[Photo: Getty images]
There’s no confirmation but rumours are swirling that Rory McIlroy will make a competitive return Down Under to play in this year’s Australian Open and speculation is rife that Royal Melbourne is the frontrunner to host a star-studded tournament.
Sources have indicated McIlroy’s camp is in early talks with Golf Australia organisation about teeing up for the first time since 2014, when he was the defending Australian Open champion having defeated Adam Scott at Royal Sydney in 2013. Tournament officials are also hopeful of having PGA Tour winner Min Woo Lee, as well as major champions Cameron Smith and Scott back to play in the 121-year-old championship.
Golf Australia declined to confirm those talks with five-time major champion McIlroy, but said in a statement: “Golf Australia continues to work through the future of the men’s and women’s Australian Opens, with nothing formal to confirm at this time. We look forward to working with our partners to confirm and announce the future of both events in coming weeks.”
McIlroy has repeatedly lauded the Australian Open over the past 18 months particularly, saying at last year’s Dubai Desert Classic that he would love to see the Australian Open become one of the world’s biggest tournaments in the future. “The Australian Open, for example, should almost be the fifth major. The market down there is huge with potential. They love golf. They love sport. They have been starved of top-level golf. And the courses are so good.”
In 2013, McIlroy used his Stonehaven Cup victory to lift himself out of a year-long slump and into the form that saw him win two majors in 2014. He went through a much-publicised drought for 11 years after that until a long-awaited fifth major came in dramatic fashion at last month’s Masters, where his green jacket victory elevated him into an illustrious club of career grand slam winners.
McIlroy won the Masters last month to complete the career grand slam having already claimed the US Open, Open Championship and two PGA Championship titles in his career.
McIlroy and US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau are the two biggest stars in golf and having the reigning Masters champion in McIlroy playing on the country’s most famous golf course would be a gargantuan boost for golf in Australia.
However, the host city has not been confirmed let alone the host course, although it is believed the internationally-renowned Composite course at Royal Melbourne is the favourite. The attempts to lure McIlroy, who would no doubt be inundated with requests to play tournaments around the world, is being spearheaded by the Victorian government’s events and tourism arm, Visit Victoria. It is believed there is competition in the NSW government for the rights to the 2025 Australian Open, which is run by Golf Australia.
Should Victoria land the Open and McIlroy, it is likely be played at Royal Melbourne’s Composite layout, which hosted the the 2019 Presidents Cup – the third time it had staged the biennial teams event. It would be a significant economic boost for Victoria’s economy given travellers would likely come from interstate and even overseas to watch the world’s biggest golf star play on a composite version of Royal Melbourne, whose West course is course perennially ranked in the top five golf in the world according to Golf Digest US.
In February at LIV Golf Adelaide, 2022 British Open winner Smith said the ideal 2025 Australian Open would be in Melbourne. “I mean, because they [Melbourne] have some great golf courses that I think people want to play,” Smith said when asked why he wants the Open back on the Sandbelt. “Not only do we want to come down and play and obviously support our event, I think it lends itself to having a stronger field, having more guys come down here and play the Australian Open, and let it be the event that it once was. You look at the names on that trophy through the ’80s and ’90s, it’s incredible, and it seems like somewhere that got lost. I definitely want it to be the best event it can be and be the fifth major. It would be unbelievable.”
Australian Golf Digest has reported extensively on the subject, having asked Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland at Augusta National a month ago at the Masters what his inspiration was for this year’s Australian Open, which has been split up after three years of running the men’s and women’s Opens concurrently on the same two host courses.
Sutherland was hopeful that former British Open champion Smith and his fellow LIV players such as Lucas Herbert and Marc Leishman would return. Sutherland was not specifically asked about McIlroy but said he wanted an “international flavour” to the 2025 edition.
“The LIV golfers don’t play as much (as the PGA Tour at that time of year) … we’ll definitely talk to them and I’ve spoken to Cam and his teammates, they’re a tight group,” he said at Augusta. “Getting them interested is one thing but there’s significant fees in bringing [other LIV golfers] down. It’s trying to work out how that comes together. But we want it to have an international flavour.”
