Aussie of the month: Australian Open
The Australian Open is back! Modern attendance records were smashed when more than 112,000 fans came through the gates during the week of the Crown Australian Open at Royal Melbourne Golf Club. It reinforces that great tournament venues matter, as the Open returning to Royal Melbourne’s Composite course for the first time in 34 years was at least a strong part of the appeal for Masters champion Rory McIlroy to travel to Australia after a long, globetrotting year.
For a large portion of the rest of the strong DP World Tour/PGA Tour of Australasia field, Augusta National extending the winner an invitation to the 2026 Masters boosted our national open more than we know, while the R&A continues to support the Australian Open by awarding places in the Open Championship to the top three on the leaderboard not already exempt. With McIlroy returning to Australia in December to tee up at Kingston Heath, it’s now up to tournament organisers to capitalise on this momentum.
Golfers in the news
26th Open in ’26: Adam Scott will turn 46 during the 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale this July, where he will make his 26th consecutive appearance at the links major. Although 2025 was not among his standout seasons, with no PGA Tour top-10s and missed cuts in three majors, the 2013 Masters champion steadied late in the year at home in Australia. Scott finished seventh at the Australian PGA and fifth at the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne. That result qualified him,
Si Woo Kim and Michael Hollick for next year’s Open at Royal Birkdale. Scott’s first appearance at The Open came in 2000 at St Andrews and he’s teed it up every year since, excluding 2020 when the championship was cancelled.
Australia’s newest DP World Tour member: Self-described as a “Scossie”, Connor McKinney was born in Kirkcaldy, close to the Home of Golf at St Andrews, but emigrated to Western Australia when he was 13. McKinney won both the Australian Amateur and the St Andrews Links Trophy in his final year as an amateur in 2022.
He turned professional that year and has since played most of his golf on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Now, he’s earned something of a homecoming to Europe and the UK – McKinney is exempt on the DP World Tour having advanced through all three stages of qualifying school. His confidence at Q-School was fuelled by a maiden professional victory on Scotland’s Tartan Pro Tour in August.
heND ON TOP: The durability of Scott Hend is one of the more unheralded stories in Australian golf circles. The 52-year-old globetrotter captured a second European Legends Tour Order of Merit title despite playing a mere 15 tournaments during the 2025 season.
ANother Smith was at the Australian PGA: Mitchell Smith capped a remarkable week at the Heritage Golf & Country Club in November by taking out the PGA Professionals Championship and securing the Vicars Shield by a single stroke over Brody Martin. The victory earned Smith (and runner-up Martin) spots in the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.
Aces of the month
Quite the trio
On November 12, Sydney’s Pennant Hills Golf Club witnessed a rare slice of club-golf history: three holes-in-one on the same hole, on the same day. Members Stephen Taylor, Scott Bailey and Rob Bush each aced Pennant Hills’ par-3 14th hole, which measures 152 metres. The National Hole-in-One Registry lists the odds of an average golfer making an ace at about 1 in 12,500. The chances of two players making a hole-in-one on the same hole on the same day rises to approximately 1 in 17 million. A third ace in that same window defies ordinary calculation.
Bogey of the month
So ‘Neer’ and yet so far
This doesn’t mean we’re celebrating it, at all. I don’t know anyone that wasn’t cheering on Cameron Smith to win the Australian Open over his co-leader, and eventual champion, Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen. But Smith’s 72-hole hole bogey at Royal Melbourne was the most consequential bogey of the month.
Firstly, Smith showed enormous character across the two Australian ‘majors’. At the Australian PGA Championship, Smith missed the cut at Royal Queensland to ensure, at that point, he had missed all seven cuts in official, 72-hole tournaments for 2025. He was emotional but vowed to get better. A week later at the Australian Open, Smith proved his goals were not making cuts, rather winning tournaments – and he very nearly claimed a maiden Australian Open to go with his three Australian PGA titles.
Sadly, Smith fell one stroke short after missing a short par putt that would have forced a playoff with Neergaard-Petersen. Smith had clung to a share of the lead with a crucial birdie on the 17th hole and then found the fairway with a strong drive at the last. His safe approach to the back-left of the 18th green finished a little too far past the right flag, leaving a lengthy and brutal birdie attempt. Still, Neergaard-Petersen appeared in trouble after pushing his second shot right, wide of the bunkers. From heavy rough on “Dunk Island”, he managed to play a delicate pitch to the tight pin and holed a curling, 15-foot par putt to complete a closing 70 and earn his first DP World Tour win. Afterwards, Smith understandably declined to speak to the media but still found time to sign autographs for children near the scoring area.
Smith proved his best golf is still good enough to win tournaments with strong fields featuring Rory McIlroy. He’ll be back in 2026.
Photographs by Graham Denholm, Josh Chadwick, WILLIAM WEST/getty images
