Australian Open

I think this was the best Australian Open I have seen or been a part of. Royal Sydney was setup perfectly as a tournament venue that gave all of our top players the opportunity to showcase their skills. A quality tournament venue in my opinion provides a mix of long driving and iron placement of the tee. As well as greens that demand precise positioning of approach shots and a variety of short shots around the fast and undulating, but not rediculous greens. Royal Sydney has all of these qualities and it is not suprising to hear that it is being considered as a future Presidents Cup venue.Thursday was just an awefull day with wind gusts up to 40 mph, rain and cold. The morning was very tough and the the afternoon wind was almost unplayable. Stuart Appleby has been practicing and setting himself for a few weeks for this years Open, and when he started with a double bogey and was 3 over after 3 holes with even harder holes to come into the wind, the tournament could have been over early for him. He hung tough and recovered for a 75. 68 and 71 left him 3 shots off the lead going into Sunday and playing with US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. Many thought the winner would come from this pairing or world number 4 Adam Scott, who was 2 shots of the pace. Stuart and Geoff played magnificent golf, going head to head all day matching each other with birdies. Both got to 7 under and leading after 16 holes and we thought at worrst, it would be a all Victorian playoff. John Sendon who shot 67 on Saturday hit the shot of the day on the 235 yard par 3 17th to 1 foot to tie Apples and Geoff and then in the group in front hit a 6 iron to the tough 18th hole to 4 feet to finish birdie, birdie at 8 under and a 67, 65 (course record) weekend. Stuart needed a birdie at the last to force a playoff and hit a great looking approach that was half a club to far and went over the back, leaving him a almost unmakeable chip, which he had a go at but ran it past 15 feet and bogeyed. Geoff hit his second to 15 feet and ran his attempt past the edge. So in the end it was a great tournament and my congratulations go to John Sendon on his first Autralian Open win to go with his break through win in the USA this year. My congrats also go to John's coach Ian Triggs. Triggsy has had a great year this year with his successes getting Karrie Webb's career back on track and John Sendon's great year.