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The Males’s and Ladies’s Australian Open can be performed collectively for the primary time, with seven-time main champion Karrie Webb popping out of semi-retirement to chase one other title.
Key factors:
- 144 males and 144 ladies will compete for an equal cut up of $3.4 million prize cash
- The tournaments can be performed at The Victoria Golf Membership and Kingston Heath
- 5-time champion Webb stated she “would not miss the chance” to take part
The tournaments can be performed at The Victoria Golf Membership and Kingston Heath on Melbourne’s sandbelt from December 1-4.
The programs will share internet hosting duties for the opening two days and the closing two rounds at Victoria, with full fields of 144 males and 144 ladies competing for an equal cut up of $3.4 million prize cash.
In one other first, the boys’s event can be co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour — previously the European Tour — with organisers hoping gamers will journey to Australia for a two-tournament swing because the Australian PGA Championship takes place per week prior at Royal Queensland Golf Membership.
The Victorian Open at thirteenth Seaside was a template, that includes combined fields since 2012.
“By bringing these two occasions, the boys’s and girls’s, collectively, we are attempting to create an ideal celebration of golf within the week,” stated Golf Australia chief govt James Sutherland on Friday.
“The boys’s and girls’s Opens are the most important titles in Australian golf and to convey them collectively on the one stage is one thing actually vital.”
Males’s winners embody Rory McIlroy, Jordan Speith and Adam Scott whereas the defending champion from 2019 is Australian Matt Jones, with the event cancelled for the previous two years because of COVID-19.
Korean world quantity 9 Inbee Park gained the final ladies’s version in 2020 whereas world primary Jin Younger Ko claimed the title in 2018.
Webb, who has gained the Australian Open 5 occasions, was the final native winner together with her 2014 victory at Victoria, however she additionally gained at Kingston Heath in 2008.
“I’ve performed two Australian Opens, one at Vic and one at Kingston Heath and fared fairly effectively at each, positively would like to tee it up.
“I did play a event in Florida in January and plan to play a pair in the summertime over within the States, so my type will not be too distant.
“Melbourne golf programs are a problem at the very best of occasions, so we’ll see the way it goes.”
Whereas the Australian Open at all times attracts the cream of girls’s golfers, Webb thought the programs might assist lure extra of the highest males.
“I hope each fields are actually sturdy — the Australian guys have not been residence for a few years so it would be actually thrilling to have all of them residence,” the seven-time main winner stated.
“While you announce the Australian Open at two nice venues like this, I feel gamers present up for positive.
“Publicity-wise, when it is a males’s group and a ladies’s group again to again, enjoying on the identical golf course, I feel it is most likely extra helpful for the ladies’s recreation as a result of folks will see simply how good we actually are.”
AAP
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