Golf News: Baddley wins the Australian Masters

On the same course on which he honed his game playing pennant as an amateur, Baddeley finished the 72 holes of regular play at 13-under par in a tie with Chopra.

After watching the Swede hole a testing three metre putt to force the playoff, Baddeley joined him in a ritualistic journey up and down the 18th hole.

The pair played the 18th five times for the day without Chopra once hitting the fairway off the tee.

Four times he hit the ball into the right rough and once in the left, one of his recoveries coming up well short of the green in a bunker.

Each time he messed up he produced a minor miracle - until confronted with the easiest putt of the playoff.

With Baddeley having performed his own piece of magic to get out of the scrub, onto the green and into the hole in four, Chopra slid a 2.5m putt past the edge of the hole to break the deadlock...

Read full article

I was really impressed with Baddeley's game this week and thought he thoroughly deserved the gold jacket. He has had a superb year on the US tour and I can really see him stepping up again next year. In an interview after the win Baddeley revealed he almost quit golf in 2000, but after this amazing year I think that he will be very glad he stuck with the game!

Australian Masters - Day 2

Appleby holds a slender lead

Robert Allenby held a one-stroke lead during the second round of the Australian Masters at Huntingdale today. The overnight leader was 9-under-par for the tournament, having shot 4-under today through 11 holes.He claimed an eagle and a birdie on the opening nine holes and another birdie on the 10th hole.

Allenby, a two-time champion, shot a 5-under 67 in yesterday's opening round.

Aaron Baddeley held down second place following a 6-under-par 66 today...

Read full article

Baddeley has really impressed me this year. I always new he had the talent he just needed a bit of confidence to get him on his way. He finished the year 6th in the Fedex cup rankings and is really starting to become a golfer to watch.

Many of the Aussie golf commentators suggested he went to the US too early and should have started on the European Tour like Adam Scott, but I feel he did the right thing

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Golf News: Allenby leads after first day of Australian Masters

Two-time winner Robert Allenby fired a five-under par round of 67 to lead the Australian Masters by one shot after the first round at Huntingdale Thursday.

The 36-year-old Australian leads Sweden's Fredrik Andersson Hed and Englishman Peter Baker, who are tied second after a four-under 68.

Swede Daniel Chopra, New Zealand's Michael Long and Australians Stuart Appleby, Rod Pampling, Kurt Barnes and Paul Marantz were bunched two shots from the lead at three under par....
Read full article

Australasian golf tour launches with controversy

In its prime the Australian golf tour was one of the top tours in the world. Past Australian open winners include such names as Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. This really shows that this was hardly a backwater event that it has become today.

Every year our (by our I mean Australians) tour launches with the same story. Some of our players are not coming back to play our major tournaments. This year Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott will be missing from this weeks Mastercard Masters. Geoff Ogilvy has sighted family reasons and early reports suggest Adam Scott just didn't want to play this week.

Even Robert Allenby has weighed into the debate suggesting that if the top Aussie players don't come back to the tour then the Australian tour will die. However he did mention the pressure put onto the Aussie players to return year after year and reminded the media to go easy of missing players or they will not want to show up next time around

Greg Norman was the perfect example of how this pressure from the media has hindered our tour. Every time he returned he had to field questions and hear scathing attacks on him for not returning for events - so he just stopped showing up.

I know these golfers have such a long season, but I also know the people of Austrlaia would love to see our top players each year. I don't know the solution, but I do know that the top 2 Aussie golfers will be missing this week and that is a real shame.

Australian golf is still producing some of the worlds top players, but our tour is a shambles. The Mastercard Masters is co-sanctioned by the European Tour (a step in the right direction), but only one European Tour player from the top 100 will be playing.

I would love to hear other opinions - feel free to leave a comment.