This is the summer our tour steps into the spotlight.
There is a lot changing and evolving in world golf. This year, the BMW Australian PGA Championship is part of that change, leaving Queensland for the first time in 26 years as it returns to The Lakes in Sydney from November 26-29.
It marks our return to New South Wales for the first time in 30 years and an exciting new chapter for what promises to be a high-quality field competing for the Joe Kirkwood Cup.
Those same players will then travel to the Capital.com Australian Open the next week, and together the two events headline the summer on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia and kick off the DP World Tour season. While the major events are the pinnacle of our tour, we know there is much more to the PGA Tour of Australasia than two weeks. It’s every tournament in between, having already teed off at the PNG Open and starting our season on Kayo Sports with a bang with the incredible pictures that came out of the WA PGA in Kalgoorlie. It’s where our players earn their place and get the chance to compete.
The season is well underway, with events across the country giving our players the chance to build form, and fans the chance to see them up close.
For the PGA of Australia, the Australian PGA Championship holds particular significance as our flagship event and our members’ championship. It represents the people who contribute to the game every day, whether they are competing on tour, coaching, running a facility or introducing someone to golf for the first time. When the Joe Kirkwood Cup is presented, we celebrate their profession as much as the winner.
It’s also a tournament where careers turn and seasons are launched. Elvis Smylie held off Cam Smith at Royal Queensland in 2024 for the biggest win of his career. Min Woo Lee won in 2023 and has since won on the PGA Tour. Beating the best in your own country can show a player they belong, and the honour roll, from Kel Nagle, Peter Thomson and Greg Norman to Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player, is the standard they are measuring themselves against.
This year, Adam Scott and Smith, who have each won the title multiple times, return alongside fellow champions Smylie and David Puig. Corey Conners and Carlos Ortiz are among the international players confirmed for Sydney. For the champions, coming home is a chance to compete for a title they value, and to show the next generation what it takes.
If you can get along to either week, do. Then get along to a tour event closer to home. Bring your mates, walk the fairways and follow a player you don’t yet know.
We know what these championships mean to past winners. This summer, we’ll find out whose name joins them.
– Gavin Kirkman, CEO, PGA of Australia and Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia
Photograph by getty images/chris hyde
