Trio eye Australasian PGA return
Three young Manawatu¯ professional golfers have all chosen different paths to get their PGA Tour of Australasia careers back on track.
Marton’s Lachie Mcdonald, Manawatu¯ ’s Josh Munn and Levin’s Tyler Hodge have signed on to play at different Australian venues for the first round of qualifying school, starting today.
Macdonald will line up at Riverside Oaks Golf Resort in Sydney, Munn at Sandhurst Club in Melbourne and Hodge at Noosa Springs Golf Course north of Brisbane.
They all opted against contesting the Hamilton round.
To make it to the second and final stage of q-school, players need to finish in the top 25-percent of their tournament.
Last year Hamilton featured just nine players, so only two advanced.
But there were much larger fields in the Australian events with 15 advancing from Melbourne, 11 from Noosa and 14 from Sydney.
They were not alone when it came to avoiding Hamilton. There are seven Kiwis in the Melbourne field, two in Noosa and two in Sydney.
Munn, Hodge and Mcdonald are no strangers to the pressures of Q-school. In 2015 the trio all made it through to the final stage and earned cards for their first season on the tour.
But they had a mixed run with their exemptions, Munn and Hodge especially, meaning they could not enter many of the bigger events.
Mcdonald had the best record finishing 79th on the Order of Merit after playing 13 events.
Munn, who was also on the PGA Tour of China in 2016, played eight events and was 105th, while Hodge featured in just four and finished 123rd.
The finish for Mcdonald was not enough for an automatic card for the 2017 season, but it did mean that he could skip the first stage of qualifying. But poor third and fourth rounds saw him finish 59th, 13 places shy of a tour card.
Mcdonald played the New Zealand PGA Championship this year but failed to make the cut in what was his sole event on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
But he has been busy in New Zealand.
Mcdonald is ranked 22nd on the NZ PGA order of merit having played 15 tournaments, including a best finish of second at the Wanganui Pro-am last month.
Hodge also played in the NZ PGA Championship finishing in an impressive tie-for-11th, also his sole event on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
He is ranked 38th in the NZ PGA order of merit having played 13 events.
Munn, who is now based in Melbourne, took much of the year off golf.
The 26-year-old played the sole event on the PGA Tour of China calender in 2017. He finished tied for 20th at Clearwater after sitting as high as fourth early in the tournament.
Munn also had three starts on the PGA Tour of Australasia, making the cut and finishing in a tie for 60th at the New South Wales Open.
But their performances this year will count for little when Q-school gets under way.