Weekly Wrap - Week 11
ANOTHER OZZIE WIN - Hannah Green wins the Women's Australian Open. Smyth doesn't win but wraps up the OOM. Will Florimo has his first beer in two years. Cam Young wins the Players after the Europeans all fall apart.
WEEK 11 – WEEKLY WRAP
LET & WPGA
Tournament: Australian Women’s Open
Dates: 12-15 March
Course: Kooyonga GC Adelaide
Purse: AUD $1.7M
Ozzies in the field: Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Grace Kim, Steph Kyriacou, Cassie Porter, Kelsey Bennett, Kirsten Rudgeley, Madison Hinson-Tolchard, Justice Bosio, Steph Bunque and lots more
Hannah Green increases her Ozzie legend status by winning the Australian Women’s Open at Kooyonga. Green was the model of steady and consistent golf across the four days eventually winning by one from Frenchwomen Agathe Laisne who bogeyed her final hole to drop out of the joint lead. Green then made a rock solid par to claim the title.
Ozzie Cassie Porter shot the lights out in the final round with aa ten under 62 to finish tied second with Laisne. Porter made it into the weekend on the cut line and then produced final rounds of 68 and 62 for a 14 under weekend.
Kirsten Rudgeley had moments where she looked like she would challenge but fell away in the final round with a two over round of 74.
Steph Bunque continued her good form finishing T14 and gathering more important OOM points. She now sits 40th in that ranking and looks like she has entered the African events and will be waiting to see the final national entries which will determine if she gets starts. The 30k pay cheque may have been an influence in the fact Bunque is now also entered the early events in Europe. The re-shuffle probably happens around the time of the Dutch Women’s Open in mid June so if her form continues she will get plenty of starts (and prizemoney) in the back end of the season. Starts without getting paid are meaningless at this end of the women;s game.
Behind Green and Porter, Karis Davidson was the next best Ozzie finisher at T4 with solid weekend rounds of 78 and 70. Last week’s winner Kelsey Bennett had a disappointing weekend with rounds of 75 and 73 to finish T21. She moves to no 2 on the OOM with Laisne taking over the top spot.
Hannah Green 1st – AUD $255,000
Cassie Porter T2 - $127,500
PGA Tour of Australasia
Tournament: The Heritage
Dates: 12-15 March
Course: The Heritage Golf and Country Club
Purse: AUD $250k
Ozzies in the field:
Will Florimo enjoyed his first alcoholic drink in almost 2 years after promising he would stay off the booze until he registered a win. Florimo followed the Hannah Green winning strategy from Singapore two weeks ago of building up enough lead so you can bogey the final two holes and still win. Florimo won by two shots from Haydn Barron with five players a further shot back at T3.
Travis Smyth did enough to ensure he is uncatchable in the OOM with one tournament left to play. Smyth sits 196.37 points ahead of Cameron John and with a maximum 190points available to the winner of the final event of the year, The National, Smyth is confirmed as the 2026 OOM winner and secures paying status on the DP World Tour. Smyth stated that he wasn’t setting out on winning the OOM and only played the minimum four tournaments with two of those on invites.
John must be feeling slightly unlucky as he has had a stellar season with three wins. He and the other top contenders are now playing for the two HotelPlanner cards for second and third place getters on the OOM.
Will Florimo 1st – AUD $45,000 (assuming 18% of prize pool as Golf Australia does not publish prize money distribution)
PGA Tour
Tournament: The Players Championship
Dates: 12 – 15 March
Course: TPC Sawgrass, Stadium Course
Purse: USD $25M
Ozzies in the field: Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Cam Davis, Karl Vilips, Ryan Fox (NZ)
USA, USA is boring but it’s the only thing the American crowds seem to know when on of their own win. Cam Young won this week by making less mistakes than others on the back nine on Sunday. Ludwig Aberg seemed to have one hand on the trophy until bogey, double bogey saw him come undone and the Matt Fitzpatrick managed to bogey the last hole to hand Young a one shot victory and the USD $4.5M winners cheque.
Cameron Young 1st – USD $4.5M
Min Woo Lee T32 - $
Adam Scott T56 - $
Jason Day T59 - $
Cam Davis MC
Karl Vilips MC
Epson Tour
Tournament: IOA Golf Classic
Dates: 13-15 March
Course: Alaqua Country Club, Longwood Florida
Purse: USD $200k
Ozzies in the field: Jennifer Elliot, Caitlin Peirce, Jess Whitting, Hira Naveed, Fiona Xu (NZ)
Grit and resilience is when you are a major winner, lose your LPGA status but tee it up on the secondary Epson Tour and get an early season win to put yourself in great position to get back on the main Tour. Jeongeun Lee6 has done all that and the Korean who won the 20198 US Women’s Open carded a final round six under 65 to win by one shot from compatriot Jiwon Jeon. The win and the 500 Race for the Card points puts Lee6 about half way to regaining her card for 2027.
Ozzie Jennifer Elliot opened with six under 65 to lead after round one and eventually finished T23.
Jeongeun Lee6 1st – USD $30,000
Jennifer Elliot T23 - $ 2,174
Fiona Xu (NZ) T58 - $780
Caitlin Peirce MC
Hira Naveed MC
Jess Whitting MC
Sunshine Tour
Tournament: The Courier Guy Playoffs
Dates: 12-15 March
Course: Serengeti Estates
Purse: Rand 500,000
Ozzies in the field: Austin Batista
If you start the final round three shots back but finish the final round birdie, eagle, birdie there is a high chance you will be near the top of the leaderboard. Daniel Van Tonder did exactly that to win by two shots.
The Sunshine Tour has one event left to determine the OOM. The final tournament has increased points on offer and the winner of the OOM earns earns a place in the Nedbank Golf Challenge in honour of Gary Player and two Majors, namely The PGA Championship and The Open.
The leading player in the top 10 of the final Courier Guy Order of Merit who doesn’t already have status on the DP World Tour will earn a card for next season.
The next two leading players will receive cards on the HotelPlanner Tour for next season. And the top three Sunshine Tour professionals from the final Courier Guy Order of Merit will win a Hyundai for a year.
Daniel Van Tonder 1st
Austin Batista 8th
LIV Golf
Tournament: LIV Golf Singapore
Dates: 12-15 March
Course: Sentosa GC
Purse: 30M
Ozzies in the field: Ripper GC – Cam Smith, Marc Leishmann, Lucas Herbert, Elvis Smylie. Wayde Ormsby
Bryson DeChambeau won but only after Richard Lee missed a two foot putt on the first playoff hole. The 4Aces won the team event for a second event in a row.
Bryson DeChambeau USD $4.0m
Amateur Tournaments
NSW Senior Amateur
Wollongong GC and Shellcove GC
Christopher Campbell was victorious in the men’s side and Nadene Gole claimed her second women’s title