Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open receive major prizemoney cash injection
Australia’s two flagship golf tournaments – including the one which Masters champion Rory McIlroy – are set to receive their most significant prize money injections in years.
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Rory McIlroy’s return to Australia will coincide with the most significant prize money increases in years for the country’s two flagship golf tournaments.
The PGA Tour of Australasia confirmed on Monday the Australian PGA Championship and the national championship, which McIlroy will play for the first time in more than a decade, will boast higher purses for the grand slam winner’s highly-anticipated visit to Melbourne.
The Australian PGA Championship will offer $2.5 million (up from $2 million) at Royal Queensland Golf Club later this year while the Australian Open, which McIlroy will headline at Royal Melbourne, has been boosted to a minimum of $2 million (up from $1.7 million).
Fresh from becoming just the sixth man to complete golf’s grand slam after his emotional win in the Masters, McIlroy signed a two-year deal to play the Australian Open, creating enormous buzz for an event which has struggled since the Covid pandemic.
Golf Australia has abandoned the contentious dual gender format of men and women playing on the same course in the same week for different trophies, and will try to lure homegrown stars Cameron Smith, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Min Woo Lee and Marc Leishman home to challenge McIlroy for the Stonehaven Cup.
The DP World Tour will again co sanction both the Australian PGA Championship and Australian Open.
The announcement comes as the PGA Tour of Australasia announced its new season will begin at the PNG Open in August and will include a return of the NT PGA Championship later that month.
The NSW Open will be one of the highlights of the first half of the season at the Greg Norman-designed The Vintage in the Hunter Valley, and will be a crucial lead-in for the two Australian majors which follow.
“The Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season is all about ‘the chase’ and we’re delighted our professionals will be chasing record prize money across the first half of the season,” PGA Tour of Australasia chief executive Gavin Kirkman said.
“They’ll also be chasing titles, exemptions and opportunities to compete internationally.
“There is so much on the line for our players as they try to follow the pathway that has been created all the way to the PGA Tour.
“We saw what was possible with Elvis Smylie winning twice on our Tour last year and going on to win the order of merit, earn his DP World Tour card and starts in two majors.
“Careers can be changed in just a few months.”
Smylie outduelled Smith and Leishman on the final day of a rain-shortened Australian PGA Championship last year to earn full-time DP World Tour membership and was also rewarded with a spot in the US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow last month.
He will play the British Open at Royal Portrush in July, one of eight Australians already in the field alongside West Australian and ex-bikie Ryan Peake, who provided one of the sports stories of the year when he won the New Zealand Open after spending five years in prison.
The PGA Tour of Australasia season will end next March, with the 2026 events to be confirmed at a later date.
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