Adrian Meronk is excited to build on an historic 2023 campaign as the 2024 Race to Dubai begins at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.
The Pole, who won three times last season, including the ISPS HANDA Australian Open which he will defend next week, will have the honour of hitting the opening tee shot of the new DP World Tour campaign at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane.
He followed his victory in Australia with further success at the DS Automobiles Italian Open and Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, finishing a career-high fourth on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex and securing dual membership on the PGA TOUR for the 2024 season.
The 30-year-old will tee it up in the company of former World Number One and 2013 Masters Tournament winner Adam Scott, who won the Australian PGA Championship in 2013 and 2019, and PGA TOUR winner Cameron Davis.
He is also joined in the field by 2023 Ryder Cup victor Robert MacIntyre and a number of recent DP World Tour winners, including Dan Hillier, Ryo Hisatsune and Tom McKibbin.
As well as getting the 2024 Race to Dubai under way, the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship is the first event of The Opening Swing, the first of five new ‘Global Swings’ of the season. The Opening Swing incorporates the first six events on the DP World Tour’s Global Schedule, concluding with the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Each of the five swings will have individual Swing Rankings, and each champion of the Rankings will earn US$200,000 from an overall US$1,000,000 bonus pool. The leading member from The Opening Swing, not otherwise exempt, will qualify for the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, the first Rolex Series event of the season.
Player Quotes
Adrian Meronk: “It’s great to be back in Australia. Obviously I have great memories from last year. I always love coming to Australia. To be honest, I’m a little bit tired after a long season but I made my commitments to come back, so I’m happy to be here and play two weeks.
“Obviously next week I will be defending my trophy from last year, so very excited, very special about that and also I checked my stats on the app and tomorrow’s going to be my 100th tournament in my career, so it’s going to be another special moment for me.
“The (ISPS HANDA Australian Open) win gave me a lot of confidence, playing with Adam (Scott) and Min Woo Lee in front of the home crowds in Australia. It was a really tough task for me, but to be able to get it done in front of them, beating the best players in Australia, that was a confidence boost for me as well going forward. So that win gave me a lot of good memories, momentum and confidence going into the rest of the season, which I think I used.”
Robert MacIntyre: “I enjoy coming down here. I get to see family I’ve not seen for quite a long time. Obviously, the golf courses are great, as well as this one. It’s an old-school track. Small green complexes, a good, old-fashioned golf course.
“I play an aggressive style of golf. If I can get it off the tee well, it gives me opportunities. But the greens are still firm, they’re a little slow, but still firm enough where you can’t get aggressive with certain pin positions. I’m just looking forward to getting this week going.
“I’m a little jetlagged, but my golf game has been good. Struggled a little bit in Sun City; the golf course is so unique. Last week in Dubai I played well, a few things let me down but we’ve tried to tweak that this week. It’s really just trying to recover, get some sleep and be ready for that 06:10 tee off.”
Adam Scott: “I think it’s always great when we have most or all of our local players playing, and that’s the case again. I think there’s a strong sense of obligation and pride for us to come back and play and it’s always nice to see some internationals come down.
“But it’s incredibly helpful as well that it’s co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour and we get some of their players to come down – Bob MacIntyre being here is huge, given he was on the winning Ryder Cup team and how big of an event that is.
“I think generally guys want to come down to Australia because it’s a great place and they get to play and probably stay a little bit extra and have a holiday and hopefully go back and tell people that they’ve had a great time.”
