Australian PGA: Top 10 power rankings at RVAC Royal Pines
This year’s extended Aussie Swing culminates in the Australian PGA Championship at RVAC Royal Pines.
With last week’s ISPS Handa World Cup of Golf being held in Australia, pro golf has stuck around an extra week Down Under. We had the Australian Open two weeks prior and now see it come to a close this week in Gold Coast, Queensland at the RVAC Royal Pines.
The Australian PGA Championship is a historic event that debuted in 1905 and claims Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros, Greg Norman and Adam Scott on its champions list.
The Aussie PGA has bounced around to 37 different venues. Royal Melbourne has hosted the most (14 times) but not since 1983. Royal Melbourne’s consolation prize is that it hosted the Presidents Cup in 1998, 2011 and will again in 2019.
We’re now at RVAC Royal Pines for the fourth year in a row, which gives us a decent sample size to work with.
The course is a par 72 playing at 7,364 yards. It’s a Graham Marsh redesign that employs relatively tight fairways with some tree line but not much for rough. The greens are large, undulating and can kick wayward shots into a run-off area or one of many sand traps or water hazards.
Fairways are Wintergreen and greens are TifEagle, replacing the original Bermuda.
The course played brutally tough in 2015 when Nathan Holman won with an even-par 72-hole total. The last two years are a different story as Harold Varner III won at 19-under in 2016 and Cameron Smith at 18-under in ’17.
Windy conditions harmed scoring in ’15 and double-digit mile-per-hour breezes in the forecast could make things tricky again. Rain could hit Friday, but the forecast otherwise looks dry with Fahrenheit temperatures in the 80’s .
Unfortunately for this event, the simultaneous Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas has taken away a lot of top talent that isn’t otherwise resting.
Still. Smith and Varner III are among the notable names who will be in the east of Australia this week.
Let’s check out 10 best bets to hoist the trophy: