EVEN at his potent best, Tiger Woods won tournaments at a peak rate of 24 percent. Which means 76 percent of the time, he left town watching someone else cradling the trophy.
Winning doesn’t happen often when 155 or so others line up against you each week, so when the silverware does work its way into your hands, it’s perfectly understandable to make the most of the opportunity to celebrate the feat.
For the “Celebrations Issue”, we canvassed a smattering of Australian touring pros of varying degrees of fame to ask what their biggest win was, how they marked the occasion, who with, and the importance to them of celebrating success in a sport that allows so little of it.
Adam Scott: ‘There’s not a lot going on in Augusta on Sunday night’
There are no prizes for guessing which victory Adam Scott regards as his biggest, although celebrating for the 2013 Masters champion was hampered by the timing and location of his Major moment.
“There’s not a lot going on in Augusta, Georgia, on Sunday night,” laughs Scott. “It’s a dry county, I think that’s what they call it. You can’t buy alcohol on a Sunday, from memory.
“But as far as the celebrating went, we didn’t get back to the house until 1am with so much to do afterwards at Augusta National. So, everyone got back pretty late and I had invited some people back, including members of the Australian media.
“All in all, I must say it was obviously a really fun evening, but as far as celebrations go I’d say fairly tame. It wrapped up about 3am and we were kind of scrambling around to find another couple of beers for everyone.”
Scott’s drink of choice is a beer. “My arm can be easily twisted to drink anything, but if it’s up to me I just drink beer. Never got big into the rum when I was younger. I drank bourbon a lot, so that was the spirit we grew up on. I tried to stay away from the old Bundy. That stuff is rocket fuel, i’nnit?” Scott says with a laugh.
“I think it is important [to celebrate]. It doesn’t mean you have to go out and get absolutely blind to signify the importance of having a win, but it is important to enjoy it because what you don’t realise is how quickly it’s old news. Monday it’s in the newspapers, Tuesday it’s in the bin and there’s another tournament going on that week and there’ll be a new champion.
“So, it really is important to enjoy those wins when they do come and in whatever way you like to celebrate – whether it’s going out and partying or treating yourself to something; something that confirms to you that you’ve won, you’ve achieved and that you can reset and go again because it’s amazing how short-lived the satisfaction of winning is. That’s why great sportspeople, great golfers who have really been successful, enjoy the process just as much as the actual result and that is part of the process.
“As you keep achieving you’ll realise you’ve got to enjoy that (celebrating) part of the process too, because it gives you more satisfaction with the result.
“If it’s not you winning two in a row, you’re old news and I don’t think you get the same sense of satisfaction you do if you really enjoy the process as much as the actual playing and winning.”
Greg Norman: ‘Celebrating was a must’
The Great White Shark has long pointed to his first victory as a professional as his most important. It came at the 1976 West Lakes Classic in Adelaide in what was also just his third pro tournament start.
“I celebrated with my friend Bryan Smith, who brought a bottle of champagne to the 18th green. And I don’t drink champagne!” Norman recalls. “Bryan and I also had a few beers after the clubhouse presentation and then a steak dinner.
“After only starting the game five years earlier, the victory gave me an incredible amount of confidence and belief that I belonged on the professional golf stage. Obviously being my first victory ever, celebrating was a must.”
Ian Baker-Finch: ‘It all tasted so good out of the Auld Claret Jug’
An electric weekend’s golf catapulted Ian Baker-Finch to the status of British Open champion in 1991 and he was far from alone in marking one of the great victories by an Australian golfer.
“The celebration took place at our rental house after all my duties at Royal Birkdale Golf Club,” Baker-Finch remembers today. “Jennie had cooked up a large pot of her famous spaghetti bolognese and anything else we could find nearby after the golf … pizza, etc. Plus, all the Aussie beer we could purchase (Vic Bitter and XXXX) and Aussie red wine, including some Grange we found. It all tasted so good out of the Auld Claret Jug.
“Many of the Aussies had stayed around, including quite a few media representatives, so there was quite a crowd. Steven Bann stayed in the house all week, Robert Allenby, Glenn Joyner and a few other players dropped in. Golf Australia’s execs were in the house next door as well.
“The win meant I had achieved my long-term goal of winning The Open and erased many troubling memories of not being able to finish. It was a sweet victory for all the Aussies; we all loved seeing other Aussies win Majors. It was an awesome period for Australian professional golfers.”
Robert Allenby: ‘My kids were drinking lemonade out of the trophy’
His second Australian Open title at Moonah Links in 2005 came in the holiday haven of the Mornington Peninsula, so fittingly it was Robert Allenby’s children who enjoyed first ‘use’ of the silverware their father had just reacquired for the first time in 11 years.
“That was a tournament that was pretty cool,” Allenby tells Australian Golf Digest. “My kids were drinking lemonade out of the trophy at the Portsea pub, so that was quite comical. They said, ‘Can we have our lemonade out of the trophy, Dad?’ And I said, ‘Sure!’”
Eventually the harder stuff for the Stonehaven Cup came later in the night.
“We had a few beers and then a few bottles of Grange. That and the Henschke Hill of Grace are my two favourites. I was with my best mate Rob Curtain from the Portsea, Sorrento area and I’d been staying at his house, so we went out and celebrated. We had a good night.
“It can be so stressful, this game, that you need to have that moment when you come back down to real life and reality. I think it’s good to celebrate because it kind of helps the moment and helps you relax a little bit as well. I’ve always celebrated pretty well whenever I’ve won and that’s always been a nice feeling. Because otherwise it becomes a bit of a letdown if you don’t get something from it.”
Craig Parry: ‘You never know which will be your last’
Craig Parry says choosing a favourite tournament victory is “like picking your favourite child. I have three children so I’ll claim three wins: 1991 Scottish Open, 2002 WGC–NEC Championship, 2007 Australian Open”.
The first was momentous in Parry’s career in Europe and made him the favourite in many pundit’s eyes at the British Open held the next week. The second represented a long-overdue breakthrough in America and made him the first Australian to snare a WGC title. The third filled the only hole in Parry’s impressive Australian résumé.
Parry says there’s a common thread to his victory celebrations: “Always drinking more than I should have after each win. Beer with family and friends is a given. It’s always extremely important to celebrate your wins as you never know which will be your last.”
Greg Chalmers: ‘When it takes you 386 attempts to achieve something you’d be an idiot not to celebrate’
With two Australian Opens and a pair of Australian PGAs to his credit, Greg Chalmers still considers his most recent victory the biggest of his career. Having toiled lucklessly on the US PGA Tour for 386 starts, finally claiming the Barracuda Championship in 2016 was a monumental achievement.
“I got very drunk with my family and friends!” Chalmers says in his typically self-effacing style. His celebration was spent with his wife and kids, his parents, some close friends and “anyone else I could find”.
“It was the 4th of July the day after I won so we all went to my golf club. Didn’t eat much, just drank Woodford Reserve bourbon. I could’ve killed for a sausage roll in the morning, though!
“Winning Barracuda turned my career around. I was struggling at the time and it meant I was back on the PGA Tour and exempt for two years, something I’d never achieved before. Enjoying it was very important to me and my family. When it takes you 386 attempts to achieve something you’d be an idiot not to
celebrate that!”
Brett Ogle: ‘I travelled home in the same clothes as I won in’
When Brett Ogle broke through in America in early 1993 at a soggy AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, he’d already committed to teeing it up the next week at the Australian Masters at Huntingdale, which until 2001 was staged in February. The travel meant a low-key celebration of his US PGA Tour breakthrough – and was ultimately a fruitless journey.
“I celebrated the victory by getting in the car, heading back to San Francisco and flying directly home to tee it up at the Australian Masters at Huntingdale,” Ogle remembers. “I had a couple of drinks on the flight; I travelled home in the same clothes as I won in. I shared the moment with my caddie, John, who flew back with me. It was not really a time to celebrate, heading straight into the next tournament. Then I pulled out of the Aussie Masters on the Wednesday with dehydration and the ’flu after the wet Sunday at Pebble.
“The win meant everything. I had come out of being co-medallist at qualifying school at the end of ’92, so the win got me in all of the big events on the US Tour. So it opened up a lot of doors. Sponsorship grew immediately as well.”
Nick O’Hern: ‘That night we let it all hang out’
The likeable left-hander from Perth notched only two wins of note in his career and both came at Hyatt Coolum. The second triumph came on the back of a holed bunker shot on the fourth playoff hole as O’Hern toppled Peter Lonard to win the 2006 Australian PGA Championship.
“I actually had a couple of celebrations for the win,” O’Hern recalls. “The first being that Sunday night in the Village Square at the Hyatt Coolum Resort; the second back in Perth a few days later at our house with all the rellies and some close friends. We watched the highlights and drank more than a few nice bottles of red.
“The Village Square night was one I’ll never forget. We had pizza from that fabulous Italian place there and started off the celebrations by pouring two bottles of Moët into the Kirkwood Cup with everyone getting a taste – some more than others! I gave the square’s wine store a pretty good working over with some early ’90s Geoff Merrill Cab Savs they had left, as well as a few Rockfords. It was a cracking night with my wife, kids, parents, caddie, a few close friends, plus the Village Square was pumping that night as it always did on the Sunday night.
“I’d had a long spell between wins and was constantly getting asked by the media why I hadn’t won and when it would happen. It was a compliment in a way because I was one of the most consistent players in the world at the time but hadn’t managed to get across the line. It was a rollercoaster victory, too, after three-putting the 72nd hole to fall back into a playoff. I holed a bunker shot to win on the fourth extra hole and it was one of those moments of pure joy… and relief! I’d never been one to celebrate too much but that night we let it all hang out.”
John Senden: ‘The biggest golfing achievement ever’
John Senden authored one of the more emotional victories in recent Australian Open history when he birdied the final two holes to claim the 2006 championship. A breakthrough winner on the US PGA Tour only months earlier, Senden was still on a high when he arrived in Sydney.
“I would like to say that winning the Australian Open in 2006 at Royal Sydney Golf Club was no doubt the greatest highlight of my career,” Senden insists. “Especially after coming runner-up to Robert Allenby in 2005. I will treasure this trophy forever and feel it is a complete honour to have my name on a trophy with names like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson and Greg Norman.
“Winning the Australian Open championship meant the world to me because it was the biggest golfing achievement ever in my life. I remember arriving at the Australian Open in 2006 with confidence after winning the John Deere Classic in July and coming off one of the best years on the US PGA Tour.
“Winning the Australian Open that year was a dream come true. I still remember the last round very clearly and feeling quite relaxed playing, staying in the moment trying to win on home soil. After I had won I couldn’t believe it and was just so excited about the accomplishment!
“We celebrated after the tournament back at the Sheraton Hotel in the restaurant drinking Crown Lager beer and Moët Champagne with friends and had a great night. We ended up celebrating with family back in Brisbane a week later, too.
“At the tournament, I had my coach Ian Triggs, caddie Shaun McBride, manager Tony Bouffler and friend Arthur Laundy and his family. I also had a couple of my old mates from school, Paul Hinton (the then-general manager of Royal Sydney) and Jeff Parker who lives in Sydney. Plenty of support!
“These types of wins don’t come around often so you might as well have a party and enjoy the moment!”
Damien Jordan: ‘The Jack Harris Cup was filled to the brim’
Damien Jordan, the military-decorated, eight-time winner on the Australasian pro-am circuit in 2017, entered a new stratosphere when he won the Victorian PGA Championship early last year.
“We celebrated at Postino’s in Balwyn, Melbourne,” Jordan recalls. “We drank Peroni out of the Jack Harris Cup and celebrated with a few friends, but there were a few celebrations when I got home as well.
“The Jack Harris Cup was filled to the brim. It takes 15 stubbies and just about all members at Coolangatta Tweed Heads Golf Club had a drink out of it. I also had a big piss-up with my best mate and my dad.”
Kurt Barnes: ‘It saved my career’
Big-hitting Kurt Barnes has seven professional victories to his credit, including becoming the first Australian to win on the China Tour. In 2011 he captured the prestigious ANA Open in Japan, but it was a OneAsia Tour title earlier in the year that propelled him to his best season to date.
Mired in a slump when he arrived at the SK Telecom Open in Korea, the man from the coal-mining town of Muswellbrook in the New South Wales Hunter Valley carded closing rounds of 64 and 67 to edge local hope K.T. Kim by a shot. (How good was Kim? Six months later, he qualified for that year’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.)
“I was in a golf slump for several months and the win saved my career,” Barnes says of the breakthrough, which came just three days before his 30th birthday. “I celebrated with a few cold beers with my caddie, Simon Clarke, and a few of the Australian boys. We ate lots of Korean food.
“It saved my career,” the 2002 Australian Amateur champion reflects today. “And being able to share the moment with great mates and family was fantastic when I arrived back in Australia.”
Matthew Griffin: ‘It was a huge week’
Melburnian Matthew Griffin toils successfully in Asia in relative obscurity, yet he’s topped two orders of merit in his career: OneAsia in 2013 and on the PGA Tour of Australasia in 2016. That second conquest stemmed from a tightly fought victory at the New Zealand Open, where Griffin shot 20-under par to fend off Japanese star Hideto Tanihara by a stroke to claim the most significant win of his career.
“We went to a Queenstown bar after all the post-game duties were complete,” Griffin recalls. “My manager, Tony Bouffler, was there and he had brought a bottle of Grange over, which we enjoyed out of the trophy. We also had some snacks from the bar and sampled most of the alcoholic options available.
“It was a special win because my parents had come over and I also had my now fiancée with me, a long-time friend as caddie with his wife, a couple of friends from Cheltenham Golf Club and also my amateur partner, Campbell Neal, and a number of his close family and friends. My travel agent and his wife were also there. So we had a big contingent.”
Not lost on Griffin is the fact it represented victory in the open championship of a nation with a proud golf history.
“It was a huge week to win a prestigious national open and it meant a whole lot more to have so many close family and friends there to be able to soak up the celebrations with. It will be a week and night I’ll never forget.”
