Golfing historical past might be made when gamers tee off at the opening hollow of this 12 months’s Australian Open with the lads’s and girls’s occasions to be performed on the similar time and on the similar venue.
They’ll be the primary recognised nationwide Opens to characteristic the ladies’s and males’s tournaments facet by means of facet, with an equivalent percentage of the minimal $3.4m prizemoney on be offering to fields comprising 144 males and 144 ladies.
Victoria Golfing Membership would be the number one host venue throughout all 4 days of the match operating from 1 to 4 December, with Kingston Heath Golfing Membership web hosting at the first two days.
5-time ladies’s Australian Open winner Karrie Webb, who will pop out of semi-retirement to chase any other identify, stated the alignment of the 2 tournaments represented a large step ahead within the pursuit of gender equality in golfing.
“I like this idea, the sport is cooperating and bringing down limitations and that should occur,” she stated.
“It’s simply superior for me to peer ladies at the similar degree with the similar billing, as they will have to be. We’ve noticed it with different occasions, the general public adore it and they would like it that means.”
Webb used to be the remaining native lady to win the Open in 2014 at Victoria, however she has additionally tasted luck at Kingston with victory there in 2008.
“At this degree I plan to mud off the golf equipment – I wouldn’t omit a chance to play either one of those lessons,” Webb stated on Friday. “I’ve performed two Australian Opens, one at Vic and one at Kingston Heath, and fared lovely neatly at each, no doubt would really like to tee it up.
“I did play a match in Florida in January and plan to play a pair in the summertime over within the States, so my shape gained’t be too some distance away. Melbourne golfing lessons are a problem at the most efficient of instances, so we’ll see the way it is going.”
The lads’s tournament will headline the PGA Excursion of Australasia, whilst the ladies’s tournament might be sanctioned by means of the WPGA Excursion of Australasia. The lads’s tournament may also be sanctioned at the DP International Excursion.
The Golfing Australia CEO, James Sutherland, stated the brand new structure used to be a vital strategic transfer and that the twin tournaments had been a “coup” for Australian golfing.
“We strongly imagine on this idea,” he stated. “We’ve noticed it on the Australian Open tennis for years, and it simply is sensible that lovers can see their idols, whether or not they be males or ladies, all in the only position.
“The transfer aligns with our new nationwide technique and our ambitions to attraction to new audiences. In line with our trust that golfing is a game for everybody, the method calls for that we provide our tournaments as inclusive and amusing occasions.”
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The lads’s Open would be the first to be performed in Melbourne since 2002 and the primary large match within the Victorian capital because the 2019 President’s Cup at Royal Melbourne, following two years by which Covid-19 impacted scheduled occasions.
The ladies’s tournament is returning to Melbourne after 5 a success years in Adelaide.
Victoria has additionally been showed to host the 2028 and 2040 Presidents Cups.