with Jay Robertson, the American owner of the resorts, the AFR reported the resorts “suffered a slight downturn in Australian footfall.” It followed strong Australian business in 2008-09, despite occupancy rates slipping 10 per cent overall as people holidayed less or stayed closer to home during the financial downturn. Business is now in better shape, but in the lead-up to the launch of the family's third New Zealand lodge, Matakauri, close to Queenstown, Robertson wants to attract more visitors of which he is optimistic of achieving. Business is looking up for 2010-11. He casually predicts a return to pre-GFC tourist levels. “The great thing about it is, this time last year we didn't have any bookings for the summer months -- or very few and we're already holding good occupancy [this year],” Robertson says. “I just saw the forecast and it's actually looking like it did a couple of years ago, sort of changing its direction and coming back to where you can budget a little bit better and plan." "We had a very influential man from Saudi Arabia come in and book seven rooms for six nights with two days’ lead time, and a German guy came in and booked six nights for 10 rooms with three days' lead time, that just didn't happen before”.

Michael Hendry looking for back-to-back wins

LAST-start OneAsia Tour winner, New Zealand’s Michael Hendry, could leap up near the lead of the OneAsia order of merit in the Thailand Open this week. Hendry was the runaway winner at the Indonesia Open presented by Enjoy Jakarta six weeks ago and is in sixth place on the OOM with earnings of about $240,000 – about $220,000 behind the leader YE Yang. The 30-year-old Hendry has spent the past weeks in North Harbour working on building renovations to his home. The Thailand Open will debut on OneAsia at Burapha Golf Club in Pattaya from Thursday with a record prize of about $1.1 million. OneAsia is a non-profit organisation developed to maximise elite tournament opportunities in Asia-Pacific. The Founding members of OneAsia are the China Golf Association, the Korea Golf Tour, the Korea Golf Association and the PGA of Australia. The mission of OneAsia is not just to allow the region’s best players to gain access to more events, but to ultimately provide them with an alternative pathway to the PGA Tour and the European Tour, thus retaining the best golfing talent in the region without compromising their development.

Michael Sim finishes with a burst

AUSTRALIA’S Michael Sim almost snatched an unlikely win at the $5.71 million Wyndham Championship on Sunday, the newswire AAP reported. He was briefly tied for the lead after carding a bogey-free eight-under-par 62 at Sedgefield, but eventually had to settle for a share of third place, two strokes behind winner Arjun Atwal. “That's the best back-to-back ball-striking rounds I've had in a while,” said Sim, who started the final round seven strokes from the lead. “I've been struggling with my ball-striking all year and it really came around this week. My putting has been fantastic and that continued.” Atwal, 37, made history, becoming the first player from India to win on the US PGA Tour. Atwal is coached by Australian Dale Lynch and only got into the tournament by winning one of four spots up for grabs at a qualifier last Monday. He is the first Monday qualifier to win on tour since 1986. Marc Leishman (64) and Aron Price (65) were best of the other Australians, equal 18th on 14-under 266.

Holden Scramble halfway through

MORE than halfway through the PGA of Australia’s 2010 Holden Scramble season, participation numbers are once again strong as teams rally to try to qualify for one of the 28 Regional and Women’s State Finals across Australia in October. With nearly 150 local events completed and at least another 250 to go, golf clubs are seeing an increase in interest well into the 19th season. Leading the way in field sizes is Tuggerah Lakes with an impressive 240 players taking to the course and qualifying four teams through to the Regional Finals. The Holden Scramble Regional Finals series will start on October 3 at The Colonial Golf Course on Queensland’s Gold Coast and will conclude at Kooindah Waters Golf Club in NSW on November 3. Among the quality courses set to host a Regional is Macquarie Links (NSW), Yering Meadows and Kingswood (VIC) and The Vines Resort in WA to name a few. With only months left to run your local Holden Scramble and qualify a team for the Regional Finals, PGA members are encouraged to finalise their event details by contacting the PGA Events Division on 03 8320 1999. Allocations for the Regional Finals are currently being finalised and all participating clubs will be notified of their Regional Final venue in the coming weeks. For a full list of Holden Scramble Regional and Women’s State Finals visit www.holdenscramble.com

Change in women's rankings

WITH her win in the US LPGA Tour’s Safeway Classic Japan’s Ai Miyazato reclaimed the top spot in the world rankings, overtaking American  Cristie Kerr, who finished two strokes back. Kerr chased Miyazato throughout the final round until hitting into the water on the par-4 18th. Miyazato, ranked No. 1 for a week in June and again for a week in July, is among five players who have been jockeying for the top ranking, including Kerr, Jiyai Shin, Suzann Pettersen and Yani Tseng.

Williams will remain Tiger’s caddy

NEW ZEALANDER Steve Williams says his job as Tiger Woods' caddie is not under threat. Williams told New Zealand radio last week that there is no possibility his 11-year association with Woods is about to end, despite media speculation and Woods' struggle for form. “From my point of view, I don't see any chance of that happening,” he said. 

Golf on Fox
FOX TV subscribers’ golf coverage this week will include the US PGA Tour’s Fedex Cup playoff The Barclays, the European Tour’s Johnnie Walker Classic, the US LPGA’s Canadian Open, the US Champion Tour’s Boeing Classic and the US Amateur Championship. The hour-long Golf Show, hosted by PGA Member Brett Ogle will be shown on Fox tonight from 8.30 and repeated at 10.30 before being replayed throughout the week.

What's on this week?

PGA of AUSTRALIA PRO-AMS
August 25: Qld: Village Motors Pine Rivers Golf Club pro-am at Pine Rivers Golf Club $10,000
August 25: NSW/ACT: Longyard Golf pro-am at Longyard Golf Club (Tamworth) $10,000
August 27: Qld: Middleridge pro-am at Toowoomba Golf Club $20,000
August 30: NSW/ACT: Ray White Maroubra pro-am at Randwick Golf Club $10,000

PGA of AUSTRALIA NATIONAL EZ-GO LEGENDS TOUR
August 27: Qld: Fraser Coast Legends Classic at Hervey Bay Golf Club $25,000

US PGA TOUR: Fedex Cup playoff The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club New Jersey $8.25 million Last year’s winner: Heath Slocum

EUROPEAN PGA TOUR: Johnnie Walker Classic at Gleneagles, Scotland $3.5 million Last year’s winner: Peter Hedblom

US NATIONWIDE TOUR: Knoxville News Sentinel Open at Fox Den Country Club Tennessee $550,000 Last year’s winner: Kevin Johnson

US CHAMPIONS TOUR: Boeing Classic at TPC Snoqualmie Washington $2.1 million Last year’s winner: Loren Roberts

ONEASIA TOUR: Thailand Open at Burapha Golf Club, Pattaya $1.1 million

JAPAN PGA TOUR: Vana H Cup at Keya Golf Club, Fukuoka, $1.1 million Last year’s winner: Yuta Ikeda

US LPGA TOUR: Canadian Women’s Open at St Charles Country Club Winnipeg, Canada $2.5 million Last year’s winner: Suzan Petterson

EUROPEAN LADIES TOUR: Finnair Masters at Helsinki Golf Club $500,000

CANADIAN PGA TOUR: Canadian Tour Championship St Catharones Golf Club, Ontario $500,000 Last year’s winner: James Love

The latest World Rankings - As at Tuesday, 24 August 2010

Top 20 Australians
1 Robert Allenby (ranked 17 in the world)
2 Geoff Ogilvy (36)
3 Adam Scott (44)
4 Jason Day (55)
5 Michael Sim (61)
6 Marc Leishman (94)
7 Stuart Appleby (95)
8 John Senden (112)
9 Richard Green (117)
10 Marcus Fraser (118)
11 Brendan Jones (134)
12 Greg Chalmers (146)
13 Andrew Dodt (150)
14 Nick O’Hern (156)
15 Brett Rumford (157)
16 Mathew Jones (159)
17 Steve Elkington (178)
18 Mathew Goggin (190)
19 Scott Strange (193)
20 Aaron Baddeley (202)

Top 5 World Rankings
1 Tiger Woods (averaged points 9.4)
2 Phil Mickelson (9.1)
3 Lee Westwood (8.7)
4 Steve Stricker (7.4)
5 Martin Kaymer (6.7)

Top 20 Rolex World Rankings in Australia
1 Karrie Webb (ranked 11 in world)
2 Katherine Hull (20)
3 Lindsey Wright (39)
4 Nikki Campbell (46)
5 Tamie Durdin (100)
6 Kristie Smith (118)
7 Sarah Jane Smith (123)
8 Karen Lunn (148)
9 Sarah Kemp (157)
10 Nikki Garrett (229)
11 Anna Rawson (239)
12 Wendy Doolan (245)
13 Rachel Hetherington (248)
14 Frances Bondad (261)
15 Stephanie Na (290)
16 Rebecca Flood (328)
17 Rachel Bailey (358)
18 Joanne Mills (366)
19 Dana Lacey-Johnston (390)
20 Stacey Keating (442)

Copyright Warning
Information for this news service has been gathered from industry sources and every effort is made to ensure its accuracy. The PGA of Australia accepts no responsibility for any inaccurate information reported. Other than for purposes stated under the Copyright Act and subject to the conditions of the Act, no part of any edition or special release of PGA Mail may be reproduced or stored by any means or transmitted without prior written approval of the publisher. Amounts listed are in Australian Dollars unless otherwise stated.