Royal Queensland pushes for one-off staging to celebrate centenary
ROYAL Queensland is angling to trump Royal Pines for hosting rights of the 2020 Australian PGA to celebrate the club’s Centenary Year.
Such a one-off move for a milestone of that magnitude at the state’s most historic club has an exciting vibe.
Royal Queensland has hosted three Australian Opens, including the great Arnold Palmer’s trophy swoop in 1996, yet has been invisible as a top venue since 2001.
Former Masters champion Adam Scott and rising star Cameron Smith, boldly bidding to defend his PGA title at Royal Pines, are both members of Royal Queensland and would be top targets for any tournament there.
The club’s website trumpets grandly that it is “Queensland’s Premier Golf Club” yet the lack of tournament hosting has partly contributed to a drop to No.33 on Australian Golf Digest’s latest Top 100 Courses list for the nation.
Contracts in all sports are a maze to work through and that is really where intricate negotiations are needed.
The PGA of Australia has an excellent relationship with RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast which has invested around $10 million in the course upgrade that has made it the home of the tournament since 2013.
The governing body last year announced a three-year extension to 2020 with RACV and the Gold Coast City Council, so the possibility of a oneyear switch to RQ would require some creative, openminded talking.
Golf Australia had nomi- nally kept 2020 clear for a potential bid from RQ to host the Australian Open but the club could not even reach first base with the huge financial commitment and the idea fizzled last year.
One of the major stumbling blocks in that scenario was Tourism and Events Queensland being unwilling to commit government money to backing two big men’s tournaments in the same state.
The buzz to the area around Royal Queensland has exploded with the Portside hotel, apartment and shopping precinct offering infrastructure that never existed in 2001.
On a broader level, it’s embarrassing that Brisbane has not played host to a big $1 million-plus tournament since 2001 and that Royal Queensland is the most unsighted “Royal” layout on the mainland.