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The Australian Amateur Championship, first staged in 1894 and won by many Australians who’ve gone on to forge successful professional careers, will break with more than a century of tradition when it is played this week as a 72-hole stroke play competition.
Like the (British) Amateur and US Amateur championships, the Australian Amateur has been contested since 1908 as a match-play event for the top 64 (or 32) stroke-play qualifiers. Last year, Golf Australia decided to run both the men’s and women’s events at Kooyonga Golf Club in Adelaide, 9-12 February, as four conventional rounds of stroke play. The new format will also apply to the junior and senior national titles.
Golf Australia high-performance boss Brad James said the decision to change formats was made purely to help the country’s best young players transition to the professional ranks.
“From a high-performance perspective, this is our preference because 72 holes of stroke play replicates what our athletes will experience in professional golf,” James told GGP.
“Yes, we’ve had a match-play component in the Australian amateur for 113 years, but just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good reason to keep doing it.”
James made the point that those amateur tournaments which feature a knockout match-play section – such as the Australian, British and US Amateur events – did not always produce winners who “transitioned” well to professional golf. He feels the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, a 72-hole medal event, is more successful in that regard, citing Hideki Matsuyama’s back-to-back wins in 2010 and 2011 as proof. A look at the list of APAC champions since 2011, however, does not exactly bolster his argument, even if they’re all undoubtedly fine players.
It is precisely that uncertainty which former tour pro Mike Clayton, a former Australian Amateur champion himself, loves about match play. Clayton, who won the 1978 final against Tony Gresham at the 36th hole, believes the change is a shame because match play is a quirky, fun format that produces unpredictable results, and teaches players how to perform under intense pressure.
“When you’re coming down the 17th, 18th or 19th hole in a match and it’s all square, it really teaches you how to play under pressure,” Clayton says. “In a stroke-play tournament, unless you’re vying for the lead, you’re often not under that same intense pressure.”
“ ... That’s the beauty of match play. It does throw up unusual results and dealing with both good and bad fortune is an important lesson for any aspiring pro to learn – and besides, it’s great fun to play.”
MIKE CLAYTON, former Australian Amateur champion
Clayton says the fact there has been no multiple winner of the Australian title since Doug Bachli (also the 1954 Amateur Championship winner, incidentally) in 1948 and 1962 shows just how hard it has been not just to qualify for one of the top 64 spots in the field, but successfully negotiate five rounds of match play.
He believes he was hugely fortunate to sit on the “right” side of the match-play draw in 1978.
“All the best players were on the other side of the draw, so I got very lucky,” Clayton said. “To me, that’s the beauty of match play. It does throw up unusual results and dealing with both good and bad fortune is an important lesson for any aspiring pro to learn – and besides, it’s great fun to play.”
But that cuts no ice with James, who says GA’s high-performance programme is about producing the best winners, not promoting the game through a format which spectators (and TV) might find more appealing.
There are other, less significant reasons for Golf Australia’s change. These include:
The increasing difficulty in finding two courses of similar quality, in close proximity to each other, for a week.
The fact a four-round stroke format enables Golf Australia to play the tournament midweek, and not encroach on members’ play on the weekend.
And (this is where COVID-19 comes in) given that the golf scene has been affected so much in the past 12 months, the new format means GA only needs to pay one club for the right to use their facilities, rather than two. In these straitened financial times, saving money is an important factor.
Of the past Australian Amateur winners, perhaps Jim Ferrier (who prevailed four times between 1935 and 1939) is best known. Ferrier counts the 1947 PGA Championship (interestingly, a match-play event at the time) among his 18 PGA Tour wins.
Of the recent champions, Cameron Smith (2013) and Cameron Davis (2015) are now plying their trade on the PGA Tour, while Michael Campbell (1992) is still basking in his 2005 US Open victory.
Smith’s 3-and-2 victory came after being 5 down to Geoff Drakeford after 14 holes in the morning of the final. As Clayton notes, that comeback – under that kind of pressure – would have given him an enormous boost of self-belief as he headed into the pro ranks.
It is interesting to note – and supporters of the match play concept might find some solace in this – that the US Amateur competition was changed to four rounds of stroke play in 1965 but, having proved less than a resounding success, returned to match play in 1973, a format that has been used ever since.
In other words, watch this space.
Top photo: Australian golfers Ivor Whitton and Jim Ferrier in 1931.
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