The 2026 Ford NSW Open Regional Qualifying Series tees off this Sunday, with four events across the Northern Rivers and North Coast inside a fortnight before the series shifts south later in the year.

Lismore Workers Golf Club, Teven Golf Course, Coffs Harbour Golf Club and South West Rocks Country Club will each stage a 36-hole qualifier, with the winners and top finishers chasing one of the coveted spots in the 2026 Ford NSW Open at The Vintage Golf Club in the Hunter Valley this November.

Each event carries a $50,000 prize purse for professionals, and the top three non-exempt finishers, professional or amateur, earn direct entry into the NSW Open field.

Lismore is up first, with a Pro-Am on Sunday 26 July followed by two rounds of competition on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 July. The series then moves to Teven Valley from Wednesday 29 July to Friday 31 July, before heading north to Coffs Harbour on Sunday 2 August to Tuesday 4 August. The fourth stop, South West Rocks, runs Wednesday 5 August, finishing on Friday 7 August.

It’s a clean sweep of returning champions this leg, with the 2025 winners from Lismore, Teven, Coffs Harbour and South West Rocks all back to defend their titles.

Phoenix Campbell (VIC) heads back to Lismore off a round of 59 that helped him share the Biloela Pro-Am title with fellow Lismore entrant Jye Pickin ten days ago.

Ben Henkel (VIC) returns to Teven Valley chasing back-to-back titles, and he’ll have company from Will Florimo (QLD), fresh off his maiden Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia win at the Heritage Classic and a three-way playoff finish behind Christopher Wood at last year’s Ford NSW Open.

Josh Armstrong (NSW) heads back to Coffs Harbour to defend the North Coast Open title he won there in 2025, adding to a regional qualifying trail resume that already includes wins at Queanbeyan and the Western Open, and Daley Loumanis (NSW) returns to South West Rocks after his maiden regional qualifier win there in last year.

The Lismore field is headlined by the reigning Ford NSW Open champion, Christopher Wood (QLD), who claimed last year’s title in a three-way playoff, alongside Curtis Luck (WA), the 2016 US Amateur champion who went on to win on the Korn Ferry Tour and play on thge PGA Tour.

Nathan Barbieri (NSW) claimed last season’s National Pro-Am Order of Merit title, and this year’s edition is shaping into another tight contest, with Tim Hart (NSW) currently top of the standings and Jay Mackenzie (NSW) second and arriving in red-hot form. The Lennox Head local claimed his fourth adidas PGA Pro-Am Series title of the season at the Virginia Pro-Am last week, firing a final-round 6-under 65 to win by a single shot, and also has last year’s South Coast Open and win at the WA PGA Championship to his name, giving the qualifier genuine home-track interest on the Northern Rivers.

Also inside the current top 10 of that Order of Merit and in the Lismore field are Louis Dobbelaar, Riley Taylor, Jason Hong, Jye Pickin, Dillon Hart and Samuel Slater, the reigning World Sand Greens champion at Binalong, giving the field considerable depth in form.

Dimitrios Papadatos (NSW), a four-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia and 2014 New Zealand Open champion who has played in multiple Open Championships, and Jake McLeod (QLD), the 2018 NSW Open champion and that year’s PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, add further tour pedigree.

Zach Murray (VIC), a past New Zealand Open winner who led the recent Australian PGA Championship in Coolangatta, and Jordan Doull (WA), a two-time Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia winner who claimed the Webex Players Series Victoria at Rosebud in a four-hole playoff earlier this year, round out a strong professional contingent.

A group of recently turned professionals also headlines the amateur-to-pro pathway story of this year’s series, with Blake Phillips, Coby Carruthers, Ali Rachid and Jye Halls, all former NSW state amateur team members, only months into their professional careers and looking to make an early mark on the qualifying trail.

Entry is free for spectators at all four events, with fans able to walk the fairways alongside the state’s emerging professional and elite amateur talent. The final round of each event will also be broadcast on Kayo from 10 am.

Golf NSW Manager of Tournaments Nicole Martin said the depth of this year’s field reflected the growing standing of the series.

“Having our reigning NSW Open champion back out on the regional trail says everything about how much this pathway means to the players,” Martin said.

“It’s brilliant to see all four defending champions from this leg returning as well, that competitive edge is exactly what makes these events so exciting to watch.”

Martin said the free entry to spectators remained a key part of the series’ appeal.

“These qualifiers give the public a chance to walk alongside the state’s best up-and-coming talent for free, right in their own backyard,” she said.

The Regional Qualifying Series remains one of the most direct pathways into a NSW Open field for players outside the exempt categories, with past winners across the series going on to feature prominently on the Australian summer of golf circuit. The series continues in September and October with events at Catalina and Queanbeyan before the Ford NSW Open at The Vintage Golf Club from 12–15 November.