From Kooyonga’s mysterious name to local caddies, cricket cameos and a looming LIV venue change, the Women’s Australian Open has delivered plenty beyond the leaderboard.
WHAT’S IN A NAME? NOT EVEN KOOYONGA IS SURE ...
It’s entirely plausible you’ve been watching the Women’s Australian Open all week and found yourself wondering: why is Kooyonga called Kooyonga?
The answer, it turns out, remains one of the club’s enduring mysteries.
There is no suburb called Kooyonga - the club actually sits in Lockleys. A nearby apartment block named Kooyong Towers was erected long after the golf course was established, then presumably borrowed (and misspelled) the club’s name for itself.
Club founder H.L. “Cargie” Rymill had named his beachfront home Kooyonga under the impression it was an Indigenous word meaning “plenty sand, plenty water”. When the golf course was built, he suggested the name would suit the new links as well.
Except later research discovered the word meant … nothing of the sort.
In the absence of a confirmed translation, a few mischievous wags from the membership base at Royal Adelaide, just down Tapleys Hill Road, have taken to suggesting their own definition.
According to them, Kooyonga loosely translates as: “Second Best Golf Club in Adelaide.”
Reality is, the battle for Adelaide’s number-one has always been a tight contest.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE PROVES HANDY
In elite sport, even the slightest advantage can make all the difference.
So when assessing the players who made it through to the weekend, it paid to take note of the caddie as much as the golfer.
A handful of those earning a tidy cheque had Kooyonga staff and members carrying the bag - a useful edge when navigating one of Australia’s most nuanced layouts.
American Annika Borrelli, who produced a classy 1-under 71 on Friday, has Kooyonga Golf Services Manager Ross Steedman as her looper.
Czech player Klara Davidson Spilkova birdied three of her final seven holes to squeeze through on the number, guided by Kooyonga pennant cult hero Heath Riches.
Another Kooey pennant player, Ryan Doig, is on the bag for Agathe Laisne, who heads into Sunday in a tie for third.
Former South Australian cricket captain Nathan Adcock, also a Kooyonga member, is looping for England’s Hannah Screen, who sat at 4-over after 36 holes.
Not quite a home game, perhaps, but not far off.
And Argentine Magdalena Simmermacher will play in the final group alongside Hannah Green on Sunday, with star SA golfer Kyle Hayter on her bag.
“He’s been really good for me,”Simmermacher told the broadcaster post-round.
“Because sometimes on lines or clubs he’s just like, ‘let’s go one more’ or the line he’s like ‘left edge’ and I trusted him more than me.”
BROADCAST’S MISSING INGREDIENT
For those watching on from home via Foxtel or Kayo, the television broadcast has been difficult to fault. The trio in the booth led by Ali Whittaker has been generally on point, while Ewan Porter’s work on course, particularly his breakdown of Steph Kyriacou’s opening day troubles, has made for excellent TV.
But if there was one area the television coverage missed this week, it was the voice of Jane Crafter.
One of just three Australians to win the Women’s Australian Open, Crafter also possesses an intimate knowledge of Kooyonga - the course she quite literally grew up on.
A regular analyst on past WAO broadcasts, her insight into both the championship and the quirks of the layout would have added valuable context for viewers and avoided the odd elementary mistake. (Gowy, the 4th and 5th run in the same direction, not opposite directions.)
In a week where course knowledge has proved priceless, her absence from the commentary booth was notable.
CRICKET STARS ENJOY A DAY OFF
Australian cricketers Tahlia McGrath and Travis Head were enthusiastic participants in Wednesday’s pro-am. However, enthusiastic participants in domestic cricket this week, they were not.
Head is taking a breather after an enormous international workload, before heading to the IPL, which begins in a fortnight, and missed SA’s Shield clash with Victoria.
McGrath, meanwhile, is enjoying a short break from South Australia’s WNCL fixtures, after playing a central role in Australia’s dominant recent series win over India.
A round at Kooyonga proved a rather pleasant way to spend the downtime.
FRASER-MCGURK GOES LONG
He’s renowned for sending cricket balls into orbit, and it seems Jake Fraser-McGurk can give a golf ball similar treatment.
The Australian batting sensation was paired with Sweden’s Kajsa Arwefjall in the pro-am and promptly unleashed a missile well in excess of 300-metres to claim the long drive prize.
It proved one of the few male victories on the day.
The top three teams in the pro-am competition were all all-female line-ups, meaning Fraser-McGurk’s prodigious blow was about the only time the blokes had a look-in on the leaderboard.
COUNTDOWN TO LIV BEGINS
This coming Wednesday will mark exactly 12 months until Kooyonga hosts its next professional event, LIV Golf Adelaide.
The club is expected to stage the tournament for one or possibly two years while the circuit transitions from The Grange to a redeveloped North Adelaide public course, a project yet to begin.
What’s not in doubt at Kooey is the course presentation. The immaculate conditioning on display this week, overseen by course superintendent Richard James, offers a glimpse of what awaits.
The layout, however, will look quite different.
The 205m long par-3 15th is confirmed as the “party hole” and will be shortened to accommodate the grandstands, while Kooyonga’s delightful spare hole, a gem of a par-3 hidden away in the middle of the course, is expected to replace the adjacent par-4 11th.
That will mean five par-3s in the routing, with the 11th fairway set to become a major fan zone.
However, stretching the course to challenge the modern male professionals without compromising spectator movement will be the real puzzle for organisers.
Last year, Kooyonga lodged an application with Plan SA to extend the par-5 16th hole a further 16m back behind the tee onto residential land it recently acquired.
This week’s women are already playing from the rearmost tees on eight holes, highlighting just how tight the parcel of land is.
The 2nd and 9th holes - both par-5s this week - would be no more than mid-length par-4s for the men. The 9th tee could potentially be extended back between the 3rd green and 4th tee, although that would create headaches around accessibility for the heaving Adelaide galleries.
Historically, LIV organisers have chosen excitement over examination and may leave them as par-5s and allow a flurry of eagles.
If they’re designated par-4s, LIV Kooyonga may well play to a par of 69. We’ll watch with interest.
PEIRCE MAKING HER MOVE IN THE U.S
One notable absentee from the Women’s Australian Open field this week was promising South Australian Caitlin Peirce.
The 23-year-old had been leading the WPGA Order of Merit until Kelsey Bennett’s victory in last week’s Australian Women’s Classic nudged her aside.
Peirce would have been a genuine threat at Kooyonga - a course she knows intimately - but instead, she is chasing opportunity in the United States.
The South Australian has accepted three starts as a member of the Epson Tour, the LPGA’s feeder circuit, and is currently competing in Florida at the IOA Classic.
Last week she surged home with a closing 7-under 64 to finish tied seventh — her first top-10 result on the tour.
“It’s a heap of confidence,” Peirce said.
“I started with a birdie and kept giving myself chances, but I wasn’t making many putts early.
“Then I hit the back nine and kind of exploded.”
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE
Golf fans wandering the fairways at Kooyonga across the opening two days could have been forgiven for thinking they were seeing double.
The field included Swiss sisters Kim and Morgane Métraux, who teed off in successive groups in the opening rounds.
But aside from the surname, the similarities mostly ended there.
Right-handed Morgane comfortably made the cut and was paired with Minjee Lee in Saturday’s third round.
Kim, a left-hander, missed the weekend after a second-round 80.
There was a second case of consecutive tee times for Hazuki Kimura and Madoka Kimura, but despite the shared surname, the Japanese players are not related.
A ROYAL RETURN
After moving states this year from Victoria to South Australia, the Women’s Australian Open will head just a few kilometres north to Royal Adelaide for the 2027 edition. The dates are yet to be confirmed.
The SA government signed up to a three-year deal to host the WAO, with hopes the third year will be scheduled at North Adelaide following a major redevelopment of what is presently a modest public course.
Royal Adelaide last hosted the WAO in February 2020, as the spectre of the Covid-19 pandemic lurked. Then-co-sanctioned with the LPGA, it was won by South Korean Inbee Park.
