Allenby aims for historic triple at Masters

BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2005 MasterCard Masters | Preview | 06 Dec 2005

It’s that time of the year again when one of Australia’s most enduring tournaments gets underway around the Huntingdale Golf Club’s layout in South Oakleigh in Melbourne’s sandbelt suburbs.

The last ten years have seen significant changes to the golf course layout with the final few changes this year made to complete what has been quite a transformation. The new changes, which will welcome the players in 2005, are a new fairway trap, additional length and a new greens complex at the par five 6th, the raising of the par three 12th green, and fairway reconstruction and the addition of new fairway traps at the par four 13th.

The much discussed and, at times, controversial changes can now be assessed in total rather than in part and the reaction of players now, compared to the often heated reaction to the initial changes in the late 1990’s, will be awaited with interest. Not that the course was necessarily changed to accommodate the MasterCard Masters. It was rather to alleviate a serious drainage problem that the Huntingdale members had endured for the more than fifty years since its original construction. The fact that the tournament has even been able to be played in recent years, after serious rain deluges prior to the event, suggests that the drainage system now works beautifully. The relative merits of the strategic changes are very much a personal viewpoint.

The field assembled here represents the best Australian golf can muster. Adam Scott returns from his rewarding visit to Sun City (he finished runner up after a playoff loss) with an even greater bank balance than he had when leaving the Australian Open after not being able to cope with the demands of Moonah over his final two rounds. He has played well at Huntingdale previously, being part of the playoff in 2003 when Robert Allenby took the title. Sandbelt courses seem to suit him as he has also gone close at Royal Melbourne. He has yet to win in Australia but this week, providing the rigours of trans-Indian Ocean travel don’t get the better of him, provides a good opportunity.

Robert Allenby arrives here with the burden of expectation sitting fairly and squarely on his shoulders. He lines up for what could be an historic week in Australian golf with the possibility of becoming the first player to win the Australian Open, the Australian PGA and the MasterCard Masters in the same season. Last year Peter Lonard was in the same situation although he had also won the Von Nida Tour’s New South Wales Open the week prior to the Australian Open, creating the opportunity to win four events in a row. He was not able to do so. Allenby comes here on what must be an all time high but he how much will the draining effects of long time contention at the Open and the PGA have? Allenby has a good record at Huntingdale winning here in 2003 and was very much in contention until a last round 76 last year.

Stuart Appleby arrives here with enough good form of late for him to be considered a chance. He has had top tens at each of his last two starts at the Australian Open and the Australian PGA and although he has not been in serious contention here at Huntingdale often, he has played well enough previously for him to be considered amongst the likely chances.

Nick O’Hern has been putting himself in position to win so often of late that surely his time must come. It might eventually happen because someone backs out of a tournament late but if and when it does happen, the doubters of Nick O’Hern’s capacity to get across the line might just disappear for good. He is a fine strategic player and that sort of game will never go astray especially around a course like Huntingdale. For those who like having a bet he is sure to be there or thereabouts if he does not win.

Peter Lonard is here but his form over the last few weeks, and more especially in Australia, has been disappointing. He likely needs a top three finish here, perhaps even a win, to maintain his position inside the top fifty in the world by year’s end. If he is to do so it will require quite a turnaround from what we have seen in the last two weeks. He does though, have an excellent record here.

Rod Pampling is not a prolific winner of tournaments (he has won only one in Australia) but he is a good enough player to have finished fifth at Augusta this year and third last week at the Australian PGA. Those credentials alone are certainly good enough to have some sort of chance this week.

Craig Parry has a liking for this golf course despite the fact that he was one of the more vocal critics of the original changes made. He has finished his tournaments off well in his last two events with one of the better last rounds at both Moonah and Hyatt Regency Coolum. He has not played a lot in recent months but seems to be getting near the level he was at when he finished second at the Japan Open a few weeks ago.

Paul Casey arrives here fresh from his win at the China Open two weeks ago and is clearly back in form. He has not played here before but Melbourne’s sandbelt is not unknown to him having finished fourth at the Heineken Classic at Royal Melbourne in 2003.

Mathew Goggin is another who has begun to play to the level we know he is capable of. He finished strongly at the Australian Open and then all but won last week when putting together a last round of 63.

Richard Green arrives to Huntingdale as the defending champion but he is quite some way from where he was at with his game at this stage last year. He did finish last week’s event off well however and it might just be that a return to a golf club where he won his only Australasian Tour event, and where he was a member for several years, might just kick-start what has been a disappointing last half of the season.

John Senden is somewhat of a non-winner but his last two weeks have seen him learning more about the mysteries of contention. He possesses a golf swing that should allow him to win many titles. At some stage he must win an event and he has shown with his runner up placing at the Open and his sixth place last week that he is close to his best form.

Steve Bowditch finished fourth at the MasterCard Masters last year and is an even more accomplished golfer now. He played well last week until his last round 74 proved costly and with a series of good finishes on the Nationwide Tour behind him, a week in serious contention would not surprise. Last year here he played the last round with Peter Lonard and more than held his own.

I will give Camilo Villegas one more chance to live up to my expectations of him being a genuine prospect on the PGA Tour in 2006. He did play here last year, finishing 30th, but with a year on the Nationwide Tour behind him and his PGA Tour card in his back pocket he is a more experienced and dangerous player now.

Last year’s runners up David McKenzie and Greg Chalmers, along with recent Australian Open runner up Paul Sheehan are amongst others who stand a genuine chance.

Early in the week much of the interest will be in the further changes to the Huntingdale layout but by Sunday night the focus of attention will be on what promises to be a most intriguing and contest to end the 2005 Australasian Tour season.

Adam Scott currently leads to Order of Merit with $534,000 but with more than $200,000 available to the winner here, there is the opportunity for several golfers to secure one of the leading three places on the Order of Merit, which offer opportunities in events worldwide in 2006.