During the first sixty years of the Australian PGA Championship, most of the editions were played as a match play contest, with qualification for the tournament dependant on scores posted in the Australian Open the week before. Scottish-born players dominated the early years of the event with Dan Soutar and Carnegie Clark – both friends hailing from the golf nursery of Carnoustie – winning the first six editions of the competition, starting in 1905 with Soutar defeating Gilbert Martin 4&3 in the final at Royal Melbourne.

Soutar claimed the fourth of his PGA titles with his win in 1910, becoming the first president of the PGA of Australia the following year. The association’s first meeting was held on 19th September 1911 in Clark’s pro-shop at Royal Sydney Golf Club and the Caledonian connection didn’t end there as other Scottish-born winners of the PGA down the years include Rufus Stewart (1929), Fergus McMahon (1932), Sam Torrance (1980) and Andrew Coltart (1994 and 1997). In all, 12 PGA titles have been won by Scots, second only to the number won by Australians.

The champion receives the Joe Kirkwood Cup, donated by Joe Kirkwood Sr. and first presented to Rufus Stewart in 1929. Kirkwood is acknowledged as having put Australian golf on the world map. Shortly after winning the Australian Open and New Zealand Open in 1920, he joined the PGA Tour in America, becoming the first Australian to win on that professional circuit with his victory at the Houston Invitational in 1923. He then teamed up with Walter Hagen in a series of stage shows and exhibitions, becoming famous for his trick shot routine. He finished fourth three times in The Open and was a best-placed ninth in the 1933 US Open.

In the first PGA Championship after World War II in 1946, Norman von Nida’s exciting 1 up victory against Eric Cremin at Manly Golf Club in Sydney added to his wins at the NSW Open and the Queensland Open, ushering in a golden era for him. The Von, complete with his distinctive black beret, set off on an extended golf trip around the world during the next twenty years, winning the PGA again in 1948, 1950 and 1951, as well as the Australian Open in 1950, 1952 and 1953. He also came close to winning the Open in Britain, finishing 4th in 1946, 6th in1947, 3rd in 1948 and 9th in 1952. His great legacy was convincing other Australian pros that they could also do well on the world stage.

The match play era of the Australian PGA Championship came to an end in 1963 when Col Johnston, the club professional at Monash Country Club in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney, beat American Ron Howell 3&2 in the final at Oatlands. The following year, he retained the title at his home club, beating his nearest rival Bruce Devlin (who lost the Australian Open to Jack Nicklaus in a play off at The Lakes the previous week) by one stroke. What was even more remarkable about Johnston’s golfing accomplishments was the fact that he’d lost his right eye just a couple of years earlier after it had become infected in a work accident in 1959.

Peter Thomson shot 14 under par at Metropolitan to beat the Sydney pair of Col Johnston and Frank Phillips in 1967, seventeen years after he’d first tried to win the PGA. Thomson had already won The Open five times and he was trying to better his four runner-up finishes for the Australian title: in 1953 to Ossie Pickworth; in 1957 to Gary Player; and in 1959 to Kel Nagle in match play finals before coming second to Bill Dunk at Royal Sydney in the 1965 stroke play contest. As President of the PGA of Australia, Thomson was especially pleased to capture the prestigious Joe Kirkwood Cup, having won the Australian Open a week earlier by seven strokes.

The following year at Metropolitan, Kel Nagel won his 6th and final Australian PGA in fine style at the age of 47. His tally of 276 (69 67 69 71) for a total of 20 under the par of 74 beat the then “Big Three of Golf” by quite a margin – Nicklaus was six shots behind, Palmer seventeen and Player eighteen. Nagle’s tongue in cheek comment after the prize giving ceremony was: “I don’t know what all those young blokes were doing out there if an old bloke like me can win.”

Other home winners of note in the modern era include Greg Norman (1984 and 1985), Geoff Ogilvy (2008) and Adam Scott (2013 and 2019). Multiple champions include Robert Allenby with four titles between 2000 and 2009, Peter Senior with three wins between 1989 and 2010, and Peter Lonard between 2002 and 2007.

Apart from the Scots, there have not been too many non-Oceanic winners of the Australian PGA: Gary Player from South Africa beat Peter Thomson in the 1957 final at Huntingdale; American Hale Irwin won by 8 shots at Royal Melbourne in 1978; Spain’s Seve Ballesteros also won at Royal Melbourne in 1981 with a 3-shot cushion; David Howell from England enjoyed a 7-stroke margin of victory at New South Wales in 1998; and Harold Varner III from the USA won by two shots at Royal Pines in 2016.

Royal Melbourne has hosted the event fourteen times and it has been held at Coolum on eleven occasions. Royal Pines and Royal Sydney have both staged the tournament seven times and four other clubs have been used five times: Metropolitan, New South Wales, Royal Adelaide and The Australian. You will not find the following courses below as they are not currently featured in our Australian listings: Oakleigh (1909, 1913), Rossdale (1962) and Surfers Paradise (1970, 1971).