Mike Clayton turned pro in 1981 after winning the Australian Amateur and played the European and Australian tours for 15 years. He won the Timex Open in Europe and the Korean Open as well as six tournaments in Australia. He has written for the Melbourne Age and Golf Australia Magazine since 1991 and in 1995 began a golf design partnership with fellow Melburnians, John Sloan and Bruce Grant.

Today Clayton looks at the battles among those that are running the Australian Tour and how much it's effecting things.

- GolfObserver editors

Open War Down Under
December 2, 2005

Overseas observers could be excused for thinking golf in Australia was in a state of imminent collapse. At our Open Championship last week it was awesome just how much dirty laundry was aired and how much bad blood was exposed.

The week began sedately enough at the "Leviathan" course designed by the five times Open Champion, Peter Thomson and a development the Australian Golf Union has a financial interest in.

The course itself is 7500 controversial yards long and being so close to the sea the heavy, brisk winds make it one of the most difficult courses in the world.

Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images Five-time British Open champion Peter Thomson spent some of the week defending his Moonah Links design.

There is no meaningful rough, the fairways are sixty meters wide and one can only imagine what the USGA would do to it given their penchant for covering golf courses in long grass. No one would ever finish comes to mind.

The strength of the golf course is that every player must decide for himself which line is best from the tee and with the second shots on the massive par five holes.

Its weakness is an absence of a great short par three or a short par four. Any course without those important elements cannot hope to match the structure of the best courses in the world.


The day before the opening round one of our best players, Mark Hensby, launched into icon and public hero Greg Norman claiming he wasn't doing enough for Australian golf.

Photo: © Robert Cianflone/Getty Images The annual "Where's Greg Norman?" game was made easier with Norman just 50 miles away at the ground breaking for his Phillip Island Grand Prix Curcuit 2010 design on Phillip Island.

It is impossible to win in this country if you choose to attack Norman and Hensby didn't articulate his argument well enough to convince the average golf fan. But inside the locker room there were more than a few who thought there was some merit in what he was trying to say.

Ironically, on the very first morning of the Open Norman was fifty miles away across the bay announcing the establishment of a new golf course financed by one of the countries richest men. It was not lost on some that perhaps there were 364 other days in the year that might have been a little more appropriate for Greg to promote a new development.

Of course, it is no secret that Norman has a more than prickly relationship with the Australian Golf Union and with his ex-managers, IMG, who promote and run the Open.

The local press reveled in the fact that Hensby had written the mornings headlines for them — Norman had done the same for years by managing to say something controversial most weeks — and those on the outside flocked to the defense of the Shark.

More than a few letter writers and columnists suggested Mark Hensby "would have been nothing if it wasn't for Greg's contribution to the game here."

Photo: © Ryan Pierse/Getty Images Doesn't it seem like players who Fanny Sunesson caddies for end up as thorns in Greg Norman's side? This time with it was Mark Hensby's turn.

Hensby would have been a terrific player with or without Norman because he had the drive to succeed and there is nothing Norman could possibly have done to alter the route Hensby has taken.

The game is always bigger than the individual and the game has always produced desperate men like Hensby prepared to sleep in cars and survive with no visible means of support in their pursuit of a dream. Decades ago David Graham did exactly the same thing.

The game can take credit for Hensby — just as the game takes credit for developing Norman.

No-one has suggested Norman would have been nothing without Peter Thomson who was the rock of the Australian tour in the fifties and sixties and the inspiration for a generation of golfers that including Norman.

The golf began sedately enough on the first day when players found a course undefended by the normal coastal winds. Robert Allenby made ten birdies and shot 63, a shot ahead of Spencer Levin. Scott Laycock was at 65 and favourites Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy came in with 66's.

The next day wasn't so kind.

The temperature was higher, the wind was up and the organizers were accused by some of setting out to ensure the course would not be pillaged again.

Photo: © Cameron Spenser/Getty Images Craig Popeye Parry was one of a group of golfers fined for speaking out about the Open setup.

Peter O'Malley is the mildest, nicest, most respected man on the Australian tour and he has a reputation for being one of the clumsiest putters in world golf. But he does not make a habit of hitting three footers thirty yards off greens. That was the fate that befell his putt on the 12th green when the wind caught his short putt for a par and swept it well off the green.

He eventually made a seven and presumably was not impressed; especially when the greenkeepers quickly appeared to water the offending piece of turf and ensure those following did not suffer a similar fate.

In a group behind, Tour chairman Wayne Grady blistered the long-serving and retiring Executive Director of the Australian Golf Union, Colin Phillips, the man responsible for the pin positions.

"Congratulations Colin for &$#%ing (rhymes with trucking) up another Australian Open. Watch-out the door doesn't hit you on the arse on the way out."

There has long been a simmering resentment between the two but it had never been voiced so personally or publicly.

Phillips response was a simple "I would have been upset if the criticism had come from a player I respected." Ouch.

Photo: © Mark Dadswell/Getty Images Wayne Grady is always good for a quote or two after a round.

Steven Leaney partnered O'Malley and failed to sign his cut-missing card on Friday and although he claimed he forgot one can assume he wouldn't have made the same mistake if he was close to the lead.

The word in the locker room was it was a protest at the treatment of O'Malley.

After the assault of Thursday only two players broke 70 on Friday and Mathew Goggin's Saturday 69 was the only weekend round more than a couple of shots under par.

The weekend wind freshened and the players distaste for the course heightened.

Craig Parry had nothing complimentary to say and nor did Stuart Appleby and their opinions were widely reported in the newspapers. Several players privately suggested they would not be back.

Complaining players have always been sitting ducks for press who assume golf pros don't like a venue simply because it is too hard. Parry and Appleby have played plenty of hard golf courses — Parry was eight over par and a shot out of the playoff at the 1999 Open at Carnoustie — but they needed to articulate why they disliked the design of the golf course.

They were both fined for voicing their opinions as was Grady for his suggestions.

Photo: © Ryan Pierse/Getty Images With a meager number of fans making the trip out to the Moonah Links, there was plenty of elbow room to watch the action for the few who made the trip.

Robert Allenby hung on with a final 77 to win by a shot from three of the mildest men on the tour, John Senden, Paul Sheehan and Nick O'Hern.

The course had identified in those three players, the calmest men — aside from the triple-bogey burdened O'Malley — in the field.

Allenby has a well earned reputation as one who is not so placid on the golf course but his brilliant round on Thursday was enough for one so experienced to hang on to his advantage.

Five over par for the final three rounds doesn't look so impressive but it represented some very fine golf on a course designed to withstand the assault of the modern player armed with all of the newest equipment.

The crowds were poor all week and it seems few spectators are prepared to take the 90 minute drive from the city to the rural golf course. The fact there were only two sponsors tents by the 18th green suggested that corporate Melbourne was equally reluctant to travel so far.

Photo: © Ryan Pierse/Getty Images Sparse crowds meant the traditional wave had to be performed by players and their caddies (In this case Adam Scott and gang.)

We have many wonderful golf courses in suburban Melbourne and Sydney and they have always proved to be hugely popular venues for players, spectators, television companies and sponsors.

Great Melbourne clubs like Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, Metropolitan and Victoria and The Australian and Royal Sydney in the Olympic city are constituents of the AGU and founding members and they must be wondering just how often the Open is going to travel to Moonah Links and deny them the opportunity to hold our biggest tournament.

With Colin Phillips now retired and a new man, Tony Hallam, in place the game in Australia faces some important questions.

Calm, wise and rational, articulate voices would be a good beginning.

MFS Australian Open