A golfing year full of innovative new formats aimed at popularising the sport begins this week in Australia with the Oates Vic Open. Co-sanctioned by the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia, Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour (ALPG) and Ladies European Tour (LET), the event is hailed by the organisers as “the only golf tournament of its kind around the world, where the men’s and women’s fields compete on the same courses, at the same time, for an equal share of the prize money. In 2018, the combined purse will be $1.3 million, meaning the men and women will each battle it out in Barwon Heads for a share of $650,000.”
The Vic Open will be followed next week by the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth at Lake Karrinyup Country Club (Western Australia), the second edition of an event tri-sanctioned by the Australasian, Asian and European Tours and featuring a six-hole match play format on the final day.
Preparing for this week’s “mixed” tournament, Matthew Griffin, winner of the men’s event in 2014, said it was one of the highlights on his calendar, and not just because he returns as a former champion. “There’s just a really nice feel around the whole event. You get to see a lot of old friends from the ladies side that you haven’t seen in a while and obviously it’s always great coming back to a place where you’ve won before as well. They’ve (Golf Victoria) done a great job in building the event; it just gets bigger every year.
“The whole idea of tournament golf is to get more people playing and if these kinds of events can draw more people to the game through participation and sponsorship it’s definitely a win for us as players because it obviously means we’re playing for a bigger prize like this year.”
Defending women’s champion Mel Reid, a six-time winner on the LET, said the equal amount of money on offer was not only good for the tournament, but for women’s golf as a whole. “I think it’s great. I think that’s kind of the way that golf needs to go to a certain degree. There’s lots of equality chat going on at the minute all over the world and the prize money for the guys is obviously much more on the PGA Tour than the LPGA.
“I don’t find that very acceptable and so it’s nice to have a tournament where it is equal. It’s great for the girls and great publicity for us. I hope that the guys enjoy us being around as well. For me, there should be way more tournaments like this at the same venue. I think it would be fantastic for golf.”
Hannah Green, who began her first full season on the LPGA Tour at the Pure Silk-Bahamas LPGA Classic last week, finishing tied for 11th, made a rushed trip from the Bahamas to Barwon Heads to tee it up. “It’s a pretty special event I think to have both the men and women play. My boyfriend Jarryd (Felton) also plays so that’s a factor in coming back too and it’s a great course and great venue, we’re pretty lucky.”
Felton, a two-time ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia winner, and Green will be hoping to replicate Richard Green and Marianne Skarpnord’s famous victory in the 2015 Oates Vic Open when the engaged couple took out their respective tournaments.
Green and Felton last played a professional tournament against one another at last year’s Nexus Risk TSA Group WA Open. “This year I’ll be travelling a lot and Jarryd will be too,” said Green, “so we won’t be crossing paths that many times. To be able to play any event on the same course is pretty cool. I was thinking two years ago the purse was so different and it’s just getting better and better. Obviously the prize money is a factor to come and play too but it’s just such a great event and it’s nice to see the interest growing in it.”
(Photos courtesy of PGA of Australia)
