How far has the Australian Open come in the past two decades?
Nostalgia can be a funny thing – sometimes pointless, other times enlightening and occasionally helpful. I’ll let those behind the running of our national championship this month decide which category this falls into.
Exactly 20 years ago, I penned a column [above] in this space, pining for the Australian Open to become something more. That was the Centenary Australian Open, one replete with a familiar venue (The Australian Golf Club), a pre-championship exhibition match (involving Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer and Bruce Devlin) and a host of past winners returning to mark the occasion (your columnist enjoyed his one and only meeting with the charismatic Palmer during a black-tie function that week).
Peter Lonard went on to win an enthralling championship by striking a pure long iron into the 71st green that only those present witnessed, as the television coverage missed it. The subsequent birdie was the difference, as Lonard beat the field by a single shot to win for the second straight time.
As nice as it is to reminisce about the outcome that year, I went trawling through our archives more to compare the position the Australian Open finds itself in today against that of 2004. Much has changed, most tellingly the mixed format – adopted since 2022 – but also the unfortunate absence of a 2020 edition for male competitors and a 2021 edition for all.
Internationally, the place professional golf finds itself in is a far cry from 2004. (Twenty years ago, who could have imagined the current prolonged power struggle playing out with the PGA Tour?) It is a different overall landscape in so many ways.
Yet the wish list from 20 years ago doesn’t look all that different for our national championship. It still has the capacity to be a far more grand celebration of the game than it currently is. While the Australian Open winner is now granted a place in the next Open Championship via the R&A’s Open Qualifying Series, it’s the only major where that is officially the case. The date remains the same and the pro-am is still part of the fabric of tournament week, and will surely remain so. Fundraising in golf certainly takes place on an impressive scale; but how much of it is directly attributable to the national championship?
Like many golfers, I find myself yearning for the Australian Open to be something more. We face limitations, sure, including a current reliance on government funding more than whatever sponsorship can be garnered from the corporate sector. We remain a long way from the rest of the world and hampered by the seasonal shifts that make our peak playing period the downtime for the rest of pro golf. Meanwhile, the prizemoney remains meagre in a time of inflated purses.
However, we continue to possess natural advantages – most prominently the venues at our disposal (two of which will be on show this year: Kingston Heath and Victoria golf clubs). Our history, both as a golf-playing nation and for our national championship, also stands us in good stead, although the latter is gradually diminishing with time.
So how far have we come in 20 years? There’s a degree of ‘eye of the beholder’ at play in formulating an answer, so I’ll conclude the same way I did two decades ago: whatever your take, it’s about building a stronger national Open for the good of golf in Australia.
Top 5 Australian Opens, 2004-2023
5. Kingston Heath, 2008: Karrie Webb downs a gallant Jiyai Shin in extra holes for her fourth title.
4. Royal Sydney, 2016: Jordan Spieth pips Ashley Hall and an emerging Cameron Smith in a playoff.
3. Royal Melbourne, 2012: Jessica Korda wins a six-way playoff to re-ignite her family’s affinity with Australian Opens.
2. New South Wales, 2009: Adam Scott’s lone victory came at New South Wales Golf Club’s lone Open staging.
1. The Lakes, 2011: Greg Chalmers tops a stellar field bolstered by Presidents Cup players, mirroring his 1998 achievement.