Australia's Smylie beaming with PGA Championship exemption
MELBOURNE, May 6 (Reuters) - Rising talent Elvis Smylie has been given a late exemption to the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow after claiming the Australasian tour order of merit in 2024-25.
The Australian 23-year-old and son of former women's tennis professional Liz Smylie follows in the footsteps of the previous two order of merit winners, David Micheluzzi and Kazuma Kobori, who were each given late exemptions to the major.
"I'm really excited for this opportunity," the lefthander said on social media.
"Thank you to the PGA of America for the invite and to Chairman, Ian Baker-Finch, and his team at the PGA of Australia for all the help with this process.
"I can't wait and I'll see you all at Quail Hollow."
It will be Smylie's second major after a rough debut at last year's British Open at Royal Troon where he missed the cut.
Smylie rebounded with a strong season in his home tour, upsetting compatriot and former British Open winner Cameron Smith to claim his first Australian PGA Championship and earn status on the DP World Tour.
The world number 202 will join a strong Australian contingent at Quail Hollow next week, including Smith and fellow major-winners Adam Scott and Jason Day, the event's 2015 winner at Whistling Straits, Wisconsin.
Smylie will also return to the British Open at Royal Portrush after securing an exemption through his order-of-merit win.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Scottie Scheffler heavily backed favorite to begin U.S. Open week
June 9 - Scottie Scheffler has won three of his past four starts, including the most recent major at the PGA Championship, so it's little surprise that he began U.S. Open week as the heavy pre-tournament favorite. Scheffler's short odds aren't dissuading the public so far. The No. 1-ranked player in the world is being offered at +275 at DraftKings, where he leads the field with 31 percent of the total bets and 33 percent of the money backing Scheffler to claim his first U.S. Open title this week. The next closest is two-time U.S. Open winner and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, who has drawn 14 and 22 percent of the action, respectively, at +900. Interestingly, world No. 2 Rory McIlroy has received modest support with only 3 percent of the total bets and money while sporting the second shortest odds at +850. McIlroy won't his first Masters in April but missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open after posting a T47 at the PGA Championship. The story has been largely similar at BetMGM, where Scheffler is the book's biggest liability as he leads the way with 31.3 percent of the money backing him while he odds have shortened from +500 to +275. DeChambeau is the second-biggest liability thus far, drawing 16.7 percent of the money and seeing his odds shift from +1400 to +750. However, McIlroy remains firmly in the picture at BetMGM. He is the third-biggest liability, having been backed by 8.4 percent of the money at +1200. The Northern Irishman opened at +900. Also seeing his odds lengthen is Xander Schauffele, who has struggled to regain the form that saw him claim a pair of majors last year. He opened at +1100 to win the U.S. Open but was sitting at +2200 by Monday. Perhaps no player has seen a bigger shift than Brooks Koepka, the two-time U.S. Open champ who opened at +1800. Having failed to win on the LIV Golf tour this year while missing the cut at the Masters and PGA Championship, Koepka's odds at BetMGM have ballooned to +6600. Another popular choice at both books has been young Swedish star Ludvig Aberg. He has yet to win a major, although he did finish second at last year's Masters and T12 at the U.S. Open. Aberg, who has posted a part of top-20s since missing the cut at the PGA, has drawn 4 percent of the total bets and money at +3500 at DraftKings. He also sports somewhat longshot odds at +2500 at BetMGM, where Aberg has been backed by 5.6 and 3.9 percent of the action, respectively, since opening at +1600. --Field Level Media
Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Scotland's latest DP World Tour golf champion opens up on win
Scot praised by his caddie and fellow Dundee resident for keeping calm head in KLM Open Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... When you are recovering from a triple hernia operation, it might not be the best time to be jumping about a bit more than you probably should be, but Stuart Syme can surely be forgiven. It's not every day, after all, when you get to experience the joy and pleasure of seeing the person you've introduced to golf as a youngster then taught for so long landing what will be one of the most popular wins in the sport in 2025. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Connor Syme wouldn't have been crowned as the KLM Open champion on Sunday, landing his breakthrough win on the DP World Tour in the process and becoming the 11th first-time champion on the circuit this season, if it hadn't been for his old man. A promising player himself when he was coming through the ranks at Ladybank, Syme snr was the PGA professional at Dumfries & County Golf Club when Connor took up the game and, once his son had got hopes of becoming a footballer out of his system, golf then became his main focus. Connor Syme shows off the trophy after winning the KLM Open on Sunday at The International Golf Club in the Netherlands |Under his dad's guidance as a coach after the family had moved back to Fife when Stuart took up ownership of Drumoig Golf Centre, Syme won the 2016 Australian Amateur Championship before then landing a first success in the professional ranks in the Turkish Airlines Challenge in 2019. Since last year, Syme has also been working with Jamie Gough, the Fife-based brother of former Scotland and Rangers defender Richard, but there was absolutely no denying who was probably the happiest man in the world on Sunday afternoon. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I had a brief chat with my dad before I went in to see the volunteers,' Syme told The Scotsman as he reflected on his brilliant breakthrough win on the main tour after landing a two-shot success at The International in Amsterdam. 'He was absolutely buzzing as he's obviously been with me since the start of my golf career and taught me the game. 'He's had a triple hernia operation and I was saying to him that I hope you've not caused any damage, but he said that he was jumping up and down more than he probably should have been (laughing). It is so cool.' Over the past few years, Syme had seen Bob MacIntyre, David Law, Ewen Ferguson, Grant Forrest and Calum Hill all land maiden DP World Tour title triumphs while seeing some good opportunities to do likewise - he'd held a 54-hole lead on three previous occasions - agonisingly slip from his grasp. Connor Syme celebrated fellow Scot Calum Hill's success in the Joburg Open earlier in the year and now knows himself what it means to win on the DP World Tour | Getty Images At no point, however, did that look as though it was going to happen again after the 29-year-old hit the front in tough conditions in the Netherlands with a brilliant bogey-free 66 in Saturday's third round then signed off with a rock-solid 70 that contained just one dropped shot to win by two shots. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I felt really calm for the most part,' admitted Syme of his polished performance on the last day. 'Obviously there was a lot of nervous energy about, but I was quite pleased how I was able to put that into the right areas, I suppose, and just focus on the task at hand. 'I definitely felt different this time than when I had been in contention in the past. Probably more like Wales when I first had a really good opportunity to win back in 2020 (in the Celtic Classic. I thought I was going to win there and obviously I didn't. 'To have felt those emotions then, I was very cautious that it could happen again and things could all change so quickly. So, every time I found myself thinking about potentially winning on this occasion and what it could feel like, I kept reminding myself of that. 'Obviously me and Ryan [McGuigan, his caddie] have been together for such a long time that I knew it would mean so much and to the full team as well, but I did a really good job of staying in the present and that was the main difference.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Worth around £340,000, the win lifted Syme into the top 20 in the Race to Dubai Rankings, meaning he's put himself in the mix for a PGA Tour card for next season, while he also jumped nearly 120 spots to 145th in the Official World Golf Ranking. 'Obviously it opens up a few more doors for me as well and what lies ahead is super-exciting for me as we've got some amazing tournaments still to play this year,' he said of a schedule, of course, that will include a home appearance in the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club next month. 'Look, it is all amazing, but it's also about trying to enjoy the moment as well. I'm going to really try and enjoy this rather than thinking too far ahead.' Connor Syme and his caddie Ryan McGuigan celebrate after the Scot landed a breakthrough win on the DP World Tour on Sunday |McGuigan, who previously caddied for Stephen Gallacher and Richie Ramsay as well as Belgian Thomas Detry, has been on Syme's bag since October 2020 and, like his boss, lives in Dundee. 'He was really, really calm,' said McGuigan of how Syme handled the pressure of Sunday's closing circuit. 'I think he's probably just learned a bit, as all the guys do, from past disappointments. When things haven't gone his way, I think he has probably tried too hard or maybe when he's been in the final groups, he's felt he had to do something different to get over the line instead of just playing his own game. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think he was so focused last week on playing his own game and, especially on Sunday, not paying any attention to what anyone else was doing and, if he trusted his own game, it would be good enough to get the result he was looking for. 'Everyone's journey is different. For some, the first win comes really quickly whereas someone like Richard Bland, for example, had to wait a long time before winning and certainly winning breeds winning. It's about realising that you don't necessarily have to do anything remarkable; it's just doing the simple things well and that composure Connor showed over the weekend can only help him moving forward. 'I love working for him. We've developed a real close working relationship. We also live in the same city and we have a lot of mutual friends through golf and spend a bit of time together as well when we are not at work.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Jordan Smith insists rules must CHANGE after rival's £4m LIV Golf payday robbed him of his lifelong dream and a place on the PGA Tour
They say an ability to handle disappointment is the dividing line between good and great golfers. By that theory, Jordan Smith warrants a higher ranking than 107th in the world. Of the many routes to frustration in his sport, few can match the scenario involving this son of Bath at the turn of the year. That he can laugh about it says much for his nature, form and direction of travel – having qualified for the US Open next week, the 32-year-old is in a good place. But could he be in a different one? Or to frame that another way, should Smith be rubbing shoulders with the elite on the PGA Tour by now? Therein lies an unfortunate situation that he describes as 'annoying'. And it's one he believes should provoke a rule change, because last November, at the conclusion of the DP World Tour season, Smith was the 11th in line for one of the 10 golden tickets they hand out each year to the PGA Tour. The big league. The 10th was Tom McKibbin and the issue there was known to just about everyone at the time – the Northern Irishman was considering an offer to join LIV. It's a proposal he went on to accept. The irritation? Had McKibbin crossed over before December 31, Smith would have filled his spot. But McKibbin took his time, as was sensible, and those deliberations extended beyond the PGA Tour deadline before he finally settled on leaving just a couple of weeks later. If you're Smith in that picture, you can laugh or cry, or at the very least nurture a minor regret that a rival's decision wasn't reached a fraction quicker. 'That's exactly what I was thinking when it when the news came out (about McKibbin's departure),' he tells Mail Sport. 'At the time (of the deadline) he might have not known that he was definitely going to be on LIV. But for me it was a hard blow to miss out. Getting on the PGA Tour is a big goal of mine. 'At that time, I was like, 'Look, I didn't have a card, I didn't get in the top 10, and I still don't have a card, so there's nothing I can do about it'. But obviously it was annoying. 'There are no hard feelings towards Tom. I was playing on the same side as him in the Team Cup (in Abu Dhabi) in January just before he announced the decision but we had already heard which way it might be going. We didn't really talk about it but we got on great. 'Thing is, something similar happened to Rasmus Hojgaard the previous year when Adrian Meronk got a card and then went to LIV. It's something they (the PGA Tour) probably need to change and it would be nice if they did change it. 'With Tom, when he announced it, he hadn't played any PGA Tour events to that point. You would think they (the PGA Tour) would be like, 'Yeah, we'll let Jordan in, seeing as Tom hasn't actually played any events'. If he had played a handful it would have been more difficult. 'But it's just one of those things you have to take on the chin and use it as fuel to get one of those cards the next time.' On that front, the situation is looking promising – with five months to run in the season, Smith is again in serious contention for one of the 10 spots. In a more immediate sense, he has travelled to the US Open on the back of two top-four finishes in his past four DP World Tour starts. Alongside that run, he won a qualification tournament at Walton Heath three weeks ago to secure his ticket to Oakmont, arguably the hardest test on the major circuit. 'I've not played it but heard it's brutal,' Smith says. 'I'm excited. My game feels very close to being where I want it to be to win events. 'In the past couple of months, I've been close. At the China Open (in April) I was probably one good tee shot away. Same in Belgium a few weeks ago.' The itch owes something to the three-year gap since his second of two victories on the DP World Tour, with the first coming on his debut season in 2017. Back then, he also secured his first and only top-10 from his 10 major appearances – the 2017 PGA Championship – and he was narrowly beaten to the rookie of the year award by a man who has proceeded to win two majors. Jon Rahm. 'I suppose he's gone on to do okay!' says Smith, whose career earnings of £7.5million from 226 tournaments mean has done just fine in his own right. Indeed, for the past two Ryder Cup cycles, he has been namechecked regularly by European captain Luke Donald as one of those contenders on his radar. 'The Cup was definitely my biggest goal this year,' Smith says. 'Being realistic at this point, I need a couple of wins before the end of the season to get into the next one (in September) and a big performance at the US Open. 'I might need to pull a rabbit out of the hat, especially as Luke will favour players with Cup experience as they will be playing in front of New York crowds. Those crowds will be brutal.' Mention of the crowds brings to the surface a different recollection from that Team Cup in week in January, which Donald used to trial some unusual methods around the handling of hostile crowds. One was a loud speaker booming during the tee-shots; another was the deployment of an American heckler. 'He was targeting Tyrrell Hatton a bit,' Smith says. 'Tyrrell had a bit of a beard going and the guy kept shouting out stuff about him being Amish and whatever. It was good fun.' As it transpired, Smith and McKibbin were on the winning side that week. One man has since moved on to LIV and the other remains on the cusp of a big step to the PGA Tour. The next week at Oakmont could have a significant bearing on whether he gets there.
