South Australia will play host to its first professional mixed golf tournament in October with TPS South Australia coming to Willunga Golf Club in the famous McLaren Vale wine region.
TPS South Australia will be the first event in the 2023-2024 Webex Players Series, an innovative series of tournaments, now held across three states, that sees male and female professionals, elite amateurs, and All Abilities golfers, lining up in the one field on the same golf course.
Hosted by former Australian cricketer and SA golf representative Greg Blewett, the $200,000 tournament from October 19-22 will be the first time both the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia have played in the McLaren Vale region, south of Adelaide.
The WPGA’s most recent event in SA was the Women’s Australian Open in 2020, while the men’s tour hasn’t visited the state for a tournament since the 2007 Jacob’s Creek Open.
Across the weekend of the tournament, 16 junior golfers will also tee off alongside the professionals in their own 36-hole competition.
PGA of Australia tournaments director Australasia Nick Dastey said South Australia would see a golf tournament with a difference at Willunga.
“We are delighted to bring the PGA and WPGA tours back to South Australia and in particular, to Willunga Golf Club and the stunning McLaren Vale area,” Dastey said.
“Our Webex Players Series calendar is growing at an exciting rate. In just three years, it has grown from two inaugural events to five, giving players fresh and exciting opportunities to compete at the professional level.”
WPGA Tour of Australasia chief executive Karen Lunn said: “With our women and men playing on the same course, for the same prizemoney purse and trophy, plus the All-Abilities golfers contesting their event, TPS South Australia will provide something for everyone.
“We are confident South Australians will embrace the innovative, fresh and exciting mixed format and come along in numbers to Willunga in October.”
SA Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing, Katrine Hildyard MP, said: “This tournament will bring professional golfers to South Australia and the beautiful McLaren Vale wine region – a big win for South Australia and the local area.
“This unique event includes everyone, with golfers of all abilities – women, men and juniors – playing the same course at the same time. Willunga Golf Club will be the perfect host for this innovative event, which I am sure the local community will embrace,” Hildyard said.
Member for Mawson Leon Bignell said: “As the local MP for the region and the chair of SA’s Major Events Committee, this is great news for SA.
“We have seen a growing appetite for golf in SA, and now some of Australia’s best men and women golfers, all abilities golfers and juniors will be competing in one of the world’s best food and wine regions.”
TPS South Australia joins another new event on the 2023-2024 PGA Tour of Australasia schedule, the Heritage Classic, in Melbourne in January.
