Smylie, the 2024 BMW Australian PGA champion and a winner in his LIV Golf debut earlier this year, is one of the rising stars of Australian golf.

Still just 24 years of age, Smylie first played the Queensland PGA Championship as the reigning Australian Boys Junior champion in 2019 and has competed for the Charles Bonham Trophy on three further occasions since.

In his most recent appearance in 2024, just two weeks prior to his Royal Queensland coronation, Smylie finished fifth at Nudgee and will use the Queensland PGA as key tournament preparation for the BMW Australian PGA Championship and Capital.com Australian Open.

There is additional significance in Smylie’s return to Nudgee, having last played Pennants for the club in 2017.

With a week of celebrations planned to mark the Queensland PGA’s Centenary, Nudgee Golf Club General Manager, Darren Richards, expects Smylie’s addition to resonate with the Nudgee members, in particular.

“Elvis was a very popular member of our club during his time here so I have no doubt he will be a crowd favourite at this year’s Queensland PGA Championship at Nudgee,” Richards said.

“He has a great understanding of the golf course and, as one of the brightest young talents in Australian golf, you would expect to see his name high up on the leaderboard on Sunday.

“The Champions Dinner on Tuesday night will be part of the Centenary celebrations that will take place throughout the week but once we tee off, Elvis will undoubtedly be one of the stars of the show.”

As the 2024 Australian PGA champion and 2024/2025 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner, Smylie spent much of 2025 on the DP World Tour with a best finish of tied second at the FedEx Open de France.

Prior to the start of the 2026 LIV Golf season, he elected to join Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert as a member of the Ripper GC team, going on to win on debut at LIV Golf Riyadh.

His maiden win as a professional came at the 2024 WA Open and he rose to a career high of No.73 in the world after finishing tied eighth at LIV Golf Hong Kong in March of this year.

Defending champion Cameron John is among the tournament entries that were finalised on Thursday along with former Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit winner David Micheluzzi and a total of 21 winners from the past two seasons.

The Queensland PGA Championship was first played in 1926. Its roll call of former champions is a who’s who of Australian golf greats including major champions David Graham, Greg Norman and Ian Baker-Finch, eight-time champion Reg Want, Ted Ball, Peter Senior and PGA TOUR winners Steven Bowditch, Andre Stolz, Nathan Green and Kiwi Ryan Fox.

The final two rounds of the Queensland PGA Championship will be broadcast live on both Fox Sports 503 and Kayo Sports from 2:30pm-5:30pm AEDT Saturday and 12:30pm-5:30pm AEDT Sunday.