"VAN" (Sports Desk - 14.05.2025) :: Seventeen Australians and two of our Kiwi brethren will contest two major championships separated by 630 kilometres in the US this week.
The 107th US PGA Championship will be played for the second time at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina as the senior circuit readies for its first major of 2025 with the Regions Tradition in Birmingham, Alabama.
Marking 10 years since Jason Day became the fifth Australian to lift the Wanamaker Trophy, Aussies Day, Cam Davis, Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott, Cameron Smith, Elvis Smylie and Karl Vilips will be joined by New Zealand’s Ryan Fox.
The Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner in 2019, Fox was the last man admitted to the field on the back of his PGA TOUR breakthrough win at the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic.
Smylie, the reigning PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, was granted a special exemption to play his second major just last week while Vilips secured his first major as a professional by virtue of his Puerto Rico Open win in March.
Coach of both Day and Vilips, Col Swatton believes the depth of Aussie talent is testament to the coaching quality built through the PGA of Australia.
“We keep on producing great talent and I think that’s a tribute to the system,” said Swatton.
“The PGA of Australia – of which I’m a proud member – has done a great job and I think that just stands the test of time.
“It’s just saying you guys are doing a great job of what you’re doing to help us do a great job of what we need to do with these athletes. We’re proving that we’re competitive on the world stage.
“That’s a tribute to what we’re doing from a holistic approach to making better golfers.”
Twenty-six years after Graham Marsh won a Regions Tradition reduced to 36 holes by spring snow in Arizona, 10 Aussies and Kiwi Steven Alker will tee it up at Greystone Golf and Country Club.
The influx of Aussies on the PGA TOUR Champions has been significant in recent years, this year’s Regions Tradition the first for Greg Chalmers, David Bransdon, Cameron Percy and Michael Wright.
Both major championships will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo, Round 1 coverage of the US PGA Championship to begin at 3am Friday morning on Fox Sports 503 and coverage of the Regions Tradition to begin at 5am Friday morning on Fox Sports 505.
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