The 2026-2027 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season begins this week, the 19-event schedule starting with a tournament in an unlikely place with an unlikely appeal.
If Royal Port Moresby Golf Club feels like an odd location to commence proceedings – to say nothing of the month-long gap before the next tournament on the schedule – then you’re probably not alone. Ask the players, though, and there’s a sense of embracing the exotic at the PNG Open that ties in with a general eagerness to simply get going again.
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Daniel Gale [pictured below], the 2018 PNG Open champion, is back in Papua New Guinea this week for the first time in seven years. The globe-trotting tour pro with the unconventional action but the ability to post seriously low scores is using this week as a local launchpad after a moderately successful stint playing on Europe’s secondary HotelPlanner Tour.
Security concerns have long made the PNG Open week a hotel-and-golf-course-only exercise, but Gale says it isn’t a completely closed-off week.
“In 2019, I got showed around a little bit by one of my pro-am partners from 2018 and saw a bit of the city,” he says. “But for the most part, it’s just stick to the travel times with the bus and hotel-to-golf-course and you’ll get in the least amount of trouble possible. Because, obviously, if you start running around – especially at night – then you’re putting yourself at risk.
“It’s pretty much the ‘Smartraveler’ advice of what to do, and then [the tour] sends us the guidelines of just golf-course-to-hotel and that’s pretty much it for the week, which I think you’ve just got to accept. That’s just how it is.
“It’s still a great opportunity for us. We get to play golf in a different country and obviously get to experience a different culture as well. It is a pretty cool experience with the local caddies and staff. The whole place just gets behind it. They love having us there. The locals, once a year, all get behind the event and it’s just a fun week.”
“There’s always a real sense of anticipation when we arrive in Papua New Guinea because it signals the beginning of another Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season,” adds Nick Dastey, the PGA Tour of Australasia’s general manager of tournaments and global tour relationships. “The PNG Open has become one of the most popular events on our schedule.”
Photo: Pakawich Damrongkiattisak/Getty Images
Gale has an additional soft spot for the tournament because winning in 2018 launched his domestic career.
“Back then, I had no status [on tour], so it was pretty much what secured me status and I’ve kept my card ever since. I definitely made the most of the opportunity.”
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Gale also relished the chance to make the most of the one-week opportunity to be in an unfamiliar place and experience a different way of life.
“It’s just a different culture,” he recalls. “Obviously, it’s sort of third world, and the caddies don’t make much money. They’re caddieing to make a living. So [my first year] I wasn’t prepared in terms of extra clothes or anything like that.
“The year after, I had some leftover clothes and went there and I had the same caddie. I gave him probably about 25 to 30 old shirts and stuff that I wasn’t going to wear again. Come Thursday, then every day, he wore one of my shirts. Then there were volunteers on certain holes or a spotter and then he’s like, ‘Oh, look, that’s my friend.’ He had one of my shirts on as well, which was pretty cool. They love it. It’s a cool place.
“When I got shown around in 2019 by one of my pro-am partners from the year before, it was beautiful scenery, such a nice coastline. We went to this nice restaurant down in town – it was proper fine dining. The food, for the most part, is pretty Westernised and nice.”
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Gale won the PNG Open when it was held in late April, at the tail end of the wet season in the tropics. Experiencing it in dry season in late August will require adjustments.
“The course will be in entirely different condition, but it should be a good time of year to play,” he says. “The temperature looks good this week – probably pretty mild for PNG, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Gale is facing a sterner-than-usual climatic adjustment. His most recent start on the HotelPlanner Tour came in Scotland at the start of the month. The Scotland–PNG double is not a common pairing in tournament golf. Yet Gale broke 70 all four rounds in sharing eighth place, his best finish anywhere since finishing second at The National Tournament in March.
“It’s definitely nice seeing a lot of the world. I can’t tell you how many countries I’ve been in this year,” Gale says. “Coming off the tied-eighth for the last one was a good confidence boost and hopefully I can take some of that form into this week.”
