More common now at Australian golf’s biggest events, like the PGA and Open, there was a time when international superstars didn’t need the showpiece events to visit these shores.
This week’s WA Open even once had Gary Player tee it up, and win.
Those halcyon days have clearly passed, but Australian golf’s long love affair with visiting international players is at least once again on the rise, with this week’s event proof of an increasingly successful effort to lure foreign talent here.
Watch the final two rounds of the WA Open LIVE on Fox Sports, available on Kayo from 17–18 October.
Expats like Player’s fellow South African Oliver Bekker, and Secret Harbour’s professional Dale Howie from Zimbabwe, are joined by a growing number of Americans, and one Canadian at the WA Open.
Bekker joined Player on the tournament honour rolls last year at Mount Lawley, where he won in extra holes that included a left-handed putt, despite being right-handed.
He used that event in 2025 as a scouting mission to relocate his family to Australia’s west coast, with the 41-year-old now settled in Perth.
And it’s not just him making the move as the Aussie Tour gains more global visitors.
“Good quality players, good quality golf courses, some golf courses I played for the first time and nobody really talks about them and then you get out there, you’re like, ‘wow, this is actually quite good’,” Bekker told foxsports.com.au of the local circuit ahead of his title defence at Secret Harbour Golf Links.
The internationals have garnered status in Australia through a two-year-old agreement struck by the PGA Tour of Australasia to host a final stage of qualifying school in the US.
Created as part of its mission to foster relationships and pathways for Aussies and Kiwis to play overseas, the PGA Tour of Australasia saw an opportunity to also lure US players to these shores, and away from the highly competitive, and expensive, mini tours that are held Stateside.
As such, a Q-School in the US, where local players could try to play their way into the PGA Tour of Australasia instead, was set up for the 2025/26 season.
Those who tried their hand included Canadian Thomas Giroux, who has won on the PGA Tour Americas, and Alabama’s Austin Gean.
Sharing third in his first Aussie start last week in Kalgoorlie, with new wife Madison as caddie, Gean is mixing golf with pleasure after a late decision to enter the qualifying school for a country he knew next to nothing about.
“I didn’t even know where Australia was, honestly,” he said.
“I’ve always, like, seen pictures of how beautiful it is and how good the golf courses are, but I mean, it never even crossed my mind.
“I would say maybe when I was like 10 years old and I watched Tiger Woods at the Australian Masters was like the only time that I had really watched a lot of Australian golf.
“I was just playing all the mini tours back in the States. Then about 10 days or so before the final stage of the USA Q school, I got an email saying that I would be eligible to get into the final stage if I wanted to.
“I asked Madison and then I asked my manager.
“They were like, ‘let’s just go for it’ … then the rest, after that, it’s kind of like I qualified for it … and then, boom, it was like, well now we have all this stuff that we kind of look into and get booked within a two-month period.”
That two-month period included a wedding in September before arriving in Western Australia, where he visited Rottnest Island for a honeymoon, then headed for the Kalgoorlie goldfields.
Kalgoorlie was second of 18 Order of Merit events on a circuit that offers a DP World Tour card to the player who tops the season-long points list, as well as HotelPlanner Tour status for second and third.
Other opportunities here extend to playing other circuits’ qualifying schools, and even the recent Alfred Dunhill Links at the Home of Golf.
“Honestly, it wasn’t a hard sell,” Madison said of her new life Down Under.
“It was one of those things whenever the opportunity came up for him (Austin) to play in the qualifying school, that we kind of talked about and knew that it was the right decision for us, moving forward.
“I’m so happy that this is what we decided to do, and we’re really enjoying our time here.
“We loved Rottenness … I think we took a million pictures and videos of every single thing.”
The pictures, of course, included a Quokka selfie before they set off on six months of golf around Australia, which is proving an eye-opening, but very welcoming, experience.
“I would say that I’ve been very surprised at how accommodating everyone is and how nice everyone is,” Austin told foxsports.com.au.
“Everywhere we go, even if it’s just a grocery store, like Madison went into the grocery store one day into Coles and this woman started helping her because she could tell that she wasn’t familiar with the place.
“I went to a golf store this morning and then they already can tell I’m talking American and they’re asking all about me and everything.”
Constantly on the phone back home spreading the word of Australia, Gean is joined by compatriots Kameron Williams, Brock Healy, Ryan Johnson, Mitchell Bowlin, Chris Malec, Caleb Shetler, John Fahey, Patrick Healy and Tyler McCumber in the field at Secret Harbour this week.
McCumber is playing two weeks in WA on invites, including last week at the WA PGA Championship where he made news by calling a penalty on himself post Saturday’s third round.
The selfless decision saw him drop back out of contention.
The son of 10-time winner on the PGA Tour, Mark McCumber — who counts the 1988 Players Championship among his achievements — is back in Australia after four surgeries on his hip.
His return caused a stir in the golf world this week when he caught the attention of the Monday Q Info account, well-known for breaking the news of LIV Golf’s financial peril earlier this year.
“He’s prob there to surf” Monday Q Info posted in part on X.
McCumber is no doubt enjoying Secret Harbour’s proximity to the Indian Ocean just south of Perth, as he resumes a professional golf career that has included more than 60 PGA Tour starts that yielded nearly US$2 million in prizemoney.
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Headed back for the States following the WA Open, McCumber could spread the gospel of professional golf in Australia, which now has a direct access point annually in America.
Not that the Australian contingent, and growing number of Kiwis on tour, plan on letting their chances to earn a spot overseas go to the foreign raiders.
That competition has Tour Development Manager, and three-time WA Open winner, Kim Felton buoyant about the state of the Aussie Tour.
“Part of our vision was always pathways to have our players go to other tours, major tours around the world, and this is the pathway that we looked at to bring players to our Tour,” Felton said.
“Obviously add, not only international flags to the tour, but to showcase how good our Tour is and how much the schedule has grown, and they can come down and spend some time here, play the game.
“I think it’s cool and going to the Q School two years in a row and just hearing the thank yous for even hosting it over there and having the opportunity to play.
“I think that’s the part where you go, people are actually taking notice of what we’re doing down here, and we’re proud of it. There’s a lot more to do, but yeah, I think it’s great.
“And I think this year we will see a winner from our US contingent.”
An American winner would do no harm in justifying the decision to hold a qualifying school some 18,000kms away from this week’s host venue — and grow the reputation of a tour once frequented by the likes of Player, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
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