16 Australasians secure 2007 Asian Tour cards

BY Bruce Young | Asian Tour | 2006 Asian Tour Q-School - Final Stage | Wrap | 16 Dec 2006

The Asian Tour will again provide a lifeline for Australasian golfers in 2007 with several having their professional careers extended as a result of gaining their Asian Tour cards at the final stage of qualifying over the last few days while others will begin their quest for professional success.

iseekgolf’s Bruce Young takes a look at those whose careers have been given another chance and at those who are beginning their careers and taking advantage of the opportunity to develop their games via the rapidly expanding Asian Tour.

Scott Hend, who finished runner up in Thailand yesterday, is still considered one of the longest hitters in the professional game. Hend has played the Canadian, USPGA, Nationwide, and Australasian Tours since becoming a playing professional in 1995 with some success, winning four times on the Australasian Tour’s secondary tour and winning an event on the Canadian Tour in 2002.

The 33-year-old Queenslander’s big break came in late 2003 when he gained a Tour card for the 2004 USPGA Tour by finishing 21st at the Tour School and after missing his first five cuts he finished third behind Zach Johnson and Mark Hensby at the Bell South tournament but would go on to finish just outside the top 125. He regained his full USPGA Tour playing rights at the Tour School at the end of 2004 but after a poor season in 2005 he agonisingly missed regaining his card by one shot for 2006 and played the Nationwide Tour.

2006 has been a horror year for Hend but the one ray of hope came perhaps in an Asian Tour event in Korea where he finished 7th. With his options elsewhere drying up, Hend now has Asian Tour status and with such a high finish at Tour School there is a good chance he will gain early season starts at some of the events co sanctioned between the Asian and European Tours and this opportunity might just open up a whole new world for him.

The highly talented New South Welshman Mitchell Brown has only just turned professional, his first start playing for money coming in November at the Von Nida Tour’s New South Wales Open where he had a great chance to win before finishing third. In three Australasian Tour events since he has struggled but importantly, as a result of finishing in fourth place in Thailand, he now has a place to ply his trade and hone his considerable skills in 2007.

Gavin Flint finished in a share of fifth at the Tour School after a year which has seen him struggling with both on and off course issues. A brilliant amateur before turning professional in late 2004, Flint held the Queensland, New South Wales, Victorian and New Zealand Amateur Championships at the one time in early 2004 and turned professional a few months later. The 25-year-old Queenslander gained his Asian Tour card for 2006 at last year’s Tour School and finished 9th at the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth. He appeared at that stage to be moving in the right direction especially after he had recorded rounds of 64 and 66 in the second and third rounds at the Vines Resort to be in contention heading into the final day.

It would be off course however where Flint had real drama this year, being the victim of an indiscriminate ’king hit’ punch at a bar near where he lived in Brisbane in September. It took several weeks for Flint to recover and to be able to fly again but he has bounced back and now with another year on the Asian Tour ahead of him he has a chance to reproduce the sort of form that saw him as one of Australia’s most successful ever amateur golfers.

Another New South Welshman, Neven Basic, managed to play his way through both stages at the Tour School and in finishing in a share of 5th place at the final stage he has good early season status. Basic has played on the Von Nida Tour in season 2006 where he finished 13th on the Order of Merit. Basic has been a professional for nearly two years but now has an opportunity for the continuity of play needed to develop his game.

Ashley Hall is yet another Australian who has picked up Asian Tour status in 2007 by finishing 9th yesterday. The Victorian has played as a professional these past few weeks, finishing 24th at the MFS Australian Open. Hall did well in several amateur events in the US this season before turning professional including when a semi-finalist at the North and South Amateur at Pinehurst. Hall also won the Tasmanian Open, the Master of the Amateurs in Melbourne and the Tennant Cup in Glasgow as an amateur in 2005.

A resurgent Mark Brown is back playing professional golf after having turned to the administration of the game following a struggling professional career to that point. New Zealander, Brown, was the medallist at the Australasian Tour School in 1996 after an amateur career that saw him finish 4th at the Eisenhower Trophy in Paris in 1994. He had limited success on golf tours where there was never a lot of money available, but with the a great deal more events and prizemoney on offer than was the case when he first played the Asian Tour in 1996 things are looking good for the Wellingtonian in 2007.

Brown made the decision earlier this year to recommit himself to the cause and recently won a small event in New Zealand, but an event that was big in terms of the direction Brown had chosen.

Dalby’s David Gleeson has regained his playing rights after an indifferent year in 2006. The ex Australian Amateur Champion and winning Eisenhower Team member has played the Asian Tour since 1999 with mixed success, his best season coming in 2002 when he won the Volvo China Open. 2006 has not been so good however apart from a runner up placing in Brunei but he is back again in 2007.

Troy Kennedy is the brother of another Asian Tour player in Brad Kennedy and will now join Brad in Asia in 2007. Troy has played in Asia on occasions and in fact in 2006 he finished third at the Pakistan Open.

Won Joon Lee is potentially the most exciting prospect amongst the new recruits. The Korean born but New South Wales raised 21 year old, turned professional after representing Australia at the Eisenhower in October and headed straight for Japan where he had gained starts by invite in some of the big end of season events. Lee had played exceptionally well at the Japan Open as an amateur in October being very much in contention before a final round of 77 saw him slip back.

Lee then gained starts at the Visa Taiheiyo, Dunlop Phoenix and Casio World Open events making the cut in two and recording a best placed 14th at the Casio World Open. Perhaps surprisingly he did not play the Australian Open but did play and miss the cut at the Australian PGA Championship. He does now however have status on the Asian Tour after finishing 17th yesterday and can be expected to quickly make his mark in 2007.

New Zealander, Bradley Iles, regained his card by finishing 28th yesterday, having played his first season as a professional in Asia in 2006. The 22 year old, who so nearly lost his life in a golf cart accident in 2004, seems to have found something after a disappointing season in 2006. He made a brilliant start to his professional career in late 2005 when 25th at the Australian PGA and then 6th at the MasterCard Masters but did not have a good first season in Asia and hence the need to regain his card.

A recent decision to just go out and play without getting too bogged down with structure and technique on the golf course resulted in some re-found form for Iles at the recent Australian PGA Championship and this has carried over to the Tour School. New Zealand golf has struggled to find a golfer good enough to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Michael Campbell, Greg Turner and Frank Nobilo but in Iles they might just have their man.

Seven years ago the golfing world appeared to be Western Australian Jarrod Moseley’s oyster. He had won the Heineken Classic after heading off Ernie Els on the final day and had just a few weeks earlier won the Australasian Tour’s Tour School. He continued to do well in Europe for the next few years and in Australia in 2002 he shared the PGA Championship title with Peter Lonard after a controversial decision to call off the playoff.

The last few years however have seen Moseley lose his way in Europe and although he continued to work on his attitude on course he was beginning to lose his desire to be a competing tournament professional. With his status in Europe now well and truly gone, Moseley made the decision to try and gain his card in Asia and by finishing right on the cut line he has done just that.

Moseley has begun to play well again in recent weeks, including when runner up at the New Zealand Open, and while no doubt pleased to have his card he will be disappointed that he was unable to gain a higher finish and therefore greater early season access. A win in New Zealand would have given him European Tour status again but it was not to be. Still he has a place to play in 2007 and importantly if he is able to do well in early season events, the chance to backdoor his way back to Europe via the co sanctioned events.

Rowan Beste has played in Asia in 2006 after gaining his card to compete there twelve earlier. The Queenslander, who won the Sunshine Tour (QLD) Order of Merit in 2005, failed to make a cut in Asia in 2006 but he now has another chance to get his career moving forward. Beste played several Von Nida Tour events in 2006 including when 4th at the Minniecon and Burke Queensland Masters in October.

New Zealander Stephen Scahill has finally run out of options in Europe after playing there since 1997. A member of the victorious 1992 New Zealand Eisenhower side, Scahill has been a fringe player in Europe, winning on the Challenge Tour on two occasions but never on the European Tour. Forced to return to the Tour School in 2006 for the 2007 season, Scahill missed out at stage two and so made the decision to try and play in Asia. He has status but only just.

Novacastrian 33-year-old, Leigh McKechnie, has played on the Australasian and Von Nida Tour in recent years and gets his chance to move up a level by finishing as one of the last players to get his playing rights for Asia in 2007.

South Australian golfer Shane Baxter turned professional earlier this year and led the Von Nida Tour’s Queensland Masters before a final round 74 was not good enough to hold off Cameron Percy and Marc Leishman.

The Asian Tour in 2007 begins on January 11th with the Philippine Open followed by the Pakistan Open then the Qatar Masters jointly sanctioned between the Asian and European Tours.