Above: Centenary PGA Past PGA Champs. Click for full size version.
Back Row L-R: Stewart Ginn, Sam Torrance, Graham Marsh, Bob Shearer, Michael Harwood, Wayne Grady, Peter Senior, Brett Ogle, Craig Parry, Robert Allenby, Jarrod Moseley, Peter Lonard.
Front Row L-R: Norman Von Nida, Les Wilson, John Sullivan, Alan Murray, Bill Dunk, Col Johnston, Peter Thomson, Randall Vines, Vic Bennetts, Mike Cahill
In 1991 the PGA published its official history penned by its historian Colin de Groot, Pro Golf – Out of the Rough. The book drew together some of the vast history of professional golf in Australia and it didn’t shy away from the controversies that confronted it over the years.
The Australian PGA Championship was obviously a key focus throughout the PGA’s history and the information on this event was compiled from a variety of sources. Many of the records of the event were kept, but not together. Despite this, there were still some missing pieces – event history that was never kept.
After some extensive research this year many of these gaps in history have been filled and although this can sometimes ask more questions than it answers, we now have a more complete history of the Australian PGA Championship – Australia’s oldest professional golf event - than we ever have before.
Many would be aware that the Australian PGA Championship grew out of the Australian Open championship. After the final round of the Open, the professionals in the field would compete for their own purse. Whilst there is evidence of this occurring in 1904 the first year the Australian Open was played with Carnegie Clark taking the title, it is generally accepted that 1905 was in fact the first Australian Professional’s Championship.
In that year, Dan Soutar, the founding father of the Professional Golfers’ Association in Australia took the event by defeating Gilies Martin 4 & 3 at Royal Melbourne.
The years 1905 to 1925 are sometimes considered “unofficial” in terms of the PGA Championship, but only because there is no reference in the PGA Board minutes until that time. There is no dispute however that a Professional Championship was decided during those years and accordingly it seems only right that we officially recognise these results.
There is more detail now than ever before with these results including the scores, and runner up (up until 1963 the event was decided as Match Play) and some personal information on the Champions. As all this information is compiled and confirmed, it is being recorded on the PGA Championship website (www.pga.org.au).
This information also allows us to acknowledge some of the records established in the PGA Championship and recognise the players throughout history who have had the honour of calling themselves the Australian PGA Champion.
In 2005 we celebrated the Centenary PGA at Hyatt Regency Coolum. The PGA unveiled a special commemorative logo to mark the occasion and golf fans new and old were able to witness a significant milestone in not only Australian sporting history, but indeed world golf’s history.
The photograph shown was taken immediately after the first meeting of the PGA, showing some who attended. They are, from the left: (back row) Charles Campbell, Carnegie Clark, unknown (second row) unknown, Dan Soutar, Rowley Banks, R.S. (Dick) Banks (front) J Victor East.