THREE-TIME Paralympic gold medallist and 2022 Australian of the Year Dylan Alcott will make his Victorian PGA Championship debut alongside a Hollywood A-lister and a host of sporting greats.
Teeing off at Moonah Links Resort on Thursday, December 5, the Vic PGA is played in a pro-am format, with golf-obsessed celebrities lining up against the best and brightest of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia. Fresh off his rookie season on the DP World Tour and a fifth-place finish at the BMW Australian PGA Championship, defending champion David Micheluzzi returns, two-time winner this season Jack Buchanan and Queensland PGA winner Phoenix Campbell.
Amongst the famous faces who will share the fairways are Alcott, acclaimed American actor Michael Pena, AFL legends Dermot Brereton and Brendon Fevola, NRL superstar Ryan Papenhuyzen and horse racing identity and former jockey with 15 Group 1 wins, Simon Marshall.
Alcott’s golf obsession is a relatively new one. A winner of 15 wheelchair tennis Grand Slam singles titles, Alcott first posted to Instagram in May last year that golf was his new sport and then went viral in June with a blistered tee shot at a driving range. He is already familiar with the Open Course at Moonah Links having played the course in November and will bring his infectious enthusiasm and passion back to the Mornington Peninsula.
Another who balances his day job with a love of golf is Pena. Introduced to the game by none other than Hollywood royalty Jack Lemmon and James Garner while filing “My Fellow Americans” in 1995, Pena is in Melbourne shooting upcoming series “All Her Fault” and sees parallels between acting and golf. “It’s the steps,” Pena told USGA’s Golf Journal. “Are you able to stay with something and figure it out for yourself? “In a way, that mirrors acting, where you have to find your own way. “You need to keep at it until you make that discovery.”
To be played across both the Open and Legends courses at Moonah Links, the Vic PGA has also drawn familiar faces within the professionals contesting the $250,000 in prize money. Marcus Fraser is a three-time winner in Europe, David McKenzie has made 131 starts on the PGA Tour Champions and Zach Murray is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia. Play begins on Thursday morning and entry is free all four days for spectators.
First published in the Mornington News – 3 December 2024
