PGA Tour: The Rise of Australian Golfers

Every once in a while when an Australian wins a PGA Tour event or when several Australian golfers near the top of the leaderboard, you'll read a couple of articles or see a few short highlight clips on NBC demonstrating the rise of the Australians on the PGA Tour.

Well, Geoff Ogilvy did win earlier today at the World Golf Championship CA at Doral.

The articles you may have read and the clips you may have seen—most likely displayed with the song "Land Down Under" by Men at Work playing in the background—portray the rise of Australian golfers as a new phenomenon.

Australian golfers have been making an impact on the PGA Tour for years, but there are more good young Australian golfers on the tour now than ever before. In fact, other than the United States, Australia has more PGA Tour players per capita than any other country in the world.

Australia has 12 golfers ranked in the Top 100 in World Golf Rankings, four of whom also make the Top 25.

The rise of Australian golfers in the PGA Tour can be attributed to four main factors.

First, you cannot speak about Australian golf without mentioning Greg Norman.

Norman really put Australia on the map of the golf world.  Many children in Australia grew up idolizing Greg Norman, and he can be partially credited with popularizing the game in his country.

Second, Australia has one of the highest number of golf courses per capita of any nation in the world.

Australia has a population of only 20 million people in a country that is geographically as large as the United States. This allows for an almost endless amount of space to build new golf courses.

Third, the cost of playing golf is a lot cheaper in Australia than it is in many other countries, including the United States. Australia has a large selection of very high quality public golf courses that can be played very cheaply.

Country clubs in Australia charge membership fees that are a fraction of the astronomical fees charged here in the US. This allows more people the opportunity to participate in the game of golf.

Fourth, the Australian government has an excellent program to financially support talented young players.

Under the Australian Government’s Department of Health and Aging, there is a program called High Performance overseen by the Sports Commission. This program provides young golfers with the financial and coaching support they need to be successful.

The sport's growing popularity in Australia, mixed with the warm climate, the accessibility and affordability of golf courses, as well as outstanding government support, has made Australia a true breeding ground for professional golfers.

Be assured, in the years to come you will see an increasing number of the world’s top players coming out of Australia.