Aussie of the month: Justin Warren
The Justin Warren story takes some telling.
The 31-year-old from Picton on Sydney’s south-western fringe is the new West Australian PGA champion, although his two-shot victory in Kalgoorlie goes some way to describing a tremendous week without painting the picture of how he got there.
The journeyman toils away on the Asian Tour but by choosing to focus his energies there, he relinquished his status on the PGA Tour of Australasia, thereby needing to rely on invitations and qualifying opportunities to compete at home. Throw in a foot injury that kept him out of action for eight months in 2025 and you have what appeared to be a case of ‘so near, yet so far’.
Yet Warren extinguished that moniker in the WA desert. He emerged from a congested Sunday leaderboard to build a one-stroke lead heading to the 72nd hole, capping his first victory on tour with a lengthy birdie putt to win by two strokes over a gallant Daniel Gale.
“Just being so close so many times and just always wondered, Is it ever going to be my turn?” said Warren, who before the WA PGA had 11 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour of Australasia. “Just the way I played today, the way I putted, the way I just held myself together all day was… I’m so proud of myself for that.
“I’ve been so close so many times and last year being stuck at home in a moon boot just wondering, Is it all worth it?”
Now it is.
GOLFERS IN THE NEWS
Hall call: In what feels like a certainty, Adam Scott will find out in December whether he will be part of the 2027 class entering the World Golf Hall of Fame. The former Masters champion needed to wait for this 45th birthday to pass in order to be eligible in the male category, a milestone he reached in July 2025. Scott’s fellow prospective inductees include one-time US Open winners Jim Furyk, Corey Pavin and Justin Rose.
Enter Sandman: Veteran West Australian pro Scott Barr captured the World Sand Greens Championship in dramatic style, holing a 40-metre pitch shot on the final hole at Binalong Golf Club to card a closing 60 and win the
36-hole event by three shots.
Fortress entered: A dominant, five-shot win at the Fortress Invitational propelled Sydney’s Austin Bautista into second place on the Sunshine Tour order of merit. The primarily South African circuit offers places on the DP World Tour at season’s end.
NEW PREZ: Jessica Dengate is the new president of the WPGA Tour of Australasia after the resignation of Nicole James. Dengate, a fellow PGA member and former tour professional, has been vice-president of the WPGA Tour board since 2018.
Twin losses: Two men of much different backgrounds and vintages were lost to Australian golf in September with the passing of John Toogood OAM at age 94 and Euan Laird at age 60. Toogood excelled at golf – particularly in Tasmania, like his brother Peter – winning tournaments across six decades, before championing junior golf. Laird was the inaugural executive officer of what is now the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association (ASTMA).
HE DID WHAT?
Shooting 59 is enough of an accomplishment in itself, but imagine breaking 60 on the back of an albatross in the same round. That was the feat achieved by Queanbeyan Golf Club member Larry Austin recently. While playing off the yellow tees, Austin pieced together his score in cold, windy conditions, compiling 43 Stableford points off his plus-4 handicap. He also completed golf’s ‘aviary’ by also making an eagle and seven birdies on the day.
