Australia’s top female golfer, Minjee Lee, believes the dual-gender format for next weekend’s Australian Open is a major win for fans who will be able to watch men and women compete alongside each other as they do at tennis grand slam tournaments.
The format has been criticised by Olympian Scott Hend, who decided to skip the Melbourne tournament, which will be staged at both Victoria Golf Club and Kingston Heath, arguing the men and women should each have their own Australian Opens, rather than sharing the stage.
Minjee Lee is looking forward to the dual format for the Australian Open.Credit:Getty Images
Lee, the US Open champion and a two-time winner at the Vic Open where the men and women play together, said she was excited about the format, which also gives her the opportunity to play alongside her brother Minwoo Lee.
Equal prizemoney of $1.7 million will be up for grabs for both the men and women.
“I think regardless, I’m going to have a great time and I think a lot of people are going to have a great time,” Lee said.
“A lot of people can come and watch both men’s and women’s,” she added on the ABC’s Offsiders.
“My brother is playing, so I think it will be a lot of fun to see a lot of familiar faces. I don’t get to come back to Oz and play too often, so I think it’s a nice opportunity to see everyone, showcase some great golf and have some nice crowds out.”
Hend clarified his comments with Golf Australia magazine over the weekend, saying a combined tournament meant the female golfers would be unfairly compared with the men.
“I have no issue playing with the ladies,” Hend said. “I just think the Australian Open deserves more recognition for the ladies and the men. We should have our own separate weeks.
“I understand there’s issues with sponsorship from the Victorian government, but yet we don’t need to be put together in a national open for people to compare the sexes. We are totally different. I think the tournament should be held in a higher stature than that.”
Golf Australia boss James Sutherland defended the format, which is a first for a national open.
“One, we’ve seen the Vic Open which is a format which has been played for a number of years very successfully down at 13th Beach, but also, we’ve drawn inspiration from the tennis,” Sutherland said.
“The tennis Open is obviously a major event and a great event that comes to Melbourne every year. We see that putting the men and women on the same stage, it’s a great celebration of golf, it exposes the game in a different sort of way, and we’re really looking forward to the opportunity for crowds to come to the game and see men and women together on that same stage.
“It’s also the Australian All-Abilities Championships, where we’ve got people of various abilities being able to play in a national championship as well.
“Scott’s not playing obviously, but I think let’s see how it all plays out over the course of this week. The feedback we’ve heard from our commercial partners, government partners but also the players, they love the format that we’ve played previously at the Vic Open, and I don’t think anything’s going to be different this week.”
The Australian Open will follow this weekend’s Australian PGA Championships at Royal Queensland, where the men, including Cam Smith and Minwoo Lee have been competing.
Minjee Lee said she hoped that atmosphere flowed down from Brisbane to Melbourne.
“I saw some on TV. I think Minwoo had a couple of highlights, so I was trying to watch that on TV,” she said.
“It’s been good. The 17th hole has been really loud and fun, so hopefully we can get some of that in Melbourne this week.”
But Sutherland said the Australian Open would be “a little bit more conservative”.
“We haven’t quite graduated to that party hole yet, but it certainly looks fantastic there at the PGA Champs,” he said.
“We’ve got a really nice set-up there with some nice grandstands, particularly around 18, so it’ll be a great welcome home for everyone when they come in on 18.”
Thursday and Friday will be split across the two courses before the first cut, and the final two days of the tournament will be played at Victoria Golf Club.
