The challengers for the Stonehaven Cup lining up
FOR these and not using a ticket, don’t wait an excessive amount of longer or you’ll miss out, with the 2025 Australian Open shaping as essentially the most eagerly anticipated because the days Jack Nicklaus and Gary Participant dominated the world’s fairways and greens, or to a time when a ‘Shark’ was golf’s largest fish.
Dwelling grown expertise and winners of serious championships each on Australian shores and around the globe in Adam Scott, Cam Smith, Min Woo Lee, Marc Leishman, Cam Davis and Lucas Herbert can be there.
So too, earlier winners of the Australian Open Joaquin Niemann and Abraham Ancer, LIV Tour members Carlos Ortiz and Sebastian Munoz, younger weapons Elvis Smylie and Karl Vilips, together with Kiwi Ryan Fox.
Add to these names an extended checklist of hungry locals seeking to make their mark and to make use of the Australian Open as a springboard to large occasions and alternatives overseas.
And naturally, the star attraction is reigning Masters champ Rory McIlroy, introduced by CEO of Golf Australia James Sutherland again in Could, signed and sealed not lengthy after the Irishman had received his fifth main championship, whereas additionally turning into simply the sixth man to seize golf’s Grand Slam.
“Rory McIlroy, top-of-the-line to ever play our recreation, taking part in on the world-renowned Melbourne Sandbelt, is a mouth-watering proposition for golf followers,” Sutherland mentioned.
“We’re dedicated to elevating the standing of our nationwide championship, and this announcement is a major step in that course.”
And elevate the standing they definitely have, the challengers for the Stonehaven Cup are lining up, the sphere arguably the deepest since Greg Norman and his appreciable character and immense capability attracted world class performers armed with a purpose to take him down in his personal yard.
Whereas McIlroy might have been the primary to commit, participant bulletins have continued at a speedy charge, the latest addition to the sphere PGA TOUR rookie Vilips, recent off a profitable season the place he took out the Puerto Rico Open with a event file 26-under-par complete in simply his third begin on the world’s hardest tour.
“Being again at residence, with an superior discipline, on top-of-the-line golf programs on the earth, and massive crowds goes to be superior,” Vilips mentioned. “I beloved final years’ expertise at Kingston Heath and Victoria, and I think about this 12 months’s Open goes to take it up a few ranges.”
All that with out mentioning maybe the largest star of all, a Royal Melbourne composite course which is able to host the Australian Open for a sixteenth time, however its first since 1991.
The Australian Open tees off from December 4-7.
‘Main’ alternatives on supply to 2025 Aussie Open champ
WHILE the first-place prizemoney of greater than $400,000 and including their identify to the Stonehaven Cup alongside many greats of Australian and worldwide golf is a substantial attraction, there are additionally some ‘main’ alternatives awaiting the winner of the 2025 Australian Open.
Augusta Nationwide, working in partnership with the R&A, have introduced that the winners of chosen nationwide championships, the Australian Open being one in every of them, will earn exemptions into the US Masters and the Open Championship.
“Right this moment’s announcement strengthens our organisations collective imaginative and prescient of rewarding prime expertise around the globe who rise to the highest of historic nationwide open championships,” Chairman of Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership and The Masters, Fred Ridley, acknowledged.
“We hope this formal recognition shines a shiny mild on these gamers and the occasions they may signify on the Masters and The Open, starting subsequent 12 months.”
American Chris Gotterup, the 2025 Scottish Open champion, has booked his place at Augusta in April, so too Englishman Marco Penge who prevailed in a playoff on the latest Spanish Open.
Additionally set to make the most of the brand new exemption class would be the 2025 Japan and Hong Kong Open champions, together with the 2026 South African Open victor when that occasion is contested subsequent February-March.
Rory McIlroy received’t want the exemption ought to he win a second Australian Open title, with the Masters champ locked in at each Augusta and Birkdale in 2026, nonetheless for a lot of of these not in any other case certified, it is going to be a pleasant bonus ought to they arrive out on prime at Royal Melbourne.
