Two of Australia’s most exciting young male players have taken up invitations to join the fields for the marquee events of the summer of golf.
PGA Tour rookie Harrison Endycott and fellow New South Welshman, amateur star Harrison Crowe, will play both next week’s Fortinet Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland as well as the ISPS HANDA Australian Open at Victoria and Kingston Heath golf clubs in Melbourne the following week.
Endycott’s invitations come on the back of his elevation to the PGA Tour via the Korn Ferry Tour in America.
He will be joined by gun amateur Crowe, who has picked up an invitation to play in the Australian Open on the Melbourne Sandbelt from 1-4 December as well as next week’s PGA Championship at Royal Queensland as the winner of one of the world’s most prestigious amateur tournaments, the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, in Thailand recently.
Endycott, 26, has made a bright start to his career on the PGA Tour with three cuts made in his first five events, highlighted by his 10th at the Bermuda Championship and 12th at the Fortinet Championship, earning more than $US300,000 already.
“It’s going to be great to be coming back down to play,” he said today. “I love Australia and I’m super-honoured to be playing. I’ve had a busy year playing on the Korn Ferry Tour and then getting through to the PGA Tour, but it’s really exciting to be able to add those two big events in Australia to my schedule. It means a lot not only to me, but to my family and to Australian Golf.”
Crowe, 21, is one of the world’s best amateur players having secured an AAC win last month that also puts him into the fields for the Masters at Augusta National next April and the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in July, 2023.
He has delayed his plans to turn professional so that he can compete in those events next year, having already shown that he can compete at pro level – he won the Golf Challenge NSW Open at Concord in March this year.
The young man from St Michael’s Golf Club is also schooled in the nuances of sandbelt golf; he won the Master of the Amateurs at Victoria just this year, and has played in the Victorian Amateur at Kingston Heath several times.
“I can’t wait to get to Melbourne,” said Crowe. “I played in the Open in 2019 (at The Australian), and I was out of my depth in such a big event. But it was an awesome experience for me seeing some of those big guys up close.
“This time around I feel good and I feel like my game is good enough to contend. It’s going to be awesome to get amongst the big crowds again, and hopefully I get to pick the brains of Cam Smith, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman and these kinds of guys.”
Endycott has played two PGAs and two Opens both as an amateur and as a young professional, but has not been to Australia to play in the past three years because of travel restrictions. “Honestly, Kingston Heath is one of my favourite courses in the world, and I know that all three of these courses are great golf courses,” he said.
Australia’s top six world-ranked male professionals are all playing at Royal Queensland from 24-27 November as the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia reaches its climax for the summer.
Open Champion Cameron Smith, Masters champion Adam Scott, veteran Marc Leishman and growing stars Min Woo Lee, Cam Davis and Lucas Herbert are all in the field for the PGA Championship, which is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and worth $2 million prizemoney.
All six of those players plus defending champion Matt Jones are in the field for the Australian Open from 1-4 December in the Melbourne sandbelt, also a DP World Tour event, with the addition of the women’s Open and the Australian All Abilities Championship.
World No.5 Minjee Lee and major champion Hannah Green along with legendary Karrie Webb are playing in the Australian Open as the national Open plays out as a dual gender event for the first time.
