2016 Perth International preview and favourites: Strong field arrives at Lake Karrinyup
Best ever Perth International field tees off at Lake Karrinyup on Thursday.
The ISPS Handa Perth International golf tournament at Lake Karrinyup was shifted to an early calender year date for a better fit in the European Tour schedule who co-sanction the tournament along with the PGA Tour of Australasia.
The idea being that following on the back of tournaments in the UAE and Qatar, golfers would be more likely to make the trip to Australia sitting between events in Malaysia, Thailand and India.
Venue: Lake Karrinyup Country Club
Prize money: AU $1,750,000
Course Record: 63; James Morrison during round 2 of the 2014 Perth International
Defending Champion: Thorbjorn Olesen
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$11 Louis Oosthuizen
$17 Victory Dubuisson
$21 Thorbjorn Olesen
$26 Brett Rumford
$29 Marcus Fraser, Mikko IlonenOthers to watch
Keep an eye on world number 82 Ricardo Gouveia and Spain’s Alejandro Canizares: both missed their last cut but form prior has been good enough to challenge in Perth this week. England’s Richard Bland also in great form and Australia’s Jason Scrivener has shown enough over the past few weeks to have confidence arriving in Perth.
And the move seems to have worked with the best field in the history of the Perth International making their way to Australia this week.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen is back in Australia to defend his 2014 Perth International title. Wait… 2014? What happened to the 2015 event?
Olesen is joined by a whole bunch of great golfers including world number 21 Louis Oosthuizen, Victor Dubuisson, Ricardo Gouveia, Tom Lewis, Alvaro Quiros and Steven Gallacher.
A strong Australian contingent to take on Lake Karrinyup are led by world number 62 Marcus Fraser who won last week’s Maybank Malaysian Open in dramatic fashion as well as plenty of others keen to get their year off to a flying start including PGA Tour’s Rhein Gibson, Brett Rumford, Greg Chalmers, Wade Ormsby, Aron Price and Brad Kennedy.
Of particular interest will be Peter Senior’s performance around Lake Karrinyup. The 2015 Australian Masters champion arrives in Perth with a short putter and a pencil grip after ditching the broomstick putter since the implementation of the anchoring ban at the start of the year.
