Telfer's Thoughts 8.12.25

First it was a little-known Spaniard golfer, David Puig, who a week ago upstaged Australia’s best to win the Australian PGA and this week the party-pooper, another rather anonymous figure from Europe, 26-year- old Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, snatched the Australian Open title from under the nose of local hero Cam Smith when he drained a long birdie putt on the 72nd green at Royal Melbourne to win the title by 1 stroke from Smith.

The Dane’s main claim to fame is the three wins he’s had on the Challenge Tour, the Number Two Tour of Europe which secured him a place on the DP World Tour.

If nothing else, the wins by these two young European golfers serves to remind us that the strength of the DP World Tour isn’t quite as weak as some have suggested. Yes it’s true all of Europe’s top players are happily ensconsed on the USPGA Tour and most well reimbursed for their time playing in the States.

However there is also now an underlying strength to that DP World Tour. Both Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier will testify to that. Fox and Hillier are both winners on the DP Tour. Fox went from Europe to the States last year off the back of a couple of very successful seasons in Europe and promptly won not once but twice on the US Tour in 2025. Hillier missed his US Tour playing card a couple of weeks back by the narrowest of margins.

The USPGA is clearly sufficiently impressed now with the standard of play on the DP Tour, which is why they give out full playing cards to the top ten players at season’s end. Hillier might have missed his US card for 2026, but judging by the way he’s played in recent weeks in the Middle East and now in these two Australian events, which form part of the DP World Order of Merit, he looks likely to get one of those cards this year. His 6 th place finish at Royal Melbourne has lifted him to 3rd place on the Race to Dubai Order of Merit. Again, like last week in Brisbane, Daniel had his chances on Sunday to

become the first New Zealander to win the prestigious Aussie Open title.

To date the best performance by a Kiwi belongs to John Lister who finished in a tie for 2nd place at the 1977 Australian Open.

Standing on the 72nd tee, Hillier was just two shots adrift of joint leaders, Neergaard-Petersen and Smith. The Kiwi didn’t hold back on the 435-metre par 4 final hole at Royal Melbourne. Unfortunately his second drifted right, missed the green and ended up in a greenside bunker. Three putts on that final green saw him drop two places into a tie for 6th place. The long-hitting Kiwi has now had four top ten finishes in his last six starts.

It'll be a surprise if he doesn’t find himself in the winners’ circle sometime over the next 12 months. Clearly, as his results show, he has lifted his game to another level in recent months and is now one of the leading figures on the DP World Tour.

Hillier was also the best of the Kiwis at Royal Melbourne.

Ryan Fox had a good week with four rounds at par or better to finish in a tie for 14 th place. If it hadn’t been for bogeys on 16 and 18 he would have nailed a top 10 finish. As it was, he finished at 7 under for the 72 holes along with Rory McIlroy. The Northern Irishman showed he’s just as popular down under as he is in Europe and the United States. Over 110,000 people flocked to Royal Melbourne over the four days, most I’m sure attracted by the prospect of seeing the world’s most popular and dynamic golfer in action. He might not have won the tournament but after a disappointing opening round with a 1 over par 72 he nonetheless played the last three rounds at 8 under with more than just the odd flash of brilliance.

And the good news is he’s coming back for next year’s Open, also to be held on golf’s most celebrated peninsula. The venue will be Kingston Heath, another world-class golf course.