MAJOR Champions Jordan Spieth and Adam Scott with start favourites to win this week’s 101st staging of the Emirates Australian Open.
But another major winner, Geoff Ogilvy, says he wouldn’t be at all surprised if the player hoisting the Stonehaven Cup on Sunday afternoon foregoes the $225,000 winner’s cheque.
“It was surprising when Badds (Aaron Baddeley) won as an amateur. Even to us and we knew how good he was and it was still kind of a surprise,” Ogilvy said.
“There was still quite a separation between the best amateur and the pros who were winning a tournament like this. There was quite a big gap, but there isn’t really that big a gap anymore.
“The gap is really only in experience, not in skill now – which is still big, but their skills are probably almost better. Some of these guys swing it great, they hit it great. They’re almost pros now before they are pros.
“The scores I keep seeing show up, like last week obviously there was (Brett) Coletta, he nearly won right? He’s a great player too. So, it would be less of a surprise than it was in ‘99, I would say."
As Ogilvy quite rightly points out, when Aaron Baddeley won the Championship back in 1999 there was a significant performance gap between Australia’s best amateurs and the professionals, who regularly posted wins on Tour.

That gap has been closed with extensive coaching and mentoring of Australia’s elite amateurs through Golf Australia’s High Performance program and similar state programs, which prepare them better them ever for the transition into professional golf.
“They’re (amateurs) so good now, aren’t they, it’s incredible,” Ogilvy said. ”I think the coaching – the whole thing about preparing to get on tour – is much better than it used to be.
“It was really good when I did it but it’s clearly a lot better now.
“Golf Australia is much more on the same page with the golfers. Before there was a bit of a AGU versus amateur golfer kind of, don’t turn pro, don’t turn pro. Now it’s like: How do we make it better for you when you do turn pro? I think the mentality in Australia is really good like that.” – Geoff Ogilvy
If an amateur was to finish atop the leaderboard at Royal Sydney this week, it would mark the 15th time that feat has been achieved in our national Open’s long and storied history.
Baddeley was the last amateur to salute, when he defeated Greg Norman and Nick O’Hern by two strokes. His win came 39 years after Bruce Devlin secured the title at Perth’s Lake Karrinyup Country Club.
It could be argued that not since Devlin’s 1960 victory has the Australian Open field had as many talented amateurs capable of taking home the cherished prize. Devlin’s one-stroke victory came in front of seven other amateurs to finish in the top-10, including Ted Ball, Tom Crow, Phil Billings, Eric Routley and former British Amateur champion Doug Bachli. The leading professional in that Championship was Kel Nagle, who finished four shots behind the young Devlin in equal fourth, just a month after winning the centenary Open Championship at St Andrews.
The depth of talent among the 11 amateurs competing this week is just as impressive.
West Australian Curtis Luck, now ranked the World’s No.2 amateur, heads the list. The US Amateur and Asia Pacific Amateur Champion has had a remarkable year and he will begin his Australian Open campaign alongside Spieth and Ogilvy.
Ogilvy likes what he has already seen of Luck.
“Curtis will be fun; he looks like a great player,” said Ogilvy, who watched Luck’s US Amateur win on TV. ”I don't think I’ve seen him hit it except for on TV, but he’s obviously dominating amateur golf, so it will be fun.”
Then there’s the man Luck beat out of the Asia Pacific title – Victoria’s Brett Coletta.
Since his runner-up finish in Korea last month, he has won the Queensland Open and was second at last week’s NSW Open … shooting a combined score for both events of 27 under.
The amateur assault on the Stonehaven Cup runs even deeper with US Junior Amateur Champion Min Woo Lee, Australian Amateur Champion Connor Syme, from Scotland, and NSW’s Harrison Endycott, who was not only an integral part of Australia’s winning Eisenhower Trophy team but has won five major amateur events here and abroad in 2016.
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