Provided by Stuart McPhee (Member)
I flew into Sydney on Wednesday morning, and given our delay departing Melbourne, I headed straight to the Australian Golf Club (AGC), home of the 2023 ISPS Handa Australian Open.
I collected my credentials at the front gate and headed in. Despite it being the day before the tournament started, there were lots of people and activity. There are various temporary buildings set up for the tournament and there are spaces for the tournament office, the media centre, the tour offices (PGA and WPGA), and the large volunteer headquarters.
There are approximately 800 volunteers for the event, so they need considerable coordination and their own hierarchy.
This is Golf Australia’s premier event and is run by mainly Golf Australia staff … lots of them. However, there is a considerable PGA Tour of Australasia presence (like myself), and we provide significant operational support (draws, scorecards and scoring, referees etc), including a handful of experienced staff from the DP World Tour.
After wandering around a little and saying hello to other tour people and nodding to others that I recognised, most of the referees attended a tutorial on temporary immovable obstructions (TIOs) at 1:30pm conducted by the Chief Referee. The notable piece from that session was that the large marquee and fan zone section right of the 18th green was deemed as one large immovable obstruction, marked by blue stakes. This was not a TIO so there was no line of sight relief if you were stuck behind it. However if a player’s ball came to rest within that area, they could use one of the two dropping zones on the hole-side of the marquee.
At 2:30pm, we had the referee meeting, where I was introduced as one of the two people refereeing at their first Australian Open. The other was from the DP World Tour. There are approximately 40 referees for the Australian Open. About 15 minutes into the session, a PGA staff member comes into the meeting and grabs myself and another referee from the PGA Tour. We were dispersed to different parts of the course to warn players (playing in a pro-am) of bad weather approaching, including electrical activity. After about 15 minutes, we returned to the referee briefing, only to be dragged out again 10 minutes later, to get players off the course, as play had been suspended due to lightning.
We returned to the referee briefing to catch the last 5 minutes as the Golf Australia referees received their new uniforms.
One of the GA referees is also a member of the AGC, so once the thunderstorm with impressive lightning departed, he took me out on the course and we drove all 18 holes, which took around 30 minutes. Apart from some groundstaff, we were now the only ones on course.
It is Thursday morning, day 1 of the 2023 Australian Open. My alarm is set for 5am – I didn’t need it. I was already wide awake. As it is a combined mens and womens national open, the first two days are held over two courses – the AGC and the Lakes. Most of the PGA Tour team, myself included, were at the Lakes for the first two days.
At the Lakes, holes 2-8 are isolated through a large tunnel which runs under a freeway. I had holes 2, 3, 4 and 8 for both days. Play started at 7am and I was at the course by 6am both days.
Upon arriving, I do the usual stuff, like any other tournament. Grab my radio, air horn, local rules, tee sheet, timing sheet and of course, the keys to my cart. Unlike most other tournaments, our carts have the roof removed to allow us to easily move under the gallery ropes.
I grabbed a quick breakfast in the players lounge and headed out on course.
I quickly realised that my role at the Australian Open is like other tournaments. I patrol my zone, respond to requests for rules assistance, and monitor pace of play. The biggest differences – gallery ropes everywhere, volunteers everywhere and the crowds.
The other major difference is every single group, for all four days, has a walking scorer. They send through all scores for their players after every hole. This also means, a request for rules assistance can be responded to very quickly. A player will ask their walking scorer who sends that message via radio, and within 5 seconds, we get a call on our channel, something like, “scoring to rules, match 27, 8th green”. Whoever is responsible for that hole, will start driving and assist the player. With a very tight schedule, responding to requests quickly is important. I had many rulings on days 1 and 2.
On day 1, we had very heavy rain for only 10 minutes, before the sun came out. However in that short period of time, most greens became unplayable to water pooling. We were suspended for around 40 minutes – not for dangerous conditions, just the greens.
I left the course at 7:15pm both days.
I was a walking referee on days 3 and 4, when most of the other PGA guys were roving referees – this means they look after a group of holes, like what I did on days 1 and 2. On Friday night, the walking referees received our assignments. In my group on Saturday, I had Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones (wearing his LIV Golf gear) and Laurie Canter (ENG). It is quite enjoyable being inside the ropes, especially with the large crowds, and watching elite golf up close.
On the 14th hole, they had distance markers painted on the edge of the fairway and all players, into a breeze, hit their drives around 300m. The funniest bit of the day was when Lucas Herbert hit probably his best drive of the day on 18 – well over 300m and he had the other two covered by 30m. He jokingly leaned down and inspected the ball markings of the other two balls on the fairway as he walked by, knowing he had them covered by 30m. They all had a laugh about it.
I had the walking scorer, the scoreboard carrier and 4 VIPs in my group too. I had to traffic control a few times and direct the guests where to stand and not stand. They were quite good. Given two wayward drives from Mr Herbert, one of which nearly ended up on a wrong green, I was busy coordinating the volunteers in the area to block traffic and allow the player a corridor to play. I didn’t have many rulings for day 3, as they all played very well – Herbert was the best with -5, despite a bogey on 17.
Once my group was finished, I followed them to the scoring area and waited to hear that all was good with the scorecards. For the next hour, I went and sat in the cart of a roving referee, 100m short of the 18th green and enjoyed watching the remaining groups finish. The referee was Andrew Langford-Jones (aka Langers), who has refereed at over 50 majors! I have worked several events with him previously. I enjoyed learning more stuff from him and the atmosphere was incredible. When Min Woo Lee made birdie on the 18th after a wayward drive and being in a bunker, the crowd erupted.
The 18th at the AGC is one of the best finishing holes I have ever seen. Simply because of the large grass bank to the left of the hole which allows many people to sit and watch play from quite close. It also has water running down the right hand side for the last 100m of the hole, which caught out many players. It is a great natural ampitheatre.
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For day 4, I had Adam Scott, Kade McBride and Connor Syme (SCO). Due to the ‘U-draw’ being used, this group teed off on the 10th. Again, I had the two scoring volunteers and four more guests of the DP World Tour in my group. 
I was first called to assist on the 18th hole (the group’s 9th) when Adam Scott’s tee shot went right towards the hospitality area and was located among pine needles and cones. He first asked for relief from the irrigation boxes about 5m in front of him, as they were on his line of play, which I denied. He also asked about the large marquee on the right of 18th as it was on his line of play to the hole. However, as it had been deemed an immovable obstruction, and not a TIO, I also denied him relief and explained why. He asked two more questions, before he said thanks and I walked off. He obviously played it from where it was.
Adam was playing very well and started to get on a roll, making birdies. On the 3rd hole (his 12th), the crowd following our group was noticeably bigger and suddenly, multiple cameras arrived. They started positioning themselves behind his shot, in front and from behind the green.
When he made birdie on 4, the crowds and excitement went to another level. He 3 putted 5 for a par and then made a 10m putt for birdie on 6 to take the lead at -14. The atmosphere was palpable.
As you may know by now, his tee shot on 7 went way left and he played a provisional ball. I raced ahead of the group to attempt to locate his ball near the driving range because by now, the crowd was massive and there were plenty of people on that side of the hole. The people around his ball were 20 deep and it was a considerable effort to just get to his ball.
When I saw his ball, I knew straight away that I needed to determine whether it was in bounds or not. I got straight on the radio to a referee to clarify and received a response, which made me believe the ball was in bounds. Soon after, I had a conversation with another referee who told me precisely where the boundary edge was. With that new information, I told Adam I was just checking it and it may be out of bounds. Once I confirmed it, I told him. He wanted to clarify what the boundary edge was and with that, he picked up his ball, said thanks and headed off to locate his provisional ball.
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After their round, I followed the group to the scorer’s hut and when Adam walked out, I shook his hand and apologised for the confusion, that I had two separate conversations to arrive at the correct ruling. He said it was OK a few times – he was all class.
Again, I went and sat in Langers’ cart, chatting with him and watching the last groups come in.
As the possibility of a playoff for the men loomed, on the radio, the planning started. Once the playoff was confirmed, Langers and I drove to every bunker on the 18th hole and we inspected them. There were two other referees tasked to drive the two players and caddies back to the 18th tee. I raked several bunkers and we also ensured the tee markers were still there on the 18th and hadn’t been ‘souvenired’.
We watched the first playoff hole and then, not needed any more, I made my way to the airport for my 8:30pm flight home.
After the excitement, two days later I was back at it, driving to the Cathedral Lodge and back on course for the Cathedral Invitational. Adam Scott won!
The 2023 ISPS Handa Australian Open was a great experience. I learned a lot about large tournaments and how much happens behind the scenes. Hopefully it is the first of many.
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