Just as the 2023-24 DP World Tour season has come to a close, the 2024-25 season is set to begin.
A week ago, Rory McIlroy claimed both the DP World Tour Championship and the Order of Merit.
Now, the European based tour turns its attention to the Opening Swing with a trip down under for this week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship. The Opening Swing will run through December and the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
This will serve as the first of two stops in Australia before the Tour heads to South Africa.
The BMW Australian PGA Championship first joined the schedule in December of 2015 and was first held at Royal Pines Golf Club on the Gold Coast.
It was staged there until 2019. In 2022 when the event returned to the schedule, it was held at Royal Queensland where it is still staged.
The Field
Being one of the two DP World Tour events held in Australia, this week’s field is headlined by the Aussie golf greats of the world.
Australia’s own Min Woo Lee comes in as the defending champion of this event, winning by three strokes over Rikuya Hoshino a season ago. Lee is back to defend his title and opens alongside PGA Tour veteran and former World No. 1 Jason Day as the odds-on-favorites to win.
LIV Golf Tour’s and former The Open Champion Cam Davis is also back on home soil this week, looking to claim his fourth Australian PGA Championship. He won in 2017, 2018 and 2022.
Other notable Australians teeing it up this week include Marc Leishman, Lucas Herbert, Cam Davis, David Micheluzzi and John Parry.
Other notable non-Australian golfers teeing it up this week include Jordan Smith, Victor Perez, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Yannik Paul and Adrien Saddier.
The Course
This week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship is held at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane, Australia.
It plays as a Par 71 at 7,134 yards and is located on the north bank of the Brisbane River.
Although Royal Queensland Golf Club was opened in 1921, the course hosting this week’s tournament is only 16 years old and was designed by ex-Tour pro Mike Clayton.
This course is a more modern parkland layout that was completed in December of 2007.
Overall, it is a flat course with wide fairways and very little rough.
Despite that, there is an abundance of strategically-positioned bunkers which serves as the course’s main line of defense.
Although there is an abundance of sand, there is limited water to trouble golfers this week.
The Weather
As of the time of writing this, there is a significant chance of precipitation for the first two days of this event. Forecasts are currently calling for a 60-percent chance of precipitation on Thursday and a 80-percent chance on Friday. From there, the weekend looks to be clear with at most a 20-percent chance of precipitation on Saturday. Temperatures will begin at the lowest on Thursday at 71-degrees before gradually increasing to 80-degrees come Sunday. Winds will be a consistent 13 miles-per-hour across all four days as well.
Key Stats
Strokes Gained: Approach (SG: APP)
Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (SG: OTT) / Average Driving Distance
Greens in Regulation Percentage (GIR%)
Scrambling
Strokes Gained: Putting (SG: PUTT)
Bogey Avoidance
Sand Saves Percentage
Betting Card
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (+2500)
Neergaard-Petersen finished the past DP World Tour season ranked 23rd on Tour in SG: OTT, 25th in bogey avoidance, 26th in GIR%, 30th in sand saves percentage, 45th in scrambling, 55th in SG: APP, 76th in average driving distance and 78th in SG: PUTT. We last saw the 25 year-old Dane at the Genesis Championship on the DP World Tour where he placed T14th. However, he most recently placed T2nd at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final on the Challenge Tour. On the DP World Tour he also recently placed T18th at the FedEx Open de France, T4th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and T13th at the Open de Espana. Neergaard-Petersen won three times on the Challenge Tour this past season to go along with two runner-ups.
Adrien Saddier (+4500)
We last saw Saddier at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship where he placed T19th. He also recently placed T18th at the FedEx Open de France and T19th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. It also wasn’t that long ago where he placed T3th at the D+D Real Czech Masters and T5th at the Danish Golf Championship in back-to-back weeks. Saddier finished the last season 41st on Tour in GIR%, 43rd in scrambling, 48th in bogey avoidance, 54th in average driving distance, 90th in SG: APP, 93rd in SG: OTT, 104th in SG: PUTT and 113th in sand saves percentage.
Daniel Hillier (+5500)
Although not from Australia, Hillier is from New Zealand which makes this week a bit of a home-game for him as well. He finished last season 25th on Tour in SG: OTT, 27th in average driving distance, 29th in GIR%, 47th in SG: APP, 73rd in bogey avoidance, 76th in sand saves percentage, 121st in SG: PUTT and 147th in scrambling. Hillier had made five consecutive cuts coming into this week. We last saw him at the Genesis Championship where he placed T22nd. He also placed T43rd at the Andalucia Masters, T25th at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, T65th at the Open de Espana and T18th at the BMW PGA Championship.