They are the Masters champions set to light up RACV Royal Pines Resort but course architect Graham Marsh doesn’t believe Adam Scott and Sergio Garcia will have the Australian PGA Championship all to themselves. By Tony Webeck

There is no more revered fabric than the famed Green Jacket adorned by champions of The Masters Tournament but the awe for which it is held counts for little when their owners stand on the first tee every week thereafter.

The Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort will be headlined by two men who both hold a special place in Masters history yet such is the depth of talent that will be on display course from November 30 that architect Graham Marsh insists it is shaping as anything but a two-horse race.

As a co-sanctioned tournament with the European Tour, Garcia will be joined by fellow multiple tour winners in Jonas Blixt and Mikko Ilonen, America’s flag will be flown most proudly by defending champion Harold Varner III while Scott’s compatriots eager to claim the Joe Kirkwood Cup for the first time will include Cameron Smith, Curtis Luck and Matt Jones.

As the reigning Masters champion Scott returned to the Gold Coast at the end of 2013 and completed an extraordinary week of celebration with a four-stroke win over Rickie Fowler but Marsh believes Garcia will have to navigate his way past a heady field if he is to also complete the rare calendar double.

“I don’t think they’ll have it all their own way,” Marsh said after arriving back in Australia in October.

“There are many other talented players out there that will challenge for the week.

“I wouldn’t have all my money on either of those two players at this stage because I think there is a strong field of Australians competing in the field itself.

“Jonas Blixt is a tournament champion, Cameron Smith had a very good year and finished very well in Malaysia [in the PGA Tour’s CIMB Classic] and is another local boy. Both Cameron and Jonas won the Zurich Classic fourball championship earlier this year so they’re tournament winners this year.

“Marcus Fraser had a very good tournament at the Italian Open and little Harold Varner has been knocking at the door and playing some excellent rounds of golf this year and he loves this place.

“There’s nothing like a winner coming back and being inspired by what they did the year before so he’s another guy that could pop up quite easily.”

During his playing career that yielded 70 tournament wins around the world Marsh received the coveted invitation to play in Augusta National’s iconic tournament on six occasions and never finished worse than a tie for 33rd, his best result a tie for ninth in the 1976 tournament won by Raymond Floyd.

Acknowledging the mystique that The Masters has held for Australians who had to wait almost 80 years to see one of their own triumph at Augusta, Marsh has no doubt that the presence of two recent champions will generate an atmosphere at Royal Pines rarely seen in this country.

“Having the two of them here is very special,” said Marsh, who over the past three years has overseen the complete redevelopment of the Royal Pines championship layout.

“It’s a great way to promote the event and I think both of them have the ability to play this golf course.

“They’re both superb drivers of the golf ball, that is a strength without any shadow of a doubt and this is now a driving golf course.

“From an Australian perspective, there has always been a mystery about the Masters because until Scott won it was the one major that nobody seemed to be able to get their hands on.

“There’s been this mystery about it and there’s no question that Augusta National has done a tremendous job in promoting that golf tournament.

“Sergio will be a terrific draw for the tournament. He’s a gregarious character and an extremely talented player. He probably could have won more majors but between the two of them they will set up a marvellous head-to-head competition.

“This year’s Masters was a special event. He did well. There’d been so much talk about it – even by himself – that he probably couldn’t do it so for him to come through and win that tournament was wonderful to see.”

It is not only Marsh who is excited to see Garcia back playing in Australia for the first time in seven years. Scott himself is relishing the prospect of welcoming his good friend to his home town and the energy his appearance will help to create.

“He’s a true superstar in the game of golf and having won his first Major, just creates that extra bit of buzz,” Scott said.

“The style of golf he plays is very appealing to people. For the true golf fans who want to come out and watch one of the best ball-strikers to ever play, they are really going to enjoy that.

“Then for avid sports fans who like seeing some emotion, they are going to enjoy seeing that whether Sergio plays good, bad or indifferent.

“He has that Spanish flare about him.

“We have played a lot of rounds of golf together and I feel like it’s always very competitive between us even though we are fairly close mates.

“Hopefully we both play really well and get in the mix.”

In rating Scott’s prospects of claiming a second Joe Kirkwood Cup, Marsh has little doubt that he can put a somewhat disappointing 2017 campaign on the U.S. PGA TOUR where his best finish was a tie for sixth at The Players Championship and repeat his imperial performance of four years ago.

“Every golfer has years where things don’t work out the way they want to,” Marsh said of Scott, who finished third at Royal Pines last year.

“For him it’s been a family year with another child being born but overall he is still a very competitive player.

“I think he’s likely to come back and play extremely well back in Australia this year. I just feel that he hasn’t been that far away from it and he’s going to be thereabouts.”

Royal Pines to reveal its true identity

Those teeing it up at Royal Pines for the past two years may have competed on a completed golf course redesign but course architect Graham Marsh believes the identity of the dramatically revamped layout will finally be unveiled during this year’s Australian PGA Championship.

“There was a thought that had been talked about for many years that you usually didn’t play a golf tournament of significance on a course until it had bedded in for at least two years,” said Marsh as Royal Pines prepares for its fifth consecutive hosting of the Australian PGA Championship.

In 2014 Greg Chalmers prevailed in a mammoth playoff against Adam Scott on a course that was a mix of the old and the new and then in 2015 Nathan Holman emerged victorious on a virgin layout that’s immature and thus firm greens coupled with high winds kept any players from shooting under par for the week.

That trend was reversed spectacularly last year when Harold Varner III torched the course to the tune of 19-under par and a two-shot win over Andrew Dodt but Marsh is predicting a score in 2017 much more in line with the great championships of the world.

The entire layout has now had two years to bed down and allow the turf to establish its profile and with some welcome October rain aiding growth particularly in the areas off the fairway, Marsh and Course Superintendent Lincoln Coombes are ready to unveil a layout that will both challenge and tantalise.

And Marsh knows the score he would like to see win the tournament.

“A number between 12 and 14-under is a great number for a winning score for a tournament,” Marsh said.

“It satisfies all parties. When you start getting into 20-under and over it becomes a putting contest and there isn’t any doubt about that. Anybody that has played the game professionally
will tell you that’s a putting contest so that’s not where you want to be.

“The major championships of the world are not won by shooting 24-under par and the best players usually rise to the top at the major championships.

“If a guy shoots 14-under it means that he probably made 18 birdies for the week so there is plenty of skill being shown in the way that they have played the golf course.

“Secondly, to get to that score is a combination of playing some quality golf shots – good driving and quality iron play – and it requires some course management to get to that level.

“And at 12 to 14-under par you will usually bring enough players along at that score to make the competition interesting.

“It provides galleries with the type of excitement that they want to see and it provides television with a compelling coverage because they are seeing a level of professional golf that the audience can only dream about.”