The rapid rise, sudden fall and rebuilding of one-time Aussie golf prodigy Aaron Baddeley

After taking down Greg Norman at 18, Aaron Baddeley was tipped to be the next Tiger Woods. Immense expectations crushed Baddeley, the one-time Aussie golfing prodigy.

Aaron Baddeley and Greg Norman after the teenager’s victory at the 1999 Australian Open.

Scottie Scheffler has a lot to thank Aaron Baddeley for, or so the Australian likes to joke.

Before Scheffler was the world-beating No.1 and perhaps the best golfer since Tiger Woods, Baddeley invited him to give a talk at a PGA Tour forum where players can share experiences about their faith.

The discussion was planned for the week of the Phoenix Open, the tournament which has a reputation for the wild antics of its fans. Some would swill beer until they were silly and roll down muddy hills shirtless.

The course’s melting pot is its stadium hole, which resembles a football atmosphere as up to 20,000 well marinated fans holler or hiss at each golfer … depending on the result of their shot.

If you were trying to think of a tournament about as far removed from Scheffler and his personality, moulded from his staunch Christian beliefs, then this was it.

“Scottie Scheffler hadn’t won yet when he came and spoke that night … and he won that following Sunday,” Baddeley laughs.

“That’s when he went on that tear.”

Aaron Baddeley on Scottie Scheffler.

Two months later, Scheffler had won a further two PGA Tour events after the Phoenix Open and also his first green jacket, running away with the Masters.

“We always joke that was the start,” Baddeley says.

“But he’s as down to earth as they come.

“What you see on TV and what you see in the media centre, it’s exactly what he’s like. We both go to the same Bible study on Tour and he’s always there. I’ve got to know him over the years and it’s been great.”

Scheffler is having the type of career Baddeley was tipped to have when he took Australian golf by storm: the best player in the world, four majors, a chance at the career grand slam, an anchor of Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams, all the while being guided by his faith.

Baddeley in 1999, kissing the Australian Open trophy.

Baddeley shakes hands with Greg Norman in 2001 on course.

Before he sauntered to The Open Championship at Royal Portrush in July, Scheffler gave one of the most revealing press conferences from a professional athlete in years, claiming the euphoria of winning lasts only a few minutes before he starts thinking about more mundane tasks as what he’s going to have for dinner.

It polarised many people, but back at his home in Phoenix, Baddeley sat on the lounge and nodded. He understood exactly where Scheffler was coming from a quarter of a century after dealing with his own giant expectations as the kid who was supposed to be passed the baton to Australian golf from Greg Norman.

Aaron Baddeley with a niiiccee touch pic.twitter.com/s9NtYLOH9i

— BetMGM 🦁 (@BetMGM) July 30, 2023

While it took Scheffler a little while to assert his dominance on world golf, Baddeley blazed onto the scene, wearing the baggy pants favoured by Tiger Woods in the 1990s and taking down Norman to win the Australian Open as an 18-year-old amateur.

It prompted some of the golf world’s biggest luminaries to tip him for a career to rival Tiger Woods, who he played with at the Masters the following year. Gary Player went as far to say Baddeley was “a better player than Jack Nicklaus at the same age”.

The following year, Baddeley returned to win the Australian Open as a professional at Kingston Heath and his golfing phenomenon was out of control, complete with its own Badds.com website in the shadows of the Y2K hysteria. Old caddie and good mate Dion Kipping hasn’t forgotten.

Aaron Baddeley competing in the Valspar Championship in 2024.

“Still to this day, Dion calls me dot,” Baddeley laughs.

But rarely in sport do such outrageous predictions come true, particularly golf, where professionals can wallow in form slumps for years and then find their mojo again.

Baddeley has had a career which has been incredibly fulfilling – four PGA Tour wins on top of his two Australian Open victories and Presidents Cup representation – with his first win in the United States coming on Easter Sunday, 10 hours after he spoke on the 18th green in a service. It was also a day after he and wife Richelle celebrated their first wedding anniversary.

But it hasn’t been the career many thought Baddeley would have when he did the near unthinkable 25 years ago on the Melbourne sandbelt, winning back-to-back Stonehaven Cups.

Baddeley was ready to walk away from golf not long after his breakthrough success.

Baddeley competing at the Greg Norman Invitational in 1999.

Unbeknownst to many, Baddeley was ready to walk away from golf altogether between his first and second Australian Open wins having moved to the United States.

“I was pretty depressed, away from my family, away from all my mates and Dion was there which made a huge difference,” Baddeley says. “I think I missed about eight cuts in a row and didn’t understand what was going on.

“Lynchy (coach Dale Lynch) was like, ‘what are your goals? How are we going to achieve them? What are the steps we’re going to take to achieve those?’

“I just said, ‘I’m done. I want to quit’. I don’t know how close I was to actually walking away, but I was done.”

Aaron Baddeley has had a fabulous career - 4 @pgatour wins, 2 Aus Open 🏆, won on @EuropeanTour + played @PresidentsCup. He’s a top man. I’ve been lucky enough to play a few games with Badds and still think he swung it best as an 18 y/o am on his way to winning the 1999 Aus Open. pic.twitter.com/WOhHCjnjeI

— Ewan Porter (@ewanports) October 10, 2021

Only last week, Australian Cameron Davis spoke of the burden of playing each week and teetering on the edge of keeping a PGA Tour card or not. Baddeley knows the feeling better than most, having survived on world golf’s highest-profile circuit for more than two decades.

Baddeley has never truly threatened to win a major, but led the 2007 US Open into the final day. He then shot 80.

It brought to mind the truism that there are wins, and there are lessons. Baddeley has had plenty of lessons after being thrust forward as having the potential for greatness.

“Any time you’re mentioned with the greats of the game, it’s unbelievable,” Baddeley says. “To be mentioned alongside those guys, it was very much of an honour. People would say a lot, but I would say my expectations or the pressure I put on myself, was more than what others put on me.

“Hindsight is 20-20 and you can do things differently, but I think one of the things I wish I knew was how to manage a game. Once you get to a level, Scottie Scheffler is not recreating it, Tiger is not recreating it, the top guys are not doing it, they’re just maintaining what they have.

“I wish I understood that, say, after the first Australian Open. If I knew that, I might have achieved more to this point. There are always things to do differently and do better, but if you did, you might not have learned something else.”

At 44, Baddeley is content and living a fulfilling life. He rocks long hair and has six children aged between 17 and five. All have a name beginning with “J” - Jewell, Jolee, Jeremiah, Josiah, Jaddex and Jedidiah – and all are showing sporting passion for either flag football, golf, basketball or baseball (Richelle’s siblings were all named with an “R”).

“We struggled with No.5,” Baddeley jokes.

As golf’s production line of young stars seemingly hit the big time younger and younger and hitting the ball longer than ever, Baddeley has a theory why: YouTube. They can watch and learn in an internet age where a video uploaded by Bryson DeChambeau can outrate viewing figures for a PGA Tour event.

“Our generation and before us, you had to learn a lot of it on your own,” Baddeley says.

“I would always try to play practice rounds with Greg Norman and pick his brain because I wanted to learn from him. He’s the second longest at world No.1 in history.

“I remember playing a practice round with him when I won my first Aussie Open and there was a bunker shot he hit. I watched him hit it. Then I said, ‘hey, did you do this when you hit that shot?’

“On Saturday, I was having a little bit of a rough patch during the round and I had to hit this amazing bunker shot, a tough one. It was exactly what The Shark showed me when I was watching him. I needed it to get up and down. So, I hit it.”

For the first time in a long time, Baddeley is injured and not playing golf as one of the few Australians still with status on the PGA Tour. He hasn’t swung a club in more than three months, struck down by a mystery illness he thinks is related to a cortisone shot in his knee a couple of years ago.

He has had inflammation throughout his body: ankles, back, shoulders. It’s finally in his wrists, which he thinks might be the last juncture before it leaves his system.

Baddeley’s world ranking has dropped to 703, but he plans to return to the PGA Tour soon, having spurned an offer to join the then-Norman led LIV Golf in its formative stages.

“There’s more I want to achieve in the game and I feel LIV, as of right now, it’s not a path if you want to achieve more stuff,” Baddeley says. “Playing on the PGA Tour, if I can get over this injury, the goal is get back and win again.

“This might sound out there, one of the things I would love to achieve is represent Australia at the Olympics. A chance to win gold would be incredible.”

It does sound out there. But so did predicting Scheffler would win three PGA Tour events and the Masters when he accepted an invite to speak about his faith.

Maybe Baddeley did have a brush with greatness after all.

Originally published as The rapid rise, sudden fall and rebuilding of one-time Aussie golf prodigy Aaron Baddeley