– The Australian Open kicks off in a few hours at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club, located in the city of the same name, a legendary course that hasn’t hosted the event since 1991, yet it is the second most visited venue by the Australian Open in its 107 editions, only behind The Australian Golf Club in Sydney.
– Royal Melbourne has two courses, East and West, and the tournament, as always when a major championship is held at this club, is played on a composite course that mixes holes from both courses.
– At Royal Melbourne, the Australian Open has been won by, among others, Greg Norman, who did so twice (1985, 1987), Tom Watson (1984), and Gary Player (1963), as well as the Australian Wayne Riley, who was the last winner at this course (1991), ahead of a promising amateur at the time, one Robert Allenby… Severiano Ballesteros also won the PGA Australian Championship here in 1981, as recently recalled, especially after David Puig’s victory last week.
– Spanish golf has yet to make its mark at the Australian Open. It remains uncharted territory. Seven players from the Spanish Armada will try to break this curse in the 108th edition, which starts at 20:45 (peninsular time) today, Wednesday, due to the ten-hour time difference with Melbourne, located just under 1,400 kilometres south of Brisbane, the city that hosted last week’s Australian PGA Championship. The seven Spaniards are obviously the same ones who competed at Royal Queensland in Brisbane a few days ago: David Puig, Josele Ballester, Sebas García, Rocco Repetto, Rafa Cabrera Bello, Adri Arnaus, and Quim Vidal. Of course, right from the start, after the consecutive victories of Ballester and Puig, it would be foolish to rule out that Spanish golf might finally win this legendary tournament, which has Gary Player, with seven victories, and Jack Nicklaus, with six, as the two players with the most wins throughout its centenary history (the first edition was played in 1904).
– Rory McIlroy returns to the Australian Open after an eleven-year absence. He played it in 2005 and 2006 still as an amateur, and won it in 2013 when he played it for the first time as a professional. He returned in 2014 to defend his title without success and hasn’t been back until now. He is undoubtedly one of the great attractions and also plays the first two rounds with two of the local idols, Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee. The Northern Irishman will be seeking his fifth victory of the year and bids farewell to competition here in 2025. He will do so on one of those mythical courses in the world, Royal Melbourne, whose West course was designed by the no less mythical Alister MacKenzie, co-creator of another of the world’s titans, Augusta National, where Rory closed his particular Grand Slam Career this year.
– One last curiosity. Just four kilometres east of the Royal Melbourne Golf Club is the Kingston Heath Golf Club, where another monster of golf history, one Tiger Woods, won the JBWere Australian Masters in 2009. It was one of the two major tournaments Tiger played on Australian soil; the other was precisely the 2011 Australian Open, where he finished third.
– David Puig is set to play in one of the day’s strong matches alongside another local idol, Lucas Herbert, and the New Zealander Daniel Hillier. They will play in the afternoon session, starting at 12:15 local time (2:15 in the early hours of Thursday morning in the peninsula).
