Warren Strikes Gold at WA PGA in Kalgoorlie

Justi Warren with his trophy

An emotional Justin Warren has shed the weight of seven years of near misses with a clinical two-stroke victory at the CKB WA PGA Championship presented by TX Civil and Logistics in Kalgoorlie.

Mother Nature Helps Conran Claim Queanbeyan Victory

James Conran with his trophy

Every golfer wants to win off their own bat, yet James Conran happily accepted the trophy and first place cheque after rain ultimately cancelled Round 2 at the Queanbeyan Ford NSW Open Regional Qualifier on Friday to send him home a winner.

Conran One Clear of Hole-in-One Hero Pickin at Queanbeyan

James Conran and Jye Pickin walking along the fairway

James Conran and Jye Pickin first played golf together some 13 years ago in junior golf, and after teeing it up together in Round 1, will go head-to-head in the second, and final, round of the Queanbeyan Ford NSW Open Regional Qualifier.

Black Backs Irish Grit at Queanbeyan

Reece Black standing with his arms crossed and smiling

Reece Black has putted through hailstones and 50 mile per hour winds. A wet Friday forecast at Queanbeyan Golf Club is not going to rattle him.

Magical Finish Sets High Barr

Scott Barr wins the World Sand Greens Championship at Binalong

You could watch a lot of golf and never see anything as incredible as Scott Barr’s run to the World Sand Greens Championship today.

Capped by a spectacular 40m hole-out for birdie on the final hole at Binalong, the West Australian scythed through the field with a course-record score of 10-under-par 60 to win by three shots at an extraordinary total of 16 under through the 36-hole event.

At 54 – twice the age of many of his rivals – Barr has had a successful global career full of achievements.

Which makes it so implausible that today, on a blustery and chilly afternoon, the Canberra-raised veteran enjoyed so many firsts.

Keep Your Toys in the Cot

Binalong Golf Club

There’s plenty of wily old campaigners who frequent the sand greens of Binalong.

Some are burly, in the classic Aussie man-on-the-land sort of way.

Others are slim – gender irrelevant – and no threat to overpower the brilliant, occasionally quirky Yass Valley layout.

But all the good ones, through the generations, will tell you the same thing when it comes to putting together a good score at Binalong, and all its sister sand-based courses.

Be patient.

By George, Record is Savaged!

George Giblett teeing off

The first round of the World Sand Greens Championship was played with a shotgun start today, so it was fitting that it finished with an almighty bang.

In perfect conditions at Binalong, Andrew Kelly’s 2024 course record of seven-under-par 63 was in the crosshairs.

But watching that 2024 mark bettered five times in the space of 20 minutes at the end of a frenetic first round was, even by the ever-improving PGA Tour of Australasia’s standards, extraordinary.

Victorian Kyle Michel was first in with a 62, a score then matched by Queenslander Doug Klein and then New South Wales pair Matt Stieger and James Grierson.

That quartet poured in 25 birdies, four eagles and just one bogey between them in what, on any other day, would have been a story to behold.

But they hadn’t figured on towering PGA Tour rookie George Giblett’s heroics.

Brisbane-based Giblett, in his first five months as an owner of a full tour card as a 25-year-old, showed no nerves against his more seasoned opponents.

And remarkably, in his first full round on a sand greens layout, rolled in seven birdies and an eagle to card a scintillating nine-under-par 61.

New Era Dawns For Army

Josh Armstrong teeing off at Binalong

Precious few golfers tred a linear path to the top. Outsiders see the stories of Nicklaus, Woods or Sorenstam and wrongly assume that their direct routes to stardom are the norm. Very wrongly. Josh Armstrong is the pin-up boy for reality. The 27-year-old was touted as a superstar of the future when he represented the International team at the 2017 Junior Presidents Cup. And it’s not to say that all that has unfolded since has been a disappointment – far from it. But it has been a genuine slog.