On the first hole, Hannah Green gestured to Adam Scott to hit up on her group beavering around near the green. The hole is an incy-wincy par-4 anyway, bang on 230 metres for the men. It’s short by any standard, male or female.
On Sunday, the traffic was snarling before they were even out the driveway.
There has been many an unusual sight at this dual gender national championship, but Australia’s second-best female golfer asking her male equivalent to bomb away upon them, in a practice generally reserved to hurry up play slowed by sluggish weekend hackers, might have been one of the strangest at Victoria Golf Club.
The only problem is by the time Green and Scott had finished their first hole, Australia’s best chances of winning the national championship had pretty much bombed, too.
It might have been a world first tournament, but it also belongs to players of the world. Poland’s Adrian Meronk outduelled Scott for the men’s title, and as fine as a performance as the world No.56 produced, and the respect with which it was given, for locals fans his win was about as well received as Lionel Messi’s left boot.
South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai, a major winner in the AIG Women’s Open nonetheless, won the female crown, as Green lugged the weight of history around the sandbelt. The wait goes on.
Kipp Popert, Adrian Meronk and Ashleigh Buhai celebrate after winning the 2022 Australian Open.Credit:Getty
Scott’s defeat will hurt. In lieu of world No.3 Cameron Smith missing the final day thanks to the contentious double cut, the former Masters winner carried the can. He has carried the summer of golf back here for almost two decades.
“It just wasn’t my day today, was it? I just enjoyed playing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd,” Scott said. “I wish I could have delivered a better result for them, and myself, today. But I was outplayed, and that’s how it goes.”
There are only 22 spots separating Scott (No.34) and Meronk on the world standings, but in the eyes of the Melbourne gallery there was supposed to be only one winner – until there wasn’t.
Scott made bogey on the first, Meronk took the lead with birdie, Min Woo Lee carded an eagle, and Scott’s one-shot overnight lead was gone like that.
He would draw level with the lanky Meronk (-14) later on the front nine, but do no better. Scott (-9) turned for the back nine three down, got it back to one, but by the time he sprayed his tee shot into the scrub trailing by two on the 17th, and then took a provisional, he was done.
Those sunglasses hide a lot of emotion. He couldn’t hide his disgust at that.
To make good of it, the metronomic Meronk, who had only a couple of minor blips on his back nine, drained his eagle putt on the last from 40 feet, off the green no less. A four-under 66 was well and truly good enough to cradle the Stonehaven Cup as the first European since Rory McIlroy (2013) to win the men’s Australian Open. To show the vagaries of golf, Meronk started his first round on Thursday with three bogeys in four holes.
“To be honest I really wanted to play with [Scott] this week,” he said. “He was always my role model growing up. It was super cool to play with him. But to beat him in the final group in front of the big crowds in Australia is an unbelievable experience. I’m super proud, that’s for sure.”
Hannah Green helps women’s winner Ashleigh Buhai get into the party spirit.Credit:Getty
The only one who might have enjoyed it just as much was Buhai (-12), who showed just enough poise down the stretch to beat Korea’s Jiyai Shin (-11) by a stroke. Green was a shot further back in third, but was never really in the hunt after two double bogeys on her outward nine.
“It was pretty s— to begin win, so I’m pretty proud I at least fought back and had a couple of birdies on the back nine,” Green said.
“It was tough out there. All of us were kind of struggling out there at some point, but I short-sighted myself a lot today which is probably what I didn’t do at the start of the week, and that’s why the results were what they were.
“But overall, it’s nice to be the top Aussie at least. But I still want my hands on that trophy, so we’ll have to try next year.”
The format, no doubt, will return. So it should. By the time the Monday morning water cooler talk is done in Golf Australia corridors, they might have a framed print of hundreds of people vacuuming up the 18th fairway behind the final group.
But they’ll need to work on it. Saturday’s third round, in which more than 160 players snailed across the course over almost 13 hours, needs a re-think. The general pace of play, too. But the positives outweigh the negatives.
Seeing Minjee Lee and Smith metres apart on the practice range is a treat in itself. Scott over one shoulder, and Green another on the course, too. The big sign behind the 18th green said it all.
This is golf.
Hitting up on each other and all.
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