The Australian Open takes centre stage this week with a few of Australia’s largest names together with Cameron Smith, Hannah Inexperienced, Minjee and Min Woo Lee in addition to defending males’s champion, LIV Golf star, Joaquin Niemann descending on Melbourne.
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The nationwide open is in its third yr of its blended gender format which entails the lads, ladies and All Skills on the identical course, on the similar time however in separate teams and from totally different tees.
Kingston Heath and Victoria golf golf equipment will play host as they did in 2022 when the brand new format made its debut, however this time round Kingston Heath will host the weekend motion.
The sphere performs a spherical at every course on Thursday and Friday earlier than the reduce is made and the championships are selected Saturday and Sunday on the venue which can host the 2028 Presidents Cup.
The format has obtained blended evaluations because it was launched with 1991 British Open champion and famend broadcaster Ian Baker-Finch saying that his nationwide open is “diminished” by not having standalone males’s and girls’s tournaments.
“I’d reasonably see the Males’s Open and the Girls’s Open,” Baker-Finch mentioned on the Discuss Birdie To Me podcast.
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“I believe each occasions are diminished slightly bit by holding them collectively, that’s simply my private opinion as a result of I’d like to see all the finest gamers on this planet on the ladies’s circuit come and play after they got here of their schedule round February, March and maintain the Australian Girls’s Open with the most effective discipline on this planet.
“It’s onerous to get all the finest ladies dwelling when this week is the tip of the LPGA Tour in America. They need to hightail it again after they’ve performed, they get right here Tuesday night time, they’ve obtained to play two programs to prepare for subsequent week, and God bless them for coming again as a result of it’s onerous work.”
There have been teething issues lately with the blended format.
The second reduce was deserted after the primary version following widespread criticism of Cameron Smith – who slammed the course situation on Wednesday – being knocked out of the event after Saturday’s third spherical and Sunday patrons and viewers missed out on watching that yr’s British Open champion.
The 2-tee begin on the weekend additionally offered the weird situation of Adam Scott leaping to the highest of the leaderboard within the remaining spherical when he was enjoying the entrance 9 as his second 9.
“The format isn’t perfect for the lads or the ladies,” Scott, who’s absent from this yr’s event following a busy workload in america and Europe, mentioned.
“And the two-cut factor didn’t work. You possibly can have been thirty second on Sunday and never even enjoying in your nationwide Open. I don’t care in case you are Cam Smith – who truly missed it a few years in the past – or a 16-year-old hotshot in his first Aussie Open.
“You don’t wish to be sitting out on Sunday. I’d have been gutted if that was me. Total although, there’s a place for various codecs, however your nationwide Open just isn’t the place for that.”
Whereas a number of within the ladies’s discipline yearn for the times when WPGA Tour of Australasia co-sanctioned the standalone Girls’s Australian Open with the LPGA – because it was from 2012 to 2020, earlier than that it was co-sanctioned with the Girls European Tour.
However regardless of some grumbles from the likes of Baker-Finch and Scott, many of the present crop of gamers are having fun with the brand new format.
Six-time LPGA Tour winner and main champion Danielle Kang is among the worldwide raiders this week who got here all the way down to Australia enticed by the chance to share the golf course with the lads.
“I’m extremely excited for the double format as a result of it’s all I’ve needed to play for years,” the 32-year-old mentioned.
“I grew up enjoying with the boys so much as a result of lots of guys play golf after they develop up after they’re younger and lots of women aren’t into it but. But it surely’s enjoyable.
“I imply individuals at all times debate about whether or not we might play from the identical tees, nevertheless it’s only a totally different sport. They may create spins and heights and sounds that I might by no means create, however there’s totally different finesse to the golf sport and golf is performed another way.
“When (one of many male professionals) hits the ball, I do know the sound and also you simply sort of look. It’s the equal to a scorching lady strolling by you possibly can’t cease your self, proper?
“So, the photographs that they’re capable of hit are photographs that I can’t create and that comes with pace and energy.
“Similar factor with how they may see the best way how correct our golf ball may be, however totally different aspirations in numerous components of the sport.
“I at all times name it like chess. You’ll be able to develop into chess board, however the boy’s going to be performed. It’s totally different and I’m actually excited to only sort of compete with them and play in the identical event.”
The blended format is akin to the Australian Open tennis the place the lads’s and girls’s competitions run on the similar time on the identical courts.
Final weekend Elvis Smylie introduced himself to the Australian sporting public by profitable the Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane, however the Smylie identify has already been a distinguished one.
His mom Liz was a prime 20 tennis participant on this planet and received three grand slam blended doubles titles throughout her profession, so Smylie is effectively versed on women and men sharing the identical stage.
“Very not often you will have the privilege to have the ability to play alongside the ladies in the identical discipline, similar golf course,” the 23-year-old mentioned.
“You’ve obtained the likes of Min Woo, Minjee Lee competing towards one another on the identical course. Hannah Inexperienced. Very not often do you get that chance for the most effective Australian males’s golfers and the most effective Australian ladies’s golfers to come back right here on the Sandbelt and compete.
“I believe it’s nice for Australian golf, it’s nice for the general public to have the ability to watch that and I’m actually trying ahead to competing towards all these guys this week.”
The opposite facet of the format is the inclusion of the All Skills golfers which can happen for the third consecutive yr.
Twelve of the world’s finest, together with eight of the highest ten within the World Rankings for Golfers with Incapacity, will compete at Kingston Heath from Thursday to Saturday over three rounds.
The DP World Tour has included All Skills golfers at marquee occasions this yr together with the Tour Championship in Dubai earlier this month in addition to the BMW PGA Championship on the famed Wentworth in England.
Australia’s latest PGA Tour participant Karl Vilips was stuffed with reward for having the likes of Steven ‘Spud’ Alderson – who went viral with a transferring winner’s speech in Spain in October – on the identical course on the similar time.
“This newly launched format, I believe, is cool with the All Skills as effectively simply to see how they persevered by means of what they’ve been by means of,” Vilips mentioned.
“Then to tee it up alongside such nice females is superior.
“To see them enjoying the identical programs that we do, I believe it’s going to be cool to look at.”
HOW TO WATCH
Watch all of the Australian Open motion on Kayo and Foxtel, with each large second broadcast on Fox Sports activities channel 503 – which has turn into a devoted Australian Open channel for the week.
Protection begins at 12pm AEDT every day.
MARQUEE RD 1 TEE TIMES
7:00am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Elvis Smylie, Cameron Smith, Victor Perez
7:11am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Steph Kyriacou, Minjee Lee, Jiyai Shin
7:22am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Yannik Paul
7.44am AEDT, Tee 10, Victoria – Todd Clements, Cameron Davis, Harry Higgs
12:05pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Min Woo Lee, Joaquin Niemann, Jordan Smith
12:16pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Grace Kim, Ashleigh Buhai, Hannah Inexperienced
12:27pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Darius van Diel, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, David Micheluzzi
12:38pm AEDT, Tee 1, Kingston Heath – Jenny Shin, Kelsey Bennett, Danielle Kang
For the total record of tee occasions, click on right here!
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THE ODDS – WINNERS (as of 10am Wednesday through TAB)
Males’s
Joaquin Niemnann – $6.50
Cameron Smith – $6.50
Min Woo Lee – $8
Marc Leishman – $11
Cam Davis – $12
Lucas Herbert – $13
Jordan Smith – $19
David Micheluzzi – $19
Victor Perez – $21
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen – $23
Girls’s
Minjee Lee – $4
Hannah Inexperienced – $4
Jiyai Shin – $7
Grace Kim – $8
Ashleigh Buhai – $10
Steph Kyriacou – $11
Jenny Shin – $12
Cassie Porter – $21
Danielle Kang – $21
Momoka Kobori – $26
PAST WINNERS
Males’s
2023 – Jaoquin Niemann (-14, playoff)
2022 – Adrian Meronk (-14)
2021 – Not performed
2020 – Not performed
2019 – Matt Jones (-15)
2018 – Abraham Ancer (-16)
2017 – Cam Davis (-11)
2016 – Jordan Spieth (-12, playoff)
2015 – Matt Jones (-8)
2014 – Jordan Spieth (-13)
2013 – Rory McIlroy (-18)
2012 – Peter Senior (-4)
2011 – Greg Chalmers (-13)
2010 – Geoff Ogilvy (-19)
Girls’s
2023 – Ashleigh Buhai (-9)
2022 – Ashleigh Buhai (-12)
2021 – Not performed
2020 – Inbee Park (-14)
2019 – Nelly Korda (-17)
2018 – Ko Jin-young (-14)
2017 – Jang Ha-na (-10)
2016 – Haru Nomura (-16)
2015 – Lydia Ko (-9)
2014 – Karrie Webb (-12)
2013 – Jiyai Shin (-18)
2012 – Jessica Korda (-3)
2011 – Yani Tseng (-16)
2010 – Yani Tseng (-9)