Australian Open (Golf)

Dating to 1904, the Australian Open is the oldest and most prestigious golf tournament among the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour of Australasia. The Australian Open is operated by Golf Australia, the governing body of golf in Australia, which was formed in 2006 when the Australian Golf Union and Women's Golf Australia merged. The winner of the tournament receives the Stonehaven Cup and the top prize,. as of 2024, of A$283,333 drawn out of a A$1.7 million purse. Despite its relatively small purse, the Australian Open has nonetheless attracted some of the game's top global talent and remains among the world's premier sporting events. The Australian Open is part of the qualifying series for the British Open, one of four major PGA world championships.

Origins and History

Golf is a ball-and-stick game that originated in Europe by the fifteenth century. The sport became so popular in Scotland that it was seen as a distraction from military preparedness and banned in 1457; the ban was lifted in 1502. Reportedly the first international golf match was played in 1682 in Leith, near Edinburgh, in which the Scots won. In 1744 Leith became home to the first known golf club and began holding the first annual competition. Throughout the eighteenth century, the modern sport of golf developed. Stroke play was accepted as a method of gameplay in addition to head-to-head match play in 1759 and the eighteen-hole course became the match standard five years later.

The first club in Australia was formed in 1870, in Adelaide. As clubs formed and the British Empire helped spread the sport throughout the world, golf increasingly became a professional sport. By the turn of the century, regional professional prize tournaments such as the British Open (established in 1860) were in full swing across the globe. By 1900 the sport was growing in popularity in Australia, the United States, South Africa and Canada as well.

The Australian Open launched as an annual tournament in 1904 but was interrupted by the world wars. Thus, competitions were not held between 1914 and 1919 or between 1940 and 1945. The event has been held at different locations around Australia.

The first Australian Open trophy was presented to Frank Eyre in 1930 by then governor-general Baron Stonehaven, for whom the cup was named. Each champion's name thereafter has been engraved on that original trophy, and each holds a gold medal and replica for the duration of the year of their championship.

Rules and Regulations

Qualification for the Australian Open has traditionally followed similar qualification requirements to those of other PGA championship tournaments. The competition is open to registered, ranked male professional golfers, with former Australian Open winners aged sixty or younger taking priority. From there, a priority system is used to seat players in the tournament, starting with the most recent top finishers in international play and proceeding to winners of other professional championships and select rookie and amateur tournament champions, among other exemptions and qualifications that round out the main field of play. For the 2017 Open, 146 players earned this exempt status.

In addition, the tournament is also open to non-exempt amateurs, who have a handicap of 2.0 or less and qualify through a series of eighteen-hole stroke play competitions held in the days leading into the Open. Top finishers are ranked and seated in the championship. All prospective competitors must pay an entry fee, register by the given deadline (usually in November) and undergo drug testing. The number of amateur slots varies depending on the number of professional golfers who register. For this reason, the number of amateur slots available varies substantially between years.

At the Australian Open, qualifying professional and amateur golfers play in a Championship Pro-Am and then compete in a seventy-two-hole stroke play event that lasts several days. Sixty professional competitors advance past the second of four rounds, after thirty-six holes; if there is a tie for sixtieth place, both players remain. An amateur may advance if his total is equal to or better than that of the sixtieth-ranked professional. Ties after seventy-two holes are resolved through a sudden-death, hole-by-hole play-off.

The Australian Open did not take place in 2020 or 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the organization announced that the men's and women's tournaments would be played at the same time on the same course. Additionally, the men's and women's categories shared a single prize pool. That same year, the European Tour announced that it would sanction the men's Australian Open.

Top Athletes

Australians have ranked among the top golfers for the last century and have shone at the Australian Open. In fact, as of 2017, foreign players had won only 28 tournaments of the 102 that had been held. A few players have particularly dominated the Australian Open over the course of its history: Gary Player of South Africa won seven times (most memorably in 1965, with a record-breaking score of twenty-eight under par); Jack Nicklaus of the United States, six; and Greg Norman of Queensland and amateur Ivo Whitton of Victoria, five each.

One of Whitton's wins was the contested 1912 championship, in which a disqualifying breach went unpenalized. Norman, perhaps better known for his losses than his wins, was one of the top golfers in the world throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Sydney native Ossie Pickworth, active in the 1940s and 1950s, won four times and remains the only player ever to have won three consecutive Australian Opens. Victorian Peter Thomson, one of the greatest golfers that Australia ever produced, won the British Open five times and the Australian Open in 1951, 1967 and 1972. South Australian Adam Scott won the 2009 Australian Open on his way to becoming the world's top-ranked golfer.

In 1999 American Australian Aaron Baddeley became the youngest player, at eighteen years and eight months, to win the Australian Open. Fifty-three-year-old Queenslander Peter Senior became its oldest winner in 2012.

In 1920 Joe Kirkwood of New South Wales set a record low score of 290, marking the first time the Open had been won in under 300 strokes. Bill Bolger of Sydney broke that in 1934, with 283, and two years later American Gene Sarazen finished at 282. Sarazen's record stood until Player's 1965 win.

Bibliography

"Australian Open to Make Golf History With Equal Billing and Prize Money for Men and Women." The Guardian, 29 Apr. 2022, www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/apr/29/australian-open-to-make-golf-history-with-equal-billing-and-prize-money-for-men-and-women. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Blake, Martin. "Legend of Pickworth Hangs over Open." The Age, 20 Nov. 2005, www.theage.com.au/news/golffeatures/legend-of-pickworth-hangs-over-open/2005/11/19/1132017027479.html. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.

Browning, Robert H. K. A History of Golf. 1955, Classics of Golf, 1985.

Frost, Mark. The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf. Hyperion, 2002.

McGrath, Charles, and David McCormick, editors. The Ultimate Golf Book. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006.

"2017 Emirates Australian Open: Conditions of Play." Golf Australia, www.golf.org.au/site/‗content/document/00038426-source.pdf. Accessed 17 Jan. 2025.