There’s a moment Wollongong golfer Sam Cascio remembers from the 2024 Australian Open at Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath that says as much about his future as any trophy.
Walking down a fairway at Kingston Heath during a practice round with fellow Golf NSW product and multiple PGA Tour winner Cam Davis, Cascio was approached by a young fan asking for a golf ball. Cascio signed one and handed it over. After the round, he stayed around signing hats for a group of kids.
“That day was probably the best experience I’ve had in golf,” Cascio, the 2022 Club Champion at Wollongong Golf Club, recalls of that Australian Open.
Cascio was in the national championship field because of a transformational victory that year; he became the first Wollongong golfer to win the Australian Junior Championship. In doing so, he joined an honour roll featuring Adam Scott, Jason Day and Cameron Smith. The win earned Cascio an invitation to the 2024 Australian Open.
“I always knew that I could compete against the best juniors in Australia, but just to get that done… just solidified my confidence,” Cascio says.
Yet Cascio’s progress was uninterrupted that week in Melbourne. A serious back injury involving a stress fracture and bulging disc forced Cascio to withdraw from that Australian Open and ultimately sidelined him for up to six months.
But Cascio trained hard through recovery and, recently, was selected in Golf NSW’s 2026 High Performance Program. The Australian Golf Club member continues to add significant amateur titles to a résumé that suggests professional golf is more realistic ambition than childhood fantasy.
The injury was partly why Cascio, who turned 19 in July, has no intention of rushing towards the professional ranks.
“My goal is just to play amateur tournaments for the next few years and get more experience because the time I had off with my back injury, it set me back and I feel like I lost a bit of experience,” Cascio said. “Hopefully I’ll turn professional no later than 22.”
He’s on track, though. Recently, Cascio won the 2026 Northern Territory Amateur Championship at Darwin Golf Club, shooting rounds of 68-68-70 to finish 10-under and survive a tense final round for a one-shot victory.
It was another step forward for a golfer who, remarkably, didn’t particularly enjoy the sport when his father Travis first introduced him to it. Something eventually clicked.
“I just kept playing and started liking it more… and I thought that it might be a possible career for me,” he said.
Throughout his rise, Cascio has been supported away from golf. For more than a decade he has been part of The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program, which assists Australian students with the costs of their education as well as support and guidance. Learning for Life provides 72,000 students nationally experiencing disadvantage with costs for school essentials, and access to programs. While golf has always been Cascio’s dream, education has also been a priority.
Cascio recently represented Australia internationally at the Toyota Junior World Cup in Nagoya, Japan and at the Junior World Championships at Torrey Pines.
A big 2026 target for Cascio is the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Te Arai Links in October, one of amateur golf’s great opportunities given its champion earns invitations to the following year’s Masters and the Open Championship, which will be played at St Andrews in 2027. Cascio had climbed as high as fifth among Australians in the World Amateur Golf Ranking before slipping back, leaving him with work to do to earn selection.
He allows himself to contemplate what could happen if he eventually gets there, but only briefly.
“Yeah, of course. I think you have to let yourself do that, but don’t let it overtake your mind too much,” Cascio said. “If I was to play and somehow win and play at St Andrews and obviously Augusta … I don’t even know how to think about it and wrap my head around it properly, but that’d be pretty special.”
