The Pro-Am at the Australian PGA Championship sported a swathe of celebrities, with Brisbane Broncos trio Adam Reynolds, Kotoni Staggs and Jesse Arthars amassing 100 stableford points and taking out the morning modified ambrose competition with Broncos super-fan, Cameron Smith.
Yet the most world-famous celebrity chopping it around Royal Queensland on Wednesday was actor Michael Peña, who, to paraphrase the great Troy McLure from The Simpsons, you might recall from such films as, well, pretty much all of them in the last few years.
Peña’s showreel includes such films as American Hustle and End of Watch. He’s been in Landman, A Working Man and Ant Man II: Ant Man and The Wasp. He was astronaut Rick Martinez when Matt Damon was The Martian and FBI Agent Treviño when Clint Eastwood was The Mule.
And he is a golfer to the muddy soles of his much-loved Footjoys. Indeed, type “Michael Peña” into Getty Images’ website and the majority of the shots are of him playing golf.
Peña is a frequent visitor to Australia and has a very tidy game. So often is he out here he’s become a member of Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast, playing in Saturday stableford competitions with such notables as Anthony Quayle and Elvis Smylie.
So often is he playing, indeed, that he’s brought his handicap in from 6.7 to a highly respectable 1.5.
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In Brisbane and the Gold Coast to shoot an action film called Subversion with Chris Hemsworth, Peña said that whenever he is in an airport in Australia, he purchases Golf Australia magazine.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from, when you see golf magazines at an airport, you just buy them. Yours is one I always pick up,” Peña revealed, adding that golf is like a universal language.
“I was doing some interviews this morning, and you sort of have to be … not ‘guarded’, but on your game; you have to think about what you’re saying,” he said. “But talking to you about golf, man, it doesn’t matter where in the world you are, you talk golf, we’re buddies.”
Michael Pena tees off during day two of the 2025 New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort, Queenstown. PHOTO: Getty Images
Growing up in Chicago, Pena was introduced to golf at the age of 25 by “American icons” Jack Lemmon and James Garner.
“I got a semi-lesson from Jack Lemmon before I even knew he wasn’t a great golfer!” Peña said.
“But I feel lucky to have found the game. As an actor, you can get lonely between jobs. Golf fills that space.
“And instead of eating alone in a restaurant or something, I’m out playing golf with people.”
In the U.S, Peña is a member of Lakeside GC in Los Angeles and Pelican GC in Florida, the host of The ANNIKA. Of golf in LA he confirmed what Cameron Daddo revealed in our September Issue, that Los Angeles Country Club doesn’t allow actors to be members, once famously turning away Sean Connery.
“It’s actually members of the entertainment industry who aren’t allowed to be members,” Peña said.
“I actually can’t believe it’s still going on. but it is what it is, I suppose.
“It’s something that I love about playing golf out in Australia – everyone’s so welcoming.”
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While playing the conflicted Detective Alcaras in All Her Fault – a gripping eight-part thriller also starring Adelaide’s Sarah Snook and part-shot in Melbourne – Peña played Royal Melbourne, Peninsula-Kingswood, Cathedral Lodge, 13th Beach, Barwon Heads and St Andrews Beach.
He says Tasmania’s Barnbougle Dunes, Lost Farm and Cape Wickham are all on his to-do list, as is Seven Mile Beach in Hobart.
@golfaustraliamagazine Cracking actor – and bloody good golfer, he’s off 1.5 at @Sanctuary Cove Golf ♬ Free Bird – MOONLGHT
Michael Peña and Lydia Ko walk off the sixth green during the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions 2025 at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida. PHOTO: Getty Images
“When I was in Melbourne, I played the [private, Sandbelt] courses, but I also played some amazing public ones. In America, you don’t really have that,” Peña said.”
“Again, it’s something I love about coming out here. I’ve been here maybe 12 months over the last five, six years. And Australian golfers are super friendly.
“Like, the whole culture is, if they’re member at a place, or know a friend who’s playing somewhere, it’s like, ‘Dude, come play.’
“In America, they almost don’t want to tell you where they belong.
“The hospitality here, it’s just next level.”
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