Aussie of the month: Elvis Smylie

Smylie broke through on the professional stage in October by winning the WA Open on the PGA Tour of Australasia – the left-hander’s maiden victory as a pro. He then stepped up on the DP World Tour at the co-sanctioned Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane. He stared down 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith in the final group at Royal Queensland to lift the Joe Kirkwood Cup after the event was shortened to 54 holes because of rain. Smylie now has two years’ worth of status on the DP World Tour and is eligible for all the Rolex Series events in 2025 – including this month’s prestigious Dubai Desert Classic. All Elvis needed was a stage to showcase his talents, and he now has it.

Golfers in the news

Herbert’s summer of excellence: Lucas Herbert played a similar summer schedule to his LIV Golf captain, Cameron Smith, and should be applauded for becoming an even better golfer since joining Ripper GC and learning how to improve all aspects of his game under teammates Smith, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones. All three were multiple winners on the PGA Tour before moving to LIV while Herbert had a trio of titles on the European circuit and one on the PGA Tour. In November, Herbert won the NSW Open on the Murray River by three shots over Smith and Corey Lamb, and after the Australian PGA, he shared the 54-hole lead at the Australian Open. Despite a poor final round, Herbert signalled he’s about to have a big season on LIV and, providing he qualifies, the majors, too. 

What are the odds? A member at Gerringong Golf Club on the South Coast of New South Wales, Peter Heffernan made two aces in the space of a week on the same hole: the par-3 second. 

Rudgeley’s consistency in Europe: Kirsten Rudgeley’s impressive year on the Ladies European Tour deserves attention. The West Australian missed just one cut on the LET this season and posted six top-10s, including losing in a playoff at the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.

Peter Thomson Society launched: The Australian Golf Foundation (AGF) has launched the Peter Thomson Society, an organisation aimed at fostering bequests to help enhance and future-proof the sport.

Endorsed by the Thomson family, the Peter Thomson Society is a concept created by the AGF, which is the national fundraising organisation for golf in Australia. Its projects include the AGF Girls Scholarship Program, and the Give Back Program where successful professionals gift back funds to Golf Australia’s high-performance programs.

“In essence, what we’re trying to do is look for opportunities to transform people’s lives through the power of the game,” said AGF chairman Stephen Spargo.

Andrew Thomson said his father would be “very embarrassed” by the honour but at the same time, supportive of it.

“Somewhere out there is another Ian Baker-Finch, or Hannah Green or Min Woo Lee,” he said. “As Australians we face enormous competition from many other countries in producing these champions and it will not be done without this kind of [initiative].”

Birdie of the month: Hannah Green

Green won the Greg Norman Medal for the second time in her career after a stellar season on the LPGA Tour – and a second appearance for Australia at the Olympics, this time in Paris. The Perth product soared to a career-high No.5 on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings after grabbing three LPGA Tour wins in 2024. It was easily the best season so far in the 27-year-old’s already brilliant career. Green first donned the Greg Norman Medal in 2019 at the end of a year in which she captured a maiden major at the Women’s PGA Championship and another LPGA Tour title that season. A week after claiming her second Greg Norman medal, Green hopped on a plane from the LPGA Tour finale in Florida to fly to Melbourne where she finished T-4 at the Women’s Australian Open. 

Bogey of the month: Mixed Australian Open

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the mixed format and scheduling of the Australian Open need work. Many in the women’s field, such as Hannah Green, vocalised a need for the event to return to its traditional February date to allow superstars like Nelly Korda to travel to Australia. Four Australians came off a plane from Florida only 24 hours before the first round in Melbourne and didn’t even get in a practice round. On the course setup, Green said that the pins in round one would have been more tucked if only the men were playing the course. On the men’s side, Adam Scott, who opted out of the Australian summer to rest after a long playing schedule in 2024, said weeks ahead of the tournament that a national open was not a place for a mixed format. Tournament organisers need to give the two amazing championships their own stage.