What's on This Week - Week 17

LPGA

Tournament: The Chevron Championship

Dates: 23-27 April

Course: Memorial Park Golf Course, Houston Texas

Purse: USD $8.0M

Ozzies in the field: Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, Grace Kim, Steph Kyriacou, Cassie Porter, Robyn Choi, Karis Davidson, Gabbi Ruffels,

The first women’s major of the year. Three players have the chance to complete the career grand slam which in the women’s game is winning four of the five majors. Minjee Lee, Anna Nordquist and Gee Chun are all sitting on three from five and The Chevron would get each of them the career grand slam.

This is the first time that The Chevron will be played at Memorial Park. It is a Tom Doak design and should be a great test. Brooks Koepka was a player consultant during the 2020 redesign. The PGA regularly play the Texas Children’s Houston Open at the venue.

Hannah Green comes into the tournament in the hottest of form and now at world no. 5 will be one of the favourites. Nelly Korda has also had a hot start to the season as has Hyo Joo Kim who sit 1st and 2nd on the OOM respectively.

The best of the Ozzie chances sits with Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, although we are not sure why Lee withdrew from last week’s tournament so hopefully it wasn’t injury related. Cassie Porter had a bad week at LA last week but overall has been in good form this year. She just needs to get four rounds together and she could feature on Sunday.

EPSON TOUR

Tournament: IOA Championship

Dates: 24-26 April

Course: Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon, Beaumont California

Purse: USD $200,000

Ozzies in the field: Jennifer Elliot, Caitlin Peirce, Jess Whitting, Fiona Xu (NZ), Su Oh, Hira Naveed

Great to see a bunch of Ozzies and a Kiwi, including Hira Naveed, teeing it up on the Epson Tour this week. A hard marketing gig going up against the first women’s major of the year at The Chevron Championship but another chance for our Ozzies to gain valuable OOM points.

LET

Tournament: The South African Open

Dates: 23-26 April

Course: Royal Cape Golf Club Cape Town

Purse:€350,000

Ozzies in the field: Kelsey Bennett, Kirsten Rudgeley, Madison Hinson-Tolchard, Justice Bosio

Look out for the charging South African Cass Alexander who would be so disappointed with the way she finished last week at the Joburg Open. Leading by two with just one hole to play she bogeyed the par five 18th and let Agathe Laisne and Kirsten Rudgeley into the tournament. Alexander then bowed out at the first play-off hole so she will be red hot coming into this week to make amends and win her national title.

PGA Tour

Tournament: Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Dates: 23-26 April

Course: TPC Louisiana

Purse: USD $9.5M

Ozzies in the field: Cam Davis & Geoff Olgivy, Karl Vilips & Michael Thorbjornsen

Just a measly $9.5M on offer this week so a chance for the average PGA Tour player to earn some money and FedexCup points. Only one top ten player (Fitzpatrick), one top 20 player, (Griffen) and then a further eight top 50 players means the big hitters of the PGA Tour are having a rest this week.

In the teams format Vilips and Thorbjornsen finished T4 last year so maybe a chance for another Ozzie podium finish.

PGA Champions Tour

Tournament: Mitsubishi Electric Classic

Dates: 24-26 April

Course: TPC Sugarloaf, Duluth Georgia

Purse: USD $2.0M

Ozzies in the field: Stuart Appleby, Greg Chalmers, Richard Green, Mark Hensby, Cameron Percy, Jon Senden, Michael Wright

The old guys get to go around for a second week in a row after Stewart Cink took the biscuits last week in the Senior PGA.

DP World Tour

Tournament: Volvo China Open

Dates: 23-26 April

Course: Enhance Anting GC, Shanghai

Purse: USD $2.75M

Ozzies in the field: Jason Scrivener, David Micheluzzie, Ryan Peake, Anthony Quayle, Connor McKinney, Dan Hillier (NZ), Kazuma Kobori (NZ)

Dan Hillier back on tour following his fantastic victory in the NZ Open in early March and a heap of Ozzies as well. Peake and McKinney need to make cuts and earn points before the pressure mounts in the back half of the season.

Legends Tour

Tournament: Barbados Legends

Dates: 24 – 26 April

Course: Apes Hill

Purse:€??

Ozzies in the field: Scott Hend, Michael Campbell (NZ), Peter Fowler

Good to see Peter (chook) Fowler back on tour following some time off due to injury. It will be interesting to see how he fares.

Asian Tour

Tournament: Singapore Open

Dates: 23-26 April

Course: Sentosa Golf Club

Purse: USD $2.0M

Ozzies in the field: Jack Buchanan, Lucas Herbert, Travis Smyth, Christopher Wood, Cory Crawford, Matt Jones, Cameron John, Wayde Ormsby, Kevin Yuan, Jack Thompson, Maverick Antcliff, Jed Morgan, Nick Voke (NZ), Justin Warren, Will Florimo, Brett Rankin, Harrison Crowe

A huge contingent of Ozzies playing in this week’s Asian Tour event in Singapore. With recent Ozzie success at Sentosa with Hannah Green winning the HSBC LPGA tournament there last month it might be a good hunting ground for our Ozzie men.