It has to be an Australian golfing milestone!
No other country, including the mighty U.S. and it’s ultra-lucrative PGA Tour, has enjoyed as much success in such a short time frame on golf’s global stage than Australian born male professionals have achieved the past 13 months.
In this time, and up to an including Scott Hend’s victory in the True Thailand Classic and hours after Matthew Griffin birdied the last to capture the prize New Zealand Open title, Australian male golfers have captured 31 victories.
Jason Day kick starts a milestone 13 months in Australian golf winning the 2015 Farmers Insurance Open
It has seen Australia’s male professionals, headed by World No. 3 Jason Day, capturing tournaments in Australia, New Zealand, USA, Japan, Canada, France, Fiji, Argentina, Macau, South Africa, Malaysia and Thailand.
Remarkably that’s successes on six of the world’s seven continents.
In addition, Hend’s victory at Black Mountain was a first time since 1991 five Tour victories had been won by five different Australians.
The last time five European Tour trophies were held by Australians was 1991 but that year Craig Parry won twice (Italian Open and Scottish Open) to join Ian Baker-Finch (Open Championship), Mike Harwood (European Open) and Rodger Davis (Volvo Masters).
Australia’s remarkable run of victories in just over a year began with Richard Green winning the Vic Open but then it was Day’s Farmers Insurance Open success, and the first of five wins in 2015 for the Ohio-based Aussie, also that week in February 2015 that was the catalyst for a phenomenal run of success.
Of course, two outstanding highlights was Day’s four victories in five starts commencing with his RBC Canadian Open success and including also capturing an emotional first Major success in lifting the Rodman Wanamaker Trophy in winning the PGA Championship.
Adam Scott (AUS) Champion, after the Final Round of the WGC Cadillac Championship, Blue Monster, Trump National, Doral, Florida, USA. 06/03/2016.
Picture: Golffile | Mark Davison
All photo usage must carry mandatory copyright credit (© Golffile | Mark Davison)
And recently, Australian golf has glowed in the success of Adam Scott winning back-to-back on the PGA Tour in capturing the Honda Classic and a week later, a second WGC title in Miami and hours after fellow Queenslander Brad Kennedy was handed the New Zealand PGA Championship trophy.
In fact, there has been also five weeks this past 13 months, including this week, when two Australians have dominated in winning on the same week on different tour’s.
It begs the question whether or not Australians have ever enjoyed such success in a similar 12/13 month time frame.
Nonetheless, it speaks volumes for the strength of ‘Down Under’ golf at the game’s highest level, and we still have four Majors, two WGC titles and the Australian summer of golf later this year to be contested in 2016.
Hereunder is a list of Australian male pro golfers amazing run of triumphs from February 2015 to mid-March 2016.
2015
(Last day of tournament in brackets)
Richard Green – Vic Open (Feb 8th)
Jason Day – Farmers Insurance Open – PGA Tour (Feb 8th)
Aaron Townsend – Victorian PGA (Feb 13th)
Matthew Millar – New Zealand PGA (Mar 8th)
Jordan Zunic – New Zealand Open (Mar 15th)
Adam Bland – Japan PGA Championship – Japan Tour (17th May)
Rod Pampling – BMW Charity Pro Am, South Carolina – Web.com Tour (May 17th)
Steven Bowditch – AT & T Bryon Nelson – PGA Tour (May 31st)
Jason Day – RBC Canadian Open – PGA Tour (July 24th)
Jason Day – PGA Championship, Wisconsin (Aug 16th)
David Bransdon – Queensland Open (Aug 23rd)
Ryan McCarthy – Angel Cabrera No. 5, Argentina – Argentina Pro Tour (Aug 24th)
Jason Day – Barclays Championship, New Jersey – PGA Tour (Aug 30th)
Scott Arnold – Cordon Golf Open, France – European Challenge Tour (Sept 6th)
Jason Day – BMW Championship, Chicago – PGA Tour (Sept 30th)
James Nittes – South Pacific Open, Fiji (Oct 3rd)
Scott Hend – Macau Open, Macau – Asian Tour (Oct 18th)
Brett Rumford – Western Australia PGA (Nov 1st)
Daniel Fox – Western Australian Open (Nov 8th)
Ben Eccles – NSW Open (Nov 15th)
Peter Senior – Australian Masters, Melbourne (Nov 22nd)
Matt Jones – Australian Open, Sydney – (Nov 29th)
Nathan Holman – Australian PGA, Gold Coast – Australasian/European Tour (Dec 6th)
Marc Leishman – Nedbank Golf Challenge, South Africa – Sunshine/European Tour (Dec 6th)
2016
Ashley Hall – Victorian PGA – (Feb 12th)
Marcus Fraser – Maybank Championship, Malaysia – European/Asian Tour (Feb 21st)
Adam Scott – The Honda Classic, Florida – PGA Tour (Feb 28th)
Adam Scott – WGC – Cadillac Championship, Florida (Mar 6th)
Brad Kennedy – New Zealand PGA (Mar 6th)
Matthew Griffin – New Zealand Open (Mar 13th)
Scott Hend – True Thailand Classic, Thailand – Asian/European Tour (Mar 13th)
