Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Summer 2016 | Page 20

VENUES;

Three Unique Experiences
By Bruce Young

As a golf journalist who has covered hundreds upon
hundreds of tournaments, either by attending them or
remotely, I found this summer’s events on the Australasian
Tour perhaps the most enjoyable I have experienced in my
15 years of covering such events.
Australia’s three flagship events, the Emirates Australian
Open, the ISPS HANDA World Cup and the Australian PGA
Championship, each had their own unique attraction so
let’s take a look at what made them so appealing.
The return to Royal Sydney for the Australian Open, in
what was a one-off switch of venue before the event heads
back to The Australian Golf Club next year and to the
nearby Lakes Golf Club in the immediate years thereafter,
displayed the qualities of that layout and while not the
perfect tournament venue, mainly because of the lack of
returning nines, Royal Sydney once again provided a classy
winner in Jordan Spieth.
Spieth displayed a capacity to get the job done when
playing with not necessarily his A game but he has learnt
to live with that. Admittedly his B game is considerably
better than most in this year’s field’s A game and when the
crunch came late on Sunday Spieth found a way to make
it happen.
“I didn’t have much confidence in my swing on the last
couple of holes today in regulation,” said Spieth after
his victory. “But I was able to calm down in between and
said, let’s go ahead and prove to ourselves that we can hit
clutch shot swings when it matters.”
In three starts at the Australian Open Spieth has been
twice a winner and once runner-up so his record is hard
to question.
The champion was, wisely, a little hesitant in confirming
he will be back next year but highlighted his love of Sydney
and the Australian Open. “I certainly plan on it, it’s hard to
tell a year from now. But how can you argue with coming
here and gaining the confidence that we’ve had out of this
event? So, I certainly plan to; just don't know what’s going
to happen 12 months from now.

20 Q Golf

Summer 2016

“I’ve cut out a lot of overseas travel this year, but we still
came here, because that’s how important this event is to
us and I haven’t gone anywhere else.”
The ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf was played in
Melbourne the week after the Australian Open and
a return to the team format proved a welcome one.
Professional tournament golf can become a little one
dimensional at times and, while not all of the game’s
leading players were at Kingston Heath to experience the
joy of playing in a team format for their country, those who
were relished the opportunity and genuinely enjoyed the
experience.
Even the switch to a combined stroke-play event three
years ago when won by Jason Day and Adam Scott had
its issues with Scott mentioning such in a pre-event press
conference.
“I've played in three or four of these before and my
feedback after the last one with Jason was it was great to
win but it was just a shame that we didn't play one round
together through the event,” Scott said. “It didn't have
that team feel even though we were playing as a team.
This week will be a lot more fun for Marc and I going
around together all four days.”
It did not work out well for the Australians however as
they finished well back in the field this time but their
presence and more especially that of Adam Scott’s was key
to a lot of local interest.
The eventual winners, Denmark, and more especially its
senior player, Soren Kjeldsen, perhaps summed it up best
when, in his post event media conference, he highlighted
the joys of playing with a fellow countryman.
“I think the psychology has been really interesting for me
because like when you play your own game, it's different,
but when you've got a guy like this on the back nine on
Sunday, it's like you feel you want to die for the guy,”
Kieldsen said.

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