Aussies on Tour: ‘Generation Next’ conquer the world

The next generation of Australian superstars have announced their arrival in spectacular fashion with a weekend of wins unlike anything the game in this country has ever seen before.

Media Release via Australian Golf Media

Their names may be unfamiliar to many but 26-year-old Cameron Davis, 25-year-old Lucas Herbert and 20-year-old Stephanie Kyriacou all won on major tours in a fashion that suggests that they are just getting started.

The 2017 Australian Open champion, Davis (67) came from the clouds in the closing stages of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, playing his final seven holes in 5-under par to join a playoff with Joaquin Niemann and Troy Merritt at 18-under.

Niemann fell by the wayside at the first playoff hole, Davis missing opportunities to win on the first four sudden-death holes before Merritt’s bogey on the fifth and Davis’s tap-in par secured his breakthrough PGA TOUR title.

Hours earlier Lucas Herbert completed a wire-to-wire win at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet Estate for his second European Tour title, bringing out the bulldog within to complete a three-stroke victory that was not as straightforward as the margin suggests.

Fighting a misbehaving driver, Herbert (68) scrapped and clawed his way to an outward nine of 35 as challengers joined him at the top of the leaderboard.

A birdie at 10 restored the one-stroke advantage with which Herbert began the day but he gave it straight back at the par-3 11th. Pars followed at the next three holes and when he left the 14th green he and American Johannes Veerman were locked together at the top once again.

But two brilliant bunker shots on the next two holes – for birdie at 15 and par at 16 – gave the Bendigo native the momentum to push towards victory, two closing birdies completing a remarkable week that began with a round of 8-under 64 on Thursday.

Not only does the win secure Herbert a place in The Open Championship to be held at Royal St George’s next week but is projected to move him up to a career high of 54 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

But it all began with Kyriacou, who like Herbert led from day one in claiming the Ladies European Tour’s Big Green Open in the Netherlands in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Winner of the Australian Ladies Classic at Bonville whilst still an amateur on her way to the 2020 LET Rookie of the Year, Kyriacou produced a bogey-free 5-under 67 in the final round to win by two strokes at Rosendaelsche Golf Club.

Central Coast product Dimi Papadatos almost made it four professional wins in the one weekend as he finished second by one stroke at the Kaskada Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour while Queensland amateur Louis Dobbelaar continued his excellent results in America, adding the prestigious North and South Amateur to his victory at the Dogwood Invitational last month.

Results
PGA TOUR
Rocket Mortgage Classic
Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan
Winner Cam Davis                           68-68-67-67—270             $US1.35m
Won on the fifth hole of sudden death playoff
T14         Jason Day                         67-73-69-66—275             $121,875
T41         Cameron Percy                 71-70-71-68—280             $24,115
T41         Aaron Baddeley                 69-70-69-72—280             $24,115
T52         Matt Jones                         70-69-71-71—281             $17,775
MC         Danny Lee                          71-73—144
MC         Rhein Gibson                      73-72—145

European Tour
Dubai Duty Free Irish Open
Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland
Winner Lucas Herbert                       64-67-70-68—269             €484,990
T9           Jason Scrivener                 67-69-70-69—275             €58,699
T17         Min Woo Lee                     68-68-73-69—278             €35,970
T28         Maverick Antcliff                69-72-68-71—280             €26,338
MC         Wade Ormsby                    71-72—143
MC         Jake McLeod                      77-72—149
MC         Ryan Fox                            76-76—152
MC         Scott Hend                          75-78—153

Ladies European Tour
Big Green Egg Open
Rosendaelsche Golf Club, Netherlands
Winner Stephanie Kyriacou             66-72-65-67—270             €30,000
T29         Whitney Hillier                   74-73-68-74—289             €2,006
MC         Kristalle Blum                     79-77—156
MC         Amy Walsh                          81-78—159

Challenge Tour
Kaskada Golf Challenge
Kaskada Golf Resort, Brno, Czech Republic
Winner Marcel Schneider                   65-65-71-67—268             €32,000
T2           Josh Geary                          69-67-66-67—269             €16,000
T2           Dimitrios Papadatos            70-67-65-67—269             €16,000
T54         Blake Windred                    65-73-72-74—284              €730
MC         Deyen Lawson                     70-71—141
MC         David Micheluzzi                  74-72—146

LPGA Tour
Volunteers of America Classic
Old American Golf Club, The Colony, Texas
Winner Jin Young Ko                          63-70-66-69—268            $US225,000
T26         Katherine Kirk                     68-69-70-72—279             $12,786
T47         Sarah Jane Smith               66-74-71-72—283             $5,158

Champions Tour
Dick’s Sporting Goods Open
En-Joie Golf Club, Endicott, New York
Winner Cameron Beckman               67-69-68—204
T38         David McKenzie                 71-69-74—214
T49         Stephen Leaney                 73-71-72—216