Australia’s Elvis Smylie gets special exemption for PGA Championship
Emerging star Elvis Smylie will join the Australian assault on the PGA Championship after being given a special exemption into the second major of the year.
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Emerging star Elvis Smylie will join the Australian assault on the PGA Championship after being given a special exemption into the second major of the year.
Smylie, who toppled Cameron Smith on the final day of the rain-shortened Australian PGA Championship last year en route to winning the order of merit title, will make just his second appearance in a major next week.
The 23-year-old missed the cut at the British Open last year, but was told overnight he would be granted a ticket to Quail Hollow.
It will be the first major played since Rory McIlroy became just the sixth man to complete the career grand slam with his unbelievable playoff win over Justin Rose at The Masters.
Smylie has made a strong start to life on the DP World Tour after earning full-time status courtesy of his Australian PGA Championship success, notching top-20 finishes at his last two events in China.
But the exemption into the PGA Championship represents a huge step in his career after a breakthrough professional win at the WA Open late last year.
The world No. 202 will join countrymen Cameron Smith, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, Cameron Davis and Karl Vilips in the field.
Vilips, 23, will also be playing just the second major of his career after earning a spot courtesy of his maiden PGA Tour victory in the Puerto Rico Open earlier this year.
It came just days after he announced a deal to be an ambassador for Tiger Woods’ Sun Day Red clothing line.
Left-handed Smylie, the son of former Australian tennis legend Liz Smylie, is hurriedly making plans to travel to the United States, which was boosted by claiming the PGA Tour of Australasia order of merit crown.
“I set out the goal last October at the start of the season and to be able to achieve it (was incredible), especially knowing with what comes with it, and it was a byproduct of all the good work from the team around me,” Smylie said.
“They’ve been supporting me every step of the way.”
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Originally published as Australia’s Elvis Smylie gets special exemption for PGA Championship
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