CAMERON SMITH

AGE: 31

FROM: Brisbane, Queensland

TOUR: LIV Golf/majors

WORLD RANKING: 119

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 8
• Top 25s: 10

HIS STORY: After a 2023 LIV Golf season that featured wins in London and New Jersey, as well as personal-best finishes at two majors – a T-9 at the PGA and a fourth at the US Open – Smith has not been able to recapture the same form in 2024. This year has been solid, with two runner-up results on LIV, but not spectacular. Highlights included a T-6 at the Masters as well as guiding Ripper GC to a season-long teams victory on LIV. It’s not quite the same stellar golf we saw from Smith in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Individually, though, the Australian Open presents a golden opportunity for Smith to win his first Stonehaven Cup.

MIN WOO LEE

AGE: 26

FROM: Perth, Western Australia

TOUR: PGA Tour/majors

WORLD RANKING: 42

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 3
• Top 25s: 10

HIS STORY: Last year, Lee enjoyed top-six results at the Players Championship and US Open. He also secured his PGA Tour card for 2024, before winning the Macau Open and the Australian PGA to close out 2023. In his first full season as a member of the PGA Tour this year, Lee passed with flying colours. He enjoyed two runner-up results: at the Palm Beach event in Florida and the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Lee was also top-30 at the Masters, US Open, PGA Championship and in his Olympics debut for Australia in Paris. He also made a first appearance for the International team at the Presidents Cup in Montreal.

CAMERON DAVIS

AGE: 29

FROM: Sydney, New South Wales

TOUR: PGA Tour/majors

WORLD RANKING: 45

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 1
• Top 10s: 2
• Top 25s: 7

HIS STORY: Davis has said his breakthrough win at the 2017 Australian Open launched his pro career, so it goes without saying where the Sydneysider holds the Stonehaven Cup in his heart. Now based in Seattle, Washington, Davis was outstanding in 2024 – in fact, the only winner from Australia on the PGA Tour. Davis claimed his second career Rocket Mortgage Classic title in Detroit. He was also in contention through three rounds at Augusta National, where he secured his personal best finish at the Masters with a T-12.

LUCAS HERBERT

AGE: 28

FROM: Bendigo, Victoria

TOUR: LIV Golf/Asian Tour/majors

WORLD RANKING: 185

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 5
• Top 25s: 10

HIS STORY: This was the Bendigo product’s first season on LIV Golf playing for Smith’s Ripper GC. Herbert was vital for the team’s consistency and his play towards the end of the individual season, as well as some crucial results in the teams championship in Dallas, helped Ripper GC post their first season-long victory. When Herbert played away from LIV, he was solid with two top-10s in International Series events on the Asian Tour and a T-43 at the PGA Championship. The three-time DP World Tour winner and one-time PGA Tour winner has improved his overall game learning under Smith, and teammates Marc Leishman and Matt Jones.

JOAQUIN NIEMANN

AGE: 25

FROM: Santiago, Chile

TOUR: LIV Golf/Asian Tour/majors

WORLD RANKING: 136

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 2
• Top 10s: 10
• Top 25s: 14

HIS STORY: The defending Australian Open champion arrives in Melbourne having carried his sensational 2023 form, when he won at The Australian Golf Club in a playoff, into 2024. The Chilean has not missed a cut worldwide this year and secured two LIV Golf wins. Like this time last year, Niemann is not yet in any of the majors for 2025 and the Melbourne Sandbelt is an ideal place to snare one of three spots into the 153rd Open Championship given that our Open is among a series of global qualifying events for the UK major.

MARC LEISHMAN

AGE: 41

FROM: Warrnambool, Victoria

TOUR: LIV Golf

WORLD RANKING: 862

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 4
• Top 25s: 9

HIS STORY: The former six-time winner on the PGA Tour had a resurgent LIV Golf season, his third campaign since joining the league in late 2022. Leishman was a chance to win LIV Golf Singapore where he was T-2, while he contributed heavily to Ripper GC’s season-long win.

HANNAH GREEN

AGE: 27

FROM: Perth, Western Australia

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 5

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 3
• Top 10s: 5
• Top 25s: 10

HER STORY: Australia’s best golfer in 2024 by a country mile. Three wins on the LPGA Tour, including at the recent BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, as well as a start on Australia’s Olympic women’s team in Paris alongside Minjee Lee, capped her incredible year overseas. While Green won her first major in 2019 at the Women’s PGA Championship, she is still searching for a maiden Women’s Australian Open crown and all signs point to this being Green’s year.

MINJEE LEE

AGE: 28

FROM: Perth, Western Australia

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 17

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 4
• Top 25s: 8

HER STORY: Last year, Lee joined a stellar club that includes Jan Stephenson and Karrie Webb as the only Australians to win 10 LPGA titles. This year has been a little leaner, although Lee did have a golden chance to win a third major at the US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania, but a back-nine fade during the final round relegated her to T-9. However, Lee appears poised to contend for a maiden Women’s Australian Open crown having finished second to Ashleigh Buhai during the past two editions.

ASHLEIGH BUHAI

AGE: 35

FROM: Johannesburg, South Africa

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 57

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 2
• Top 25s: 8

HER STORY: Buhai was a star amateur who frequently played in Australia as a teenager and, once she turned pro, broke through for a major at the 2022 AIG Women’s Open at Muirfield. She signed off that year by winning the Women’s Australian Open in the first year of the event’s mixed format. Buhai carried that form into 2023, winning the South African Women’s Open and Shoprite LPGA Classic before adding a second straight Women’s Australian Open crown, this time in Sydney.

STEPH KYRIACOU

AGE: 24

FROM: Sydney, New South Wales

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 53

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 1
• Top 25s: 4

HER STORY: Kyriacou shot to prominence as an amateur with a statement victory at the 2020 Australian Ladies Classic Bonville by eight strokes before she had turned pro. That secured a two-year exemption on the Ladies European Tour, which she then used to catapult herself to the LPGA Tour in the US. This year, Kyriacou’s lone top-10 from 21 starts came via a second place at a major, the Evian Championship in France, where she stayed in contention until the 72nd green. Kyriacou shot an impressive final round of 67 only to lose by one stroke to Japan’s Ayaka Furue.

DANIELLE KANG

AGE: 32

FROM: San Francisco, USA

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 202

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 0
• Top 25s: 1

HER STORY: On-course results have not been good for a player with one major among her six career LPGA Tour wins, the last of which came in 2022. The Las Vegas resident faced an enforced lay-off throughout much of 2022 due to a spinal tumour, and is still regaining her form. As such, Kang has not recorded a top-10 on the 2024 LPGA Tour and owns just one top-25. The four-time Solheim Cup player will be looking for a bounce-back win on the Sandbelt, and is a past top-five finisher at the Women’s Australian Open.

GRACE KIM

AGE: 23

FROM: Sydney, New South Wales

TOUR: LPGA Tour

WORLD RANKING: 74

2024 FORM:

• Wins: 0
• Top 10s: 3
• Top 25s: 8

HER STORY: The Sydneysider captured a gold medal at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics as part of a glittering amateur career before bursting onto the pro scene and cracking the US landscape. Kim won once on the secondary Epson Tour in 2022 before her maiden LPGA Tour victory last year. In 2024, Kim has not managed to back up that LPGA breakthrough, but has enjoyed three top-10s among eight top-25s. Her three top-10s included a playoff loss at the Meijer LPGA Classic.