Cam Smith is a confirmed starter in three Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia occasions this summer season.
Smith commits to a few Aussie tournaments
Cameron Smith has formally confirmed his participation in three occasions throughout the upcoming Australian summer season of golf, with the Queenslander set to play the NSW Open, Queensland PGA and BMW Australian PGA Championships.
Competing on the LIV Golf Tour and the Captain of Ripper GC, the 31-year-old Smith has loved a stellar profession on the worldwide stage, highlighted by his historic win within the Open Championship at St Andrews, three victories within the LIV Golf League and 6 titles on the PGA TOUR.
He now brings his abilities again residence after a yr wherein he completed seventh on the general standings on the LIV Tour in 2024, beginning with the Queensland PGA at Nudgee Golf Membership, adopted by the $800,000 NSW Open on the highly-rated regional venue of Murray Downs Golf & Nation Membership.
“It’s incredible it’s being performed in a regional space and I can’t wait to see what number of followers are at Murray Downs,” Smith mentioned. “The NSW Open is rising into a serious occasion and I’m excited to have the ability to play within the event this yr, which will probably be a part of a terrific summer season of Australian golf.”
“I like supporting Australian golf and when the chance arises to play, I wish to be there. I attempt to get again residence as a lot as I can.”
Smith lately agreed to play within the Queensland PGA Championship on October 31-November 3, the NSW Open tees off from November 14-17 on the Peter Thomson designed Murray Downs course, earlier than he contests the BMW Australian PGA at Royal Queensland from November 21.
A 3-time Australian PGA champion, Smith was trying ahead to getting again to Queensland and to the place his {golfing} journey started.
“Coming residence to Queensland is a spotlight of my yr. It’s all the time particular to be again enjoying in entrance of my household, buddies and all of the golf followers and hopefully being up close to the lead,” Smith mentioned.
As Inside Golf was going to print, Smith had but to verify his participation on the Australian Open on the Kingston Heath and Victoria Golf golf equipment.
Dates and venues confirmed for prestigious Ladies’s occasions
Two of Australia’s most prestigious championships return to the nationwide sporting stage in early 2025 with contemporary new dates and venues.
For the primary time, the historic Wollongong Golf Membership will host the 2025 Ladies’s NSW Open, whereas the gorgeous Coffs Harbour Golf Membership on the mid-north coast would be the venue for the Australian Ladies’s Traditional.
The stakes are excessive with every event providing a profitable $500,000 prize purse, with the occasions co-sanction by the Ladies’s Skilled Golf Affiliation Tour of Australasia (WPGA) and the Girls European Tour (LET) in including much more status to the 72-hole championships.
The Australian Ladies’s Traditional, scheduled for March 13-16, kicks off the thrilling two weeks of Ladies’s skilled golf, to be adopted by the Ladies’s NSW Open from March 20-23.
Supported by the NSW Authorities by way of its tourism and main occasions company Vacation spot NSW and the Division of Regional NSW, over 130 of the world’s greatest feminine golfers from round 40 international locations are set to battle it out over the 2 weeks.
And for many who can’t be there in particular person, each tournaments will probably be broadcast dwell, reaching followers throughout Australia and Europe.
Mr Stuart Fraser, Golf NSW Chief Govt Officer, mentioned the organisation seemed ahead to showcasing a few of the brightest expertise in girls’s skilled golf.
“Golf NSW, with the assist of the NSW Authorities, is thrilled to have the ability to deliver the Ladies’s NSW Open to 2 fabulous venues like Wollongong and Coffs Harbour subsequent yr,” Mr Fraser mentioned.
“It is going to be thrilling to observe a few of the sport’s greatest feminine athletes from across the globe competing in regional NSW for 2 of Australia’s most prestigious championships.”
Karen Lunn, CEO of the WPGA Tour of Australasia, mentioned the tournaments have been an unprecedented alternative for gamers to compete in opposition to world-class opposition on residence soil.
“Competing for over $1 million on a few of NSW’s most esteemed regional programs is a game-changer for ladies’s golf in Australia,” Lunn remarked.
“This stage of competitors and reward is instrumental in advancing the game and galvanizing the following technology of feminine golfers.”
Nonetheless work to do within the US for Min Woo
He was one of many stars of the final Australian {golfing} summer season and chances are high the identical will apply later this yr when Min Woo Lee returns to defend his title on the BMW Australian PGA Championship, earlier than contesting the ISPS Handa Australian Open in Melbourne.
Lee thrilled the crowds at Royal Queensland in recording his largest win on Australian soil, in what was his largest victory on residence soil.
The win catapulted Lee to worldwide stardom, such was his type of play and the best way he engaged with the massive galleries who turned out to assist him.
Nevertheless, whereas 2024 has produced quite a lot of highlights, as of mid-September and together with his participation within the Presidents Cup only a week or so away, Lee nonetheless had work to do on the US PGA TOUR.
Taking part in within the Fall Collection occasions, following a tie for thirty second on the Procure Championship, Lee was sixtieth on the factors listing, with gamers ranked 50-60 to qualify for the primary two, profitable Signature Occasions in 2025.
Whereas exempt and eligible to compete in all full discipline occasions courtesy of his end on the 2024 FedEx Cup factors rankings, a high 60 end would see him included within the discipline for the A T & T Pebble Seashore and Genesis Invitational.
With the Presidents Cup, then a handful of PGA TOUR occasions to comply with, Lee nonetheless has work to do and a busy schedule earlier than returning residence for the foremost Australian tournaments.
The victorious US Solheim Cup crew.
American’s declare the Solheim Cup
Staff USA have damaged a seven-year drought to win again the Solheim Cup on the Robert Trent Jones Golf Membership in Virginia.
The American’s opened up a 10-6 lead over Staff Europe following the foursomes and fourball matches and seemed to be cruising to victory, till some early wins by the European girls within the singles on Sunday made for a tense finale.
It was a birdie on the 18th gap from Lilia Vu to halve her match with Switzerland’s Albane Valenzuela which might in the end present the Cup-clinching level, with the US claiming victory by 15 ½ to 12 ½.
After going 3-0 in her earlier matches, World No 1 Nelly Korda was soundly overwhelmed 6 and 4 by Charley Hull of their singles encounter, with Rose Zhang from the American crew the one participant to register an ideal 4-0 file over the three days of competitors.
