New European Tour Event Perth 2012

[michaeljames92]

Just thought I'd say that my golf club secured a European Tour event for the next 3 years. It will have a prize fund of $2 Million US(largest in Australian golf) and will be played the week before the Malaysia PGA Tour event, which is the week before the HSBC champions in China. Our Golf club held the Johnnie Walker classic in 2002-2003 when Ernie Els blitzed the field in perfect conditions in 2003. Guys like Els, Goosen, Garcia, Faldo, Westwood, Scott, Rose, Karlsson, Casey, Immelman and Wi all played back in the day. Pretty exciting stuff, hopefully it'll attract some top players as a warm up to the HSBS Champions(or maybe not). The people involved are hoping guys like Rory and Kaymer will play, but regardless it will be great fun watching these guys play our course.

http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=151032.html#perth+international+golf+championship+2012

2002 results:

http://www.iseekgolf.com/tournaments/252-johnnie-walker-classic-2002

2003 results:

http://www.iseekgolf.com/tournaments/253-johnnie-walker-classic-2003

[makaveli]

Cheers! It's always exciting when your home golf secures such a big event! ;)

[iacas]

Sweet! You'll have to let us know how tournament preparation goes, how the course changes, how much if any you're "put out" by it or what privileges you get during the tournament, etc.

[michaeljames92]

Will do. I'd imagine they'd grow the fairways in quite a bit as they are on the generous side. The greens are what will decide the scores, they are rather similar to Royal Melbourne, quite large, but undulating and very quick.

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by michaeljames92

Will do. I'd imagine they'd grow the fairways in quite a bit as they are on the generous side. The greens are what will decide the scores, they are rather similar to Royal Melbourne, quite large, but undulating and very quick.

Any stand out holes?

It would be interesting to see how much they change ( if at all ) some of the holes....adding tee boxes etc?

How long is the course?

[michaeljames92]

They won't add any tee boxes, they just went through and added a few on some holes in the past 12 months. It's not that long, just over 7000 yards off the blacks IIRC. It has 2 drivable par 4's with quite a few holes either drastically uphill/downhill which can be challenging at times if you don't put the ball in the right spot off the fairway.

I'd say the 8th is the signature holes which is a par 3 over water. Sadly, in the past 5-10 years many bunkers were removed to make the course easier for the members which is a shame because it used to be much tougher. Nicklaus won the Aus Open there in '68 and Player won in '74 so a lot of big names have played well here before.

[jamo]

I assume it's going to be open beforehand under tournament conditions. You should play, see how you score.

[michaeljames92]

Yeah definitely. I've played the course in a state comp before(off the blacks) and shot 73, playing just about as good as I can. One par 4 plays 435m off the Black tee, which is slightly uphill at the end too. The course is not terribly long compared to US events but it has a mix of short par 4's and long ones too. The harder holes generally play into a sea breeze, which makes driver-3 wood-chip not uncommon. The tournament is in our spring so the greens won't be diabolical like they can get in summer, making holing putts pretty tough, similar to what we saw at the President's Cup.

Originally Posted by jamo

I assume it's going to be open beforehand under tournament conditions. You should play, see how you score.

[makaveli]

You know we would love to see some behind the scene pics in a few months right? :D

[deasy55]

If it's the week before the HSBC, doesn't that mean it will be clashing with the Shanghai Masters? Which, if the rumours are true, will be sanctioned (or at least recognised) by the European Tour next year also.

Edit: Ignore me, I read your post wrong!

[Hackforfun]

Looking forward to this. Will get to see some world class action and only have a 10 minute drive to get there :D

[michaeljames92]

Well it's less than 3 weeks away, and with a cancellation of the tournament at Valderrama, the field has gotten somewhat stronger.

I can see from the player list, that Robert Rock will be playing. I am really looking forward to following him.

http://www.pga.org.au/site/_content/document/00042819-source.pdf

I will try to go around and take some snaps sometime next week, perhaps when I play on saturday. Will definitely attempt to take some snaps on the Public practice round.

[joekelly]

Didn't John Daly play a tourney in Perth last year?  And walked off the course when things did not go his way?  I forgot the details but did read that he enjoyed his stay in Perth.  I have found that the speaking accent of the folks who live near or outside Perth have been very difficult for me to understand, some kind of language cross between the London East End and Penobscot, Maine so no wonder John got hot under the collar.

[michaeljames92]

I believe it was at the Australian Open at The Lakes in Sydney. The accent in Western Australia tends to be a bit rougher than perhaps Melbourne or Sydney.

[michaeljames92]

Well, it's starting a week from today. The Course condition is not the best I've seen it, it seems everyone is wanting a round before the tournament starts as it will be unavailable for a week. I hope the greens improve because at the moment they are probably the worst I've seen them. Took this photo on Saturday morning, which is the approach to the 18th green.