Aussie Of The Month: Win Woo Lee
Lee fulfilled the promise he’d shown to Australian golf fans for the best part of 10 years – since becoming the first from Down Under to win the US Boys Junior Amateur – when he broke through for a maiden PGA Tour victory at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
Not only did Lee convert a 54-hole lead – always a milestone in a tour pro’s career – but he held off world No.1 Scottie Scheffler. The two-time Masters champion was finishing strong and was playing in his home state. Lee’s maiden win was a bona fide victory in a strong field.
It was also a watershed moment for the sublimely talented West Australian, who had claimed three DP World Tour titles but was taking almost two years to grab a professional win in the US after transitioning to the PGA Tour. Lee stumbled at the Players Championship weeks before – tumbling from a share of the 36-hole lead at TPC Sawgrass – to a T-20 finish.
Lee’s win sent a message that Australia’s 20-somethings on the PGA Tour are settling into the winner’s circle. Karl Vilips recently won the Puerto Rico Open. With Jason Day and Cam Davis in their 30s and Adam Scott in his mid-40s, Lee and Vilips reassured Australian golf fans that the next wave of winners is fulfilling its potential.
Golfers In The News
Steve Allan’s long-awaited victory: Australian veteran Steve Allan [right] bagged his first professional win in more than two decades at the PGA Tour Champions’ Galleri Classic in California, marking a significant milestone in his career.
Allan, who had endured one of Australian golf’s longest winning droughts, drained a 20-foot birdie putt from the back of the 16th green en route to a one-shot win. The victory made Allan emotional while reflecting on his journey.
“It’s a funny story; I won the Australian Open in 2002, and that was my second win, four years after my first win,” Allan said. “I said it wasn’t going to be another four years until I won. Unfortunately, it’s been 23 years since then. It’s a big relief to get a win.”
While he had come close several times on the PGA Tour, the 51-year-old hadn’t managed to get over the line until now. His only other professional victory came at the 1998 German Open on the formerly named European Tour.
Allan’s win in the US came with a $US300,000 ($A476,000) payday, a miracle considering he only made the field at Mission Hills Country Club when Steve Stricker withdrew with a back injury the previous weekend.
Webby’s winners: The Karrie Webb Series concluded at the recent Rene Erichsen Salver at Royal Adelaide, with two prestigious scholarships awarded to Sarah Hammett from Queensland and Jazy Roberts from Victoria.
Both Hammett and Roberts, members of the Golf Australia High Performance Squad, will spend a week learning from seven-time major champion Webb. This honour has previously been bestowed upon rising stars such as Hannah Green, Minjee Lee, Grace Kim and Gabi Ruffels during the early stages of their careers.
The KW Series consisted of 11 events and, at its conclusion, both the leading player in the series rankings and the top Australian woman on the World Amateur Golf Rankings are granted the Karrie Webb Scholarships.
Roberts won the Keperra Bowl and the Dunes Medal, along with two runner-up finishes in the series, while Hammett was runner-up at the Australian Amateur Championship in Melbourne. She also earned a top-10 finish at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championship, a second place at the 2024 Queen Sirikit Cup and third at the 2024 Toyota Junior World Cup.
Peake and Quayle off to Europe: West Australian Ryan Peake, who spent time in prison after being a member of a bikie gang, capped his incredible redemption story and his rookie season by securing a card on the DP World Tour for 2026. Meanwhile, Queenslander Anthony Quayle produced the shot of a lifetime to also secure a pathway to Europe. Quayle struck a 2-iron from 215 metres to eight feet at the final hole of the Order of Merit season to set up a birdie that secured his second place in the tournament and the 107 points he needed on the Order of Merit to clinch the second DP World Tour card by just 10.3 points.
“It was 215-odd metres into a massive wind,” said Quayle, who walked away from the Japan Golf Tour last year to dedicate himself to the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia’s pathway to Europe. “Just the shot itself is hard, but I think the circumstance might make that the best shot I’ve ever hit.”
NSW Open heads to the Hunter: The Greg Norman/Bob Harrison-designed course at The Vintage in the Hunter Valley will host the Ford NSW Open this year. The Vintage hosted the tournament, a stop on the PGA Tour of Australasia, on four occasions between 2007 and 2010. This year’s tournament from November 13-16 will once again carry a minimum purse of $800,000.
“This year’s Ford NSW Open presents a fantastic opportunity for us to ensure the tournament continues to be the most prestigious state championship on the Australian golf calendar,” said Golf NSW chief executive Stuart Fraser.
Record prize for club pros: The field at the PGA Professionals Championship National Final in November will chase a record prize purse at The Heritage Golf & Country Club. The state qualifiers kicked off at the PGA Professionals Championship of Tasmania in April, with leading players from each state progressing to the $100,000 final from November 11-13.
He Did What?
Australian Golf Digest’s own Oliver Neave pulled off, quite possibly, the longest hole-in-one ever recorded on camera in Australia.
The popular ginger-bearded instructor from Sydney hit the perfect shot on the par-4 second hole at King Island Golf & Bowling Club during a recent trip to Tasmania. Ranked as the hardest hole on the course, Neave – in true “Aussie Beef” style – was wearing thongs and a T-shirt when he ripped a high-drawing drive 325 metres, taking it over the out-of-bounds before his balled landed and rolled into the cup for an albatross.
“I literally took the plastic off my new Callaway Elyte driver that morning,” said Neave, who’s known for creating fun golf content with celebrities such as radio and TV personality Hamish Blake and Ron Chopper.
The AGD TV star was in King Island filming “Bass”, a new YouTube series on his Aussie Beef Golf channel. Be sure to check out Neave’s once-in-a-lifetime shot in Episode 2.
Photographs: getty images: jonathan bachman (lee), joe scarnici (allan)
