Allenby favourite at Huntingdale

BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2008 Australian Masters | Preview | 25 Nov 2008

The Australian Masters may be may be lacking the superstars that it has occasionally attracted but the event still promises to kick start the Australasian golfing summer in style.

The swansong for the event at Huntingdale, at least in the immediate future, gets underway on Thursday with a field that boasts only Robert Allenby (29) from the world’s top 30 but as has been seen over the years the tournament has often produced a finish full of drama irrespective of the lineup.

The event goes on the road in the next few years as it takes in some of the great courses in the Melbourne Sandbelt region in rotation. Huntingdale may well be part of that rota but the layout that has witnessed so much drama since becoming home to this significant event in Australian golf will be rested after this event.

The decision is a good one as, although it is still a fine layout, the event itself had become stale in recent years and so the rotation of venues will hopefully return the event to the glory days of the Australian Masters. Given the current economic outlook that may well be easier said than done but it is definitely a move in the right direction.

Allenby deserves to be the favourite given his success on the golf course where he has won twice plus he has been in an incredible run of consistent form for much of the year.

Two-time Masters champion, Peter Lonard, always saves his best form for Australia. His game has been a mixed bag this season but he is not too far from where he needs to be to extend his remarkable record on home soil. Nine of Lonard’s ten victories as a professional have been at home.

Stuart Appleby has not won in Australia in seven years but like Allenby he has been consistent all year. A double bogey on the final hole last year cost him a chance of victory or at least a playoff and with 14 consecutive cuts made on the USPGA Tour in the last few months he is in good enough form to go one or two better. The issue for Appleby is that he has not played tournament golf since the Tour Championshipv nearly two months ago, which might work against him early in the tournament.

South African Tim Clark is an invite to the event and while he is unlikely to attract the same level of attention as the other star invite, John Daly, he has a realistic chance of doing very well. Clark has yet to claim a PGA Tour title but he has won on several occasions in his homeland and elsewhere and is more than capable of beating this field on any given week. He has not been at his peak in recent weeks but did finish second at Fort Worth earlier in the season.

The best of the Europeans here to take advantage of the co-sanctioning could well be Alexander Noren, who with a couple of seasons behind him now on the European Tour, could breakthrough for his first win before long. It is again a little disappointing that the event is devoid of Europe’s better players but Noren soon will be one of them it would seem.

David Horsey had a great season on the Challenge Tour winning twice and gaining full playing privileges in Europe for this season after finsihing on top of the Order of Merit. He finished 5th in this event last year.

Last year’s runner up and Mercedes Championship winner in January, Daniel Chopra, is in the field but a repeat of 2007 would be a surprise result. He has struggled through the latter stages of 2008 and will be relying on his good memories from last year to rekindle that form.

New Zealander Tim Wilkinson has had an outstanding rookie season on the PGA Tour and might be a chance.

There are some many interesting stories including that of John Daly who gave an indication that he is serious about his intentions with a final round of 62 in Hong Kong last week. His appearance will be sure to drag some through the gates who might not otherwise have been there.

Many young Australians who have performed with distinction on the Nationwide Tour are in the field, including Jarrod Lyle, Greg Chalmers, Aron Price and Marc Leishman and their performance now that they are PGA Tour card holders will be watched with interest.

The finale to the tradition Huntingdale has developed over the past 30 years should be something special.