THE CROWN AUSTRALIAN OPEN – ROYAL MELBOURNE GOLF CLUB
Rory McIlroy was the star attraction at Royal Melbourne, with massive crowds turning out to see him play.
AMID all the deserved hubris in the corridors of power at Golf Australia following the resurrection of the Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, Rory McIlroy had some words of wisdom.
“Yes, it’s been absolutely amazing,” said the Northern Irishman who probably more than anyone else had dragged the national championship back into the land of the living.
“The scenes, the crowds, the golf course…absolutely incredible,” McIlroy said.
“This is a golf tournament that has so much potential and I think it showed a whole a lot of that this week.
“But I think there is still a way to go. I would love to have a few more players come down and play but it’s hard with three tournaments in the schedule going on this week. Hopefully the Australian Open can get a date where everyone who wants to can have the option to come down here and play.”
McIlroy will be back as part of his two-year Australian Open deal to play at Kingston Heath later in the year.
Likely to return too will be the tournament’s sensational winner Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen who produced an implausible up-and-down from the worst possible position to claim a drama-charged tournament at Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
In front of more than 33,000 fans packed into every vantage point on the 18th fairway, the Dane won a place in the Masters in April with a nerveless 20-footer for par. But he waited a harrowing few minutes before Queenslander Cameron Smith missed a five-footer which would have forced a play-off.
It was the Dane’s first win on the DP World Tour. He was gracious in victory and said even though he might have looked calm, “It was a storm inside all day. I just had to keep battling. To get it up and down for par from that (right rough beside the 18th green), I don’t know what to say to be honest.”
Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen claimed his first DP World Tour title and the bonus of an invitation to the 2026 US Masters with his win at the Crown Australian Open.
Neergaard-Petersen started the day with a two-shot lead and had fallen two behind walking to the par three 12th tee.
“The birdie on 12 was huge. Getting back into a tie for the lead. On the past three days I had always managed to finish well coming in.”
An invitation to the Masters was the icing on the cake for the Dane.
“The Masters is the event I’ve grown up watching so many times and I’ve dreamed of playing it,” the 26-year-old said. “Just to get to the event is awesome. I was still playing college golf two and a half years ago it’s all gone by so fast.”
Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland said the rejuvenated Open event had exceeded all expectations.
“The players are the stars but the team behind the scenes has worked extremely hard. We’ve separated the men from the women’s event (after a dual format trial) and this event has been elevated. It has been building ever since we announced Rory and Royal Melbourne and has produced the greatest Australian Open ever. We have seen in excess of 110,000 people through the gates.”
All power to golf. RM and Rory were an unmitigated success.
