[Photo: Asia-Pacific Amateur]
Graham Hourn leaves home before the sun rises to work 12 hours a day in a coal mine near Kingaroy, Queensland, about three hours inland of Noosa. He gets home in the dark, too. He does that for five days on, five days off.
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So the accomplished senior amateur golfer was ecstatic when an email lobbed in his inbox from Golf Australia recently, informing him he’d made the Australian team for the Asia-Pacific Amateur in Dubai. “Well, I usually don’t touch a club for five days [a week] but then I have five days off after that, and I play two or three times and practise a little bit,” Hourn said Wednesday at the Emirates Golf Club.
At 57, he’s not the oldest golfer in the field – that honour belongs to a 67-year-old golfer from Lebanon – but Hourn is getting plenty of attention. He was interviewed by CBS presenter Amanda Balionis, part of the network’s main PGA Tour broadcast crew, on Wednesday at the Emirates GC. Most Asia-Pacific competitors are young amateur stars chasing the winner’s prize of an invitation to the 2026 Masters and 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. Hourn is soaking it all up.
“Oh, it’s been a great experience; once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something like this, so I’ll try and take advantage of it,” Hourn said. “I’m enjoying it and having a good time and I’ll try play some good golf. Dubai is a great place. It’s my first time here.”
Graham Hourn of Australia walks down the fairway on the No. 5 hole during a practice round ahead of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship being played at the Emirates Golf Club Majlis Course in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Wednesday 22 October 2025. Photograph by AAC.
Hourn can play. He was a tour pro in the 1990s and was even the rookie of the year on the Queensland pro-am circuit in 1992. “I played with a lot of good players who were around then like [multiple PGA Tour winners] Rod Pampling and John Senden,” Hourn said. But when he became a father, he relinquished his professional status and got a job in the coal mines, where he’s worked for more than 20 years.
In his spare time, Hourn has won 16 consecutive club championships at Kingaroy Golf Club, while on the tournament circuit he recently won the Queensland Senior Men’s Amateur Championship and finished third in the Asia-Pacific Senior Amateur in the Philippines.
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He is one of seven Australians in the field for the Asia-Pacific Amateur, a tournament jointly created in 2009 by Augusta National and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) as an initiative to grow golf around the world.
Hourn has played several practice rounds with his Aussie teammates at the Emirates GC, all of whom are aged between 17 and 22 including top-ranked Harry Takis, a Queenslander who plays college golf at San Diego State University. “They’re all really good young fellas,” Hourn said. “They hit it a long way.”
Hourn can still move the ball a decent distance, but he said accuracy was key with the long Bermuda rough punishing stray tee shots at the Emirates GC, which hosts the DP World Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic each January. “Hopefully I can hit the fairway a bit more,” Hourn said. “Most holes are pretty get-able, except the eighth and ninth. If I hit it on the fairways, you can shoot a decent score around here.”
AUSSIES AT THE ASIA-PACIFIC AMATEUR
Harry Takis
Age: 20
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 90
Home club: Royal Queensland Golf Club
Previous AAC results: T41 (2023)
Best 2025 result: Won Singapore Open Amateur Championship
Kayun Mudadana
Age: 19
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 221
Home club: New South Wales Golf Club, NSW
Previous AAC results: First appearance
Best 2025 result: Won South Australia Amateur Classic
Declan O’Donovan
Age: 22
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 229
Home club: Avondale Golf Club, NSW
Previous AAC results: First appearance
Best 2025 result: Won Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship
Billy Dowling
Age: 20
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 241
Home club: The Brisbane Golf Club, Qld
Previous AAC results: 10th (2023), T37 (2024)
Best 2025 result: 2nd, Scottish Men’s Open Championship
Chase Oberle
Age: 17
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 467
Home club: The Brisbane Golf Club, Qld
Previous AAC results: First appearance
Best 2025 result: Won Queensland Junior Amateur
Graham Hourn
Age: 57
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 542
Home club: Kingaroy Golf Club, Qld
Previous AAC results: First appearance
Best 2025 result: Won Queensland Senior Men’s Amateur Championship
Jye Halls
Age: 20
World Amateur Golf Ranking: 562
Home club: New South Wales Golf Club, NSW
Previous AAC results: First appearance
Best 2025 result: Won Australian Men’s Amateur Championship
