ONE of the many upsides the local Australasian PGA Tour, which includes Webex Series tournaments as well as state Open’s and PGA Championships, is that it provides a genuine professional pathway to the elite level of the game without aspiring young golfers having to travel the world.
It has also guaranteed the survival of historically important events which could easily have withered on the vine.
The Australasian PGA could not have achieved this without the ongoing support of so many clubs and courses in Australia and New Zealand (Moonah Links, 13th Beach and Rosebud Country Club in Victoria just three who come to mind).
That’s why it was pleasing to see Cam John’s win in the Vic Open at 13th Beach pay homage to past winners Peter Thomson, Gary Player, Greg Norman, Mike Clayton, Ian Baker-Finch and Robert Allenby to name but a few.
The significance was not lost on John, either, as he moved closer to his goal of winning the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.
Mind you, there were still a swag of events to play, and he vowed not to make the No 1 spot on the OOM a distraction, given that he was still vulnerable at the top of the pile as two of the remaining events – the NZ Open and the Japan Australasia Championships later this month – carry extra OOM points.
Cam John after his win at the Vic Open and runner’s up finish at the Webex Players Series Victoria event, led the Australasian Tour order of merit with seven tournaments left on the schedule.
A runner-up finish at the Webex Players Series Victoria at the impeccably Ian Todd-prepared Rosebud Country Club vaulted 25-year-old John ahead of Christopher Wood into top spot with seven tournaments left on the 2025-26 schedule.
The potential rewards at the end of the season are huge and John hopes to follow the path already taken by David Micheluzzi, Kazuma Kobori and Ryan Peake to the DP World Tour, as well as earning a start at The Open Championship.
“Obviously there’s still a bunch of weeks to go,” John said. “I have had a good chat with (mindset coach) Ben Crowe and we’re just identifying what are some distractions that can potentially come up in the next events. That’s probably one of them, but it’s one that you want to have.
“It’s not necessarily a bad distraction, but it’s just something that I’ve identified.”
John’s pursuers are a talented bunch with Wood, James Marchesani, Nathan Barbieri and Jay Mackenzie among them.
“We all want to finish on top of the Order of Merit. We all want to play on another tour, but it is just an opportunity, and we just keep playing week in, week out and hopefully it goes my way.”
John almost won a third title to go with his Vic Open win and Queensland PGA Championship victory prior to Christmas. That was before his putter ran cold on the last day of the newly badged Marcus Fraser Players Series event at Rosebud. This included missing the tournament deciding putt from inside two metres on the fourth hole of the playoff to hand the title West Australian Jordan Doull.
But he’s taken the positive out of that close call that his all-round game is still in great shape.
“I feel like I’m hitting the ball well. Everything feels like it’s going nicely, just didn’t roll any putts in,” John said of his near miss at Webex Victoria event.
“Sometimes it goes that way.
“I watched ‘Barbs’ (Nathan Barbieri) play the final round of the Vic Open, and I didn’t see him make a single putt. It felt like that for me (on the last day) at Rosebud.”
Just a week earlier, John overtook Barbieri in the last stride in the Vic Open after the runner up had shown the field a clean pair of heels, until faltering in the last stride.
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