[Photo: Asia-Pacific Amateur]
One of Australia’s most in-form amateurs signed off on his career with a brilliant final round at the Asia-Pacific Amateur championship in Dubai, and now Declan O’Donovan’s professional days will start with his home state open.
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The Asia-Pacific Amateur pitted the top golf talent from the region against each other at the Emirates Golf Club and was jointly run by Augusta National and the R&A. Thailand’s Fifa Laopakdee won in a playoff over Japan’s Taisei Nagasaki to receive an invitation to the 2026 Masters and a spot in the field at the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.
Second at the Eisenhower Trophy two weeks ago in Singapore and winner of the Canadian Men’s Amateur champion in July, O’Donovan bowed out ranked a career-high 229th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
O’Donovan was only going to remain an amateur if he’d won the Asia-Pacific, a requirement to take up the Masters and The Open starts. He did jump 14 places on the leaderboard on the final day courtesy of a scintillating, bogey-free round of 65 including four back-nine birdies. The Sydneysider finished T-11 at eight-under-par (73, 72, 70, 65) – seven back of the playoff.
“It was a grind for me, yeah,” O’Donovan said. “The first three days were consistently average compared to the rest of the field, but the first day was really tough. I wanted to get off to a hot start in an event like this and give myself best opportunity for a chance at the Masters. I practised and as the week went on, I was hitting better with more confidence. I was able to dig deep and today was a lovely way to finish off my amateur career.”
Within days, he will officially be a professional golfer. “It gives me a little chuckle,” O’Donovan said when reminded. He will make his pro debut at the NSW Open at The Vintage GC in the Hunter Valley from November 13-16.
“I haven’t been playing too long, so it definitely makes me laugh, but it’s a really nice feeling,” 22-year-old O’Donovan, who only started golf aged 16, said. “I think over the last six months I’ve been thinking of myself as a pro, and now when people ask me what I can do, I can say I’m a professional golfer.”
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Asked if there was a moment during the past 12 months when he felt like a tour pro, O’Donovan said: “It wasn’t one particular moment, but I think something that made me feel like a pro was how during the weeks [of tournaments, there was] one after the other. I was just sticking to the same [process] and staying resilient. That’s a key thing as a pro is that you’re going to play poorly and you’re going to play really good, but if you can just stick to your guns and stick to what works for you, you go a long way.
“One thing in particular for this [final] round [in Dubai], I said I wanted to act as as a pro … and I think I did a really good job of that.”
