PGA Tour of Australasia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 Schedule
2 Order of Merit winners
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

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 is the Von Nida Tour (named after Australian golfer Norman Von Nida) which features around ten events with purses of around one hundred thousand Australian Dollars each. The main tour events take place in the Southern Hemisphere summer, that is late in the calendar year and early in the next one, while the Von Nida Tour events mainly take place in the local spring and autumn. However the money list is calculated for calendar years.

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, has been 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. The tour chairman Wayne Grady, and player Mark Hensby both complained that Australia's biggest golf icon Greg Norman, who is a U.S. resident, doesn't do enough to support the tour. Norman dismissed their comments. [1]

[edit] Schedule

The table below shows the 2007 schedule. It only lists official money events on the main tour. For a complete table of events recognised by the PGA Tour of Australasia, including Von Nida Tour events and World Golf Championships see the official site. 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	State / Country	Prize fund	Winner	Ranking points^[1]	Notes
15-18 Feb	Jacob's Creek Open Championship	South Australia	USD 600,000	Scott Sterling (N/A)	8 (16)	Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour
22-25 Feb	HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship	New Zealand	USD 600,000	Nicholas Thompson (N/A)	8 (16)	Co-sanctioned by the Nationwide Tour
1-4 Mar	Johnnie Walker Classic	Thailand	GBP 1,250,000	Anton Haig (N/A)	20 (40)	Co-sanctioned by the Asian and European Tours
8–11 Nov	HSBC Champions Tournament	China	USD 5,000,000			Co-sanctioned By The Asian, European and Sunshine Tours
22-25 Nov	Mastercard Masters	Australia	AUD 1,500,000			Co-sanctioned by The European Tour
29 Nov - 2 Dec	Blue Chip New Zealand Open	New Zealand	NZD 1,500,000			Co-sanctioned by The European Tour
6-9 Dec	Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship	Australia	AUD 1,200,000
13-16 Dec	MFS Australian Open	Australia	AUD 1,500,000

Source: [2]

[edit] Order of Merit winners

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

[edit] References

^ Each tournament is allocated a certain number of world ranking points, and initially this number is doubled up (see Official World Golf Rankings for more on this somewhat confusing system). Some sources use original points and others use doubled-up points, so both are given here for the sake of clarity.