QUAYLE’S QUEST
Anthony Quayle has come a long way since teaching himself how to play golf in his backyard in the remote Northern Territory mining town of Gove. Now, as the summer of golf approaches, he has a golden opportunity to win the Australasian Order of Merit.
Without the Looney Tunes and an appetite for baked beans, Anthony Quayle might not be where he is today – and the 24-year-old has a golden opportunity to win the Australian Order of Merit, writes Michael Jones.
Wmagazine. “So I started playing and coaching myself from there. I built this little six-hole course around my house using old baked bean tins because I couldn’t always get to the golf course.”
It was rare for Quayle to leave his hometown growing up – and if he did, it would take up to nine hours and involved multiple river crossings to reach the nearest settlement. But he remains appreciative of his rural upbringing and the values it instilled in him.
“I think the good thing about being brought up in the country environment is that you’re just raised a little bit more humble, you know what you what and you work hard for it. I’ve never had anybody push me because it’s not mum and dad’s dream to play golf, they’re terrible at it,” Quayle laughed.
ithout the Looney Tunes and an appetite for baked beans, Anthony Quayle might not be where he is today – and that wouldn’t sit very well with the 24-year-old from the Top End of Australia.
The year was 2001 and Tiger Woods had just completed the “Tiger Slam” at Augusta National Golf Club. Fifteen thousand kilometres away, in Gove on the north-east tip of the Northern Territory, Quayle, then six years old, was writing a wish list to his parents asking for his very first set of golf clubs.
“They went down to the local newsagency and bought me a set of Looney Tunes clubs for my seventh birthday,” Quayle told Golf Australia
In 2010, Quayle’s parents – whom he speaks of glowingly – decided to work multiple jobs in order to send their son to the Gold Coast for a better education. The institution they chose was Hills International College, which was the same boarding school Jason Day attended between 2002 and 2004.
And, much like his feathered namesake, Quayle would regularly challenge the sunrise to be the first amongst his peers to get to work.
“We would be told stories about what Jason Day used to do and how he used to get up early in the morning and practice before school,” Quayle recalls. “Those little things made me get up early and practice. It inspired me to keep working hard.”
Quayle enjoyed plenty of success representing Queensland as an amateur, winning multiple events – including the 2015 Pacific Northwest Amateur in the United States – before turning professional at the beginning of 2017. Ten months later, he was beamed into living rooms across the country when he found himself in contention at the Australian Open.
“It was the first time I’d ever played an event like that,” said Quayle, who eventually finished T19. “Seeing my name up on the leaderboard against guys like Jason Day and playing in front of so many people was awesome.”
Now, speaking from Japan – where he has plied his trade for most of 2018 – Quayle explained he is facing some dicult decisions ahead of the Aussie summer of golf. At the time of going to print, the young professional was second on the Australian Order of Merit (trailing Daniel Nisbet by $28,000) and was fully aware of the spoils that will be awarded to the winner in December: an invitation to The 148th Open Championship, starts in two World Golf Championships and status on the European Tour. But Quayle also sat in 39th place on the Japan Tour money list and knew he would need to finish inside the top-70 in order to maintain his playing privileges for next year. “The plan for the rest of this year is to play the Aussie events depending on how things are travelling in Japan. It’s obviously a goal of mine to win the Australian Order of Merit,” Quayle said. “But at the same time, I have to make sure I play well in Japan and make sure I have good status here next year, so there’s a few things I need to take care of. “Providing I’m playing well, I’m leaning towards playing the NSW Open, Australian Open and Australian PGA to give myself a good run at winning the Order of Merit.” The decision to stay in Japan or return home won’t be an easy one. Although his position on the Japanese money list appears to be prominent, it could prove an unnecessary gamble to skip multiple big-purse events in order to give the Australian Order of Merit a proper crack. Thankfully, Quayle has befriended the likes of Matthew Grin (35) – who won the Australian Order of Merit in 2016 – and
WE WOULD BE TOLD STORIES ABOUT WHAT JASON DAY USED TO DO AND HOW HE USED TO GET UP EARLY AND PRACTICE BEFORE SCHOOL. – ANTHONY QUAYLE