PGA Tour of Australasia

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The PGA Tour of Australasia is a professional golf tour for men. Official events on the tour count for World Golf Ranking points. The tour was formed in 1973 as the PGA Tour of Australia and adopted its current name in 1991.

Most of the leading players on the tour are Australian, with a smaller domestic contingent from New Zealand, but players from many other countries all over the world also participate. The very best Australasian players devote most of their time to the PGA Tour or the European Tour, typically returning home for two or three events each year or even not at all. Therefore the Australasian Tour is a feeder for the larger tours. Some of the leading events are co-sanctioned by the European Tour in order to encourage higher ranked players to enter and to attract more sponsorship. Players with a background on the tour who have reached the world top 20 since the turn of the Millennium include Steve Elkington and Adam Scott. The leading tournaments on the tour include the Australian Open, the Australian PGA Championship, the Australian Masters and the New Zealand Open.

The PGA Tour of Australasia's development tour was the Von Nida Tour (named after Australian golfer Norman Von Nida) which featured around ten events with purses in the region of AUD100,000 each. The main tour events took place in the Southern Hemisphere summer, that is late one calendar year and early the next, while the Von Nida Tour events mainly took place in the local spring and autumn. However the money list was calculated for calendar years. From 2009, the Von Nida Tour has been merged into the PGA Tour of Australasia Tour.^[1]

In November 2005 it was reported by the BBC that the tour was going through difficult times, with the schedule for the 2005/06 summer season reduced to six events, three of them co-sponsored by other tours. The Heineken Classic, which was the richest event in Australasia in 2005, was cancelled in 2006 due to the withdrawal of the sponsor. One factor in the tour's problems is the rise of the nearby Asian Tour. Tour chairman Wayne Grady, and player Mark Hensby both accused Australia's biggest golf icon Greg Norman, who is a U.S. resident, of not doing enough to support the tour. Norman dismissed their comments.^[2]

OneAsia Tour

In January 2009, it was announced that there would be a new series of events across the Asia-Pacific region, to be organised by the PGA Tour of Australasia in co-operation with China Golf Association, the Japan Golf Tour, the Korean Golf Association and the Korean PGA. The aim of these events would be to raise the profile of professional golf in the region, and compete with the likes of the PGA European Tour. The series would initially comprise of six events, three in China, two in Australia and one in South Korea, with plans to expand to at least thirteen in 2010 as events in Japan were added, and over 20 by 2011.^[3][4][5]

The introduction of the OneAsia series has not been universally welcomed, with strong opposition coming from the Asian Tour in particular, with support from its members.^[6] All of the six events announced for 2009 were existing tournaments, including some already sanctioned by the Asian Tour. One of them, the Pine Valley Beijing Open, was called off a few weeks before it was due to be held. The organisers officially attributed this decision to the state of the course and a clash of dates with the Players Championship, but some media commentators dismissed these reasons since the tournament had clashed with the Players Championship the previous year as well, and attributed the cancellation to sponsor discontent with the sanctioning changes.^[7]

OneAsia was discussed at the annual meeting of the International Federation of PGA Tours during the 2009 Masters Tournament. The Series would need to become a member of the Federation if it wishes to be able to award Official World Golf Ranking points in its own right. Points are currently available in all events due to those conferred by the PGA Tour of Australasia and the PGA European Tour, as the Chinese and Korean tours are not Federation members. Under present arrangements it is unlikely that any new tournaments launched by OneAsia will receive ranking points, and could prove difficult to attract top players without them. At the meeting OneAsia and the Asian Tour both claimed that the game's powerbrokers understood the strength of their case, but neither received any public endorsements from the others members.^[8]

Schedule

The table below shows the 2009 schedule. It only lists official money events on the main tour. Following the merger with the Von Nida Tour, there is a significant increase in the number of tournaments over previous years. The number in brackets after each winner's name is the number of PGA Tour of Australasia events he had won up to and including that tournament. This information is only shown for PGA Tour of Australasia members.

Dates	Tournament	Location (Australia unless stated)	Prize fund	Winner	OWGR points	Notes
26 Jan-1 Feb	Subaru Victorian Open	Clayton South, Melbourne, Victoria	AUD110,000	Ashley Hall (2)	n/a
5-8 Feb	Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship	Point Cook, Melbourne, Victoria	AUD110,000	Andre Stolz (4)	n/a
19-22 Feb	Johnnie Walker Classic	Perth, Western Australia	GBP1,250,000	Danny Lee (n/a) (amateur)	32	Co-sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours
26 Feb-1 Mar	Moonah Classic	Mornington Peninsula, Victoria	USD600,000	Alistair Presnell (1)	16	Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour
5-8 Mar	New Zealand PGA Championship	Christchurch, New Zealand	USD600,000	Steven Alker (4)	16	Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour
12-15 Mar	Michael Hill New Zealand Open	Queenstown, New Zealand	USD600,000	Alex Prugh (n/a)	16	Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour
22-25 Oct	John Hughes Geely WA Open	Perth, Western Australia	AUD110,000	Michael Curtain (1)	n/a
29 Oct - 1 Nov	Laurance Scrap Metals WA PGA Championship	Bunbury, Western Australia	AUD110,000	Andrew Bonhomme (2)	n/a
5-8 Nov	Cellarbrations Queensland PGA Championship	Toowoomba, Queensland	AUD110,000	Steven Bowditch (2)	n/a
12-15 Nov	JBWere Masters	Melbourne, Victoria	AUD1,500,000	Tiger Woods (n/a)	28	Co-sanctioned by the European Tour
19-22 Nov	Cellarbrations NSW PGA Championship	Wollongong, New South Wales	AUD110,000	Aaron Townsend (2)	n/a
26-29 Nov	New South Wales Open	Hunter Valley, New South Wales	AUD135,000	Leigh McKechnie (1)	n/a
3-6 Dec	Australian Open	Sydney, New South Wales	AUD1,750,000	Adam Scott (2)	32	Co-sanctioned by the OneAsia Tour
10-13 Dec	Australian PGA Championship	Sunshine Coast, Queensland	AUD1,500,000			Co-sanctioned by the OneAsia Tour

Source: [1]

Order of Merit winners

• 2008 Mark Brown
• 2007 Craig Parry
• 2006 Nick O'Hern
• 2005 Adam Scott
• 2004 Richard Green
• 2003 Peter Lonard
• 2002 Craig Parry
• 2000/01 Aaron Baddeley
• 1999/00 Michael Campbell
• 1998/99 Jarrod Moseley
• 1997/98 Andrew Coltart
• 1996/97 Peter Lonard
• 1995 Craig Parry
• 1994 Robert Allenby
• 1993 Peter Senior
• 1992 Robert Allenby
• 1991 Rodger Davis

PGA Tour of Australia

• 1990 Rodger Davis
• 1989 Peter Senior
• 1988 Greg Norman
• 1987 Peter Senior
• 1986 Greg Norman
• 1985 Ossie Moore
• 1984 Greg Norman
• 1983 Greg Norman
• 1982 Bob Shearer
• 1981 Bob Shearer
• 1980 Greg Norman
• 1979 Jack Newton
• 1978 Greg Norman
• 1977 Bob Shearer
• 1976 Mark Lye
• 1975 Bill Dunk
• 1974 Bob Shearer
• 1973 Stewart Ginn

See also

• Golfers with most PGA Tour of Australasia wins

References

External links

• Official site