Say what you will about the PGA of Australia and its chief Gavin Kirkman and the greater support system for Australia’s professional golfers, but the Challenger Tour of Australasia is a winner.
Those cynics who’d boo Santa Claus would deride it as a “development” tour. But it’s where Australian golf is. It is where we sit. The winner of our Order of Merit goes upwards not across.
The tour gives young players plenty to do before the best crack it big. Australia’s tour now has 18 events and they're looking to build it to 22.
That's a lot of enjoyable Sunday afternoons on the couch with a tinnie - or wandering fairways behind players - watching cracking pro golf.
The purses for the WA PGA at Kalgoorlie and Queensland PGA at Nudgee have both doubled to $250,000 since 2018. Golf NSW has doubled the purse for its NSW Open, also.
And if you’re whacking them with brickbats, you’ve got to toss bouquets, too. The tour is testament to the vision of our governing bodies.
Are you not entertained? If Australia had a Saudi PIF-sponsored International Series event, it would entice box-office LIV stars like Brooks Koepka to our shores. PHOTO: Getty Images.
Kirkman says the PGA’s vision has been to build a sustainable tour in Australia “so that our players can stay at home”.
“And then, if they do play well, like Kazuma Kobori and David Micheluzzi the year before him, they can have the pathway to winning a full card on the DP World Tour and play major golf championships, which both of those young players have had through our Order of Merit,” Kirkman says.
“But also our top players get qualifying opportunities on Korn Ferry Tour events, second stage and first stage and so forth.”
It has worked for Australian golf that the PGA Tour’s strict regulations about LIV players not returning has meant that those who seek OWGR points – like Joaquin Niemann – could see our “major” championships as opportunities to achieve that.
Or they could go and play in Asia and the Saudi-funded “International Series” events worth $US2.5 million (in Qatar) and $US5 million (in Saudi Arabia). The Asian Tour runs all year and the money is good. LIV golfers play on the Asian Tour.
According to the Hindustan Times, Bryson DeChambeau "is a near certainty" to make a star turn in an International Series event in India in 2025.
So you ask our man Kirkman: If the Saudi PIF came to you and said, “Gav! We want to pump the tyres of the PGA Championship, the event at Kalgoorlie, Blewie’s one in Willunga, and elevate them into our International Series,” could you do that? Or are you just solely contracted to / allied with the DP World Tour?
“We would be always open to having that conversation,” Kirkman says. “But we haven’t been approached.
"But if we were, we would put it through our process map to see what would be best for our tour and to ensure that we protect what we’ve already got in place with the growth of our tour."
Kirkman says where there is light there is hope that golf's warring parties will come back together.
"I’m still optimistic, that, over time the global golf ecosystem will come back together. We want to ensure that we are part of the global golf ecosystem, not just from the touring point of view, but also from a vocational point of view," Kirkman says.
“This disruption that we’re going through, hopefully the powerbrokers within PGA Tour Enterprises and PIF and DP World Tour can come to some resolution which will bring the best onto the same playing field, the same golf courses, all the time.
“I think it’ll be the best for our sport.
"Here in Australia and globally as well.”
This piece appeared in full in the December issue of Golf Australia magazine and you could subscribe here and/or give the gift of Christmas.
