You beauty. Here it is. The 108th Australian Open. For players, administrators, media, sports fans, the greater job lot of us you could lump in a clump and call “the game”, this is the one. The one great one. The greatest annual tournament in the land. The Aussie.
Golf’s greatest players have won the Australian Open. Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, Bobby Locke, Rory McIlroy. Jack Nicklaus won it six times. Gary Player won it seven times.
The great Australians have won the Australian Open. David Graham, Adam Scott, Frank Phillips. The godfathers of Australian golf, Peter Thomson and Norman Von Nida, won three times each. Ossie Pickworth won four times and would shout the bar with his winnings. Ivo Whitton won five times – as an amateur. Mighty Greg Norman won the Australian Open five times and carried upon his back the game of golf in this country.
And they are heroes all.
And, this year, for the first time since Wayne Riley rolled in a 30-foot putt on 18 to win in 1991 – quite unfathomably when you sit back and roll it about in your mouth as if supping a complex Malbec – our national Open is back at the greatest golf course in the land, the Royal Melbourne composite.
Six holes from the East course, 12 holes from the West. The greatest course is hosting the greatest tournament in the land, soon to be trod by the bejewelled feet of some of the great players of our time.
PLUS…
Aussie golf stars praise Open’s return to traditions
Cameron Smith and Adam Scott believe the Australian Open has regained its status as a prestigious tournament after returning to its traditional format at Royal Melbourne this week.
Whatever happens this year – and here’s hoping for a Sunday three-ball of McIlroy, Scott and let’s throw in Cameron Smith for kicks and giggles, because that would rate like Australian golf’s version of Superbowl Sunday – the Aussie is back, baby.
Back from what? From a brave, Covid-driven experiment, when administrators saw opportunity in crisis and ISPS Handa tipped in the shekels for men, women and golfers of extraordinary abilities to compete on the same course at the same time.
ISPS, it says so on the Google, stands for “International Sports Promotion Society” and is a “non-profit organisation founded in 2006 by Dr. Haruhisa Handa to promote the welfare of people through sports”.
Noble and worthy sentiments, for sure, even “woke” if you’re that way inclined. Yet it never really worked as a whole for the Australian Open(s). It took gloss from both the men’s and women’s national crowns, even if it exposed the latter more than a standalone event would.
On the ground, you could see great golf by men and women, and that was a plus. Minjee Lee and Hannah Green, followed by Adam Scott and Cameron Smith? Win-win. On the television, though, where most people watched, it was like there were two tournaments going on. Funny that.
It didn’t help last year when an anonymous American just north of mute stole away with the Stonehaven Cup, and you may read our thoughts on that chap’s decision here.
PLUS…
Cleary: Reigning champion brushes Australia, nation passes beer nuts
Reigning champion Ryggs Johnston won’t be defending the 2025 Australian Open, opting instead to play in South Africa. Yet this is not the worst thing, according to Matt Cleary, who says the national title loses nothing in terms of entertainment, interest, prestige, pulling power, news value, fun, charisma, and most if not all other markers.
Meanwhile, the Australian Open – effectively Australian golf – was fighting for its place, for relevance, amid the ructions of ego, hubris, greed, global ambition, upstart rebel leagues, American exceptionalism, dodgy petrol money and the private equity of the richest people who have ever lived. It has been emotional. No money here, Chopper. And so on.
In the December issue of this journal last year, our man John Huggan filed a fine and influential piece titled “Make the Australian Open Great Again” which quoted dozens of Australian players bagging the dual gender format, bagging Golf Australia, bagging whatever they felt like scraping off their liver. Pointedly, few bar gnarly old Scott Hend, put their name to the “advice”.
Golf Australia heard it, though. They couldn’t help it. Any vox pop on any given range would have told them the same thing. When Scott and Jason Day didn’t show up last year, and Scott, Cameron Smith and Ian Baker-Finch publicly criticised the format, something had to give. And James Sutherland and the suits at Sandy Links took the hint, took their medicine, and changed up.
PLUS…
Making the Australian Open great again
In part one of John Huggan’s feature on the Australian Open, we analyse a tournament that had long been considered among the most prestigious non-major events in world golf, celebrated over the decades by legends the likes of Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. However, as the tournament grapples with declining interest from elite players, voices from within the elite golf community are calling for a resurgence, emphasising the need to restore the tournament to its former glory and significance on both the national and international stages.
Will it be great again? Friend, it has never not been great. Some years are just greater. This year will be one of them.
Fast, fun, eternal, pure Royal Melbourne, with help from the Victorian tax-payer and the deal-making suits at Sandy Links, has enticed the great champion, McIlroy, to our land. The Masters champion. The grand slam man. McIlroy.
And they will hang from the trees for a look, as you can read in our man Huggan’s piece which dominates our December issue, on shelves now, you could get someone a subscription for Christmas.
In the meantime, say it as one, golf fans: Long live the Aussie, baby.
© Golf Australia. All rights reserved.
