Adam Bland broke an 11-year win drought on the PGA Tour of Australasia on the weekend, taking out the Players Series: South Australia in what was a highly popular win, witnessed by fellow local Greg Blewett.
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After Bland’s long-awaited win, the Tour’s three-week run across Western and South Australia is now complete — but not without another rules controversy that covered a player in plaudits.
Elsewhere, one rising star needed a caddie ring-in that many Australian sport fans will be familiar with.
Here’s what we learned at Players Series South Australia.
Adam Bland broke an 11-year win drought on the PGA Tour of Australasia on the weekend.Source: Supplied
AGE BEFORE BEAUTIFUL BALL STRIKING
Travelling the world for much of his life playing professional golf in Canada, Japan and America, Bland now considers himself a part-time golfer and part-time coach.
Based back home in Adelaide having won four-times previously, 44-year-old Bland’s last victory in his home country was the 2005 WA PGA, some 7,817 days before Sunday’s triumph in McLaren Vale wine country.
Followed by an army of family and friends around the fairways of Willunga, Bland was clinical in his dismantling of a course where he claimed a runner-up finish a year prior.
Leaning on years of experience in cool conditions, that included rain and a lightning-induced weather delay, Bland picked his spots to attack and wielded his putter like a weapon.
Chased down by some of the Aussie Tours young guns, including the final group of Louis Dobbelaar and Canadian Thomas Giroux, whose combined age is only eight years more than Bland’s 44, the home hope was emotional when his par putt at the last secured a two-shot win.
“It’s definitely been a long time between drinks on this Tour, that’s for sure,” Bland said.
“It’s awesome. I just love playing in front of family and friends and to be able to do it in front of them is just unbelievable.
“I was going to give it up to just being home with the kids because they’re 16, 12 and eight now and I figured if I play for another five years, their childhood’s pretty much gone.
“Staying home and then if I could actually keep competing 10 events a year, I still kind of get my little bit of competition fixed and it’s worked out well.”
Working out well enough to now guarantee Bland a place in the Australian PGA and Australian Open later this year, Bland’s win was ridden every inch of the fairways by Blewett, who walked in the throng of Bland fans.
“I’m not sure if I am supposed to have favourites as the host,” Blewett told the broadcast in the closing stages.
The benefits of experience, especially on a shorter, slightly tree lined course were on full display as Bland added another piece of history at Willunga in the golf course’s 50th year, and on a site where Charles Sturt once camped.
The Players Series, which included men and women competing for one prize, now goes on the mantlepiece alongside one of the oddest tournament names in golf; the Japan PGA Championship Nissin Cupnoodles Cup, which Bland claimed in 2015.
Bland celebrated with some local red at one of the famed local wineries of the region with his new trophy — and no plans to emerge from the vines in semi-retirment.
Bland said he considered just about giving up the professional game.Source: Supplied
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
Bland’s victory might be something of a throwback, but those below him on the leaderboard provided a promising glimpse into the future of Australian golf.
Dobbelaar in second place, courtesy of a hat-trick of birdies on the back nine, has long been touted as player to watch. Having battled through a tough stretch two years ago, he is firmly back in the spotlight.
Just 25, and already a winner on Tour, Dobbelaar has a desirable form line to start the 2026/2027 season, which reads T2-T16-T10-2nd. Despite a bout with influenza A along the way, he has moved to the top of local circuit’s Order of Merit.
Eyeing a DP World Tour card — which he’ll earn if he stays top at the end of the season — Dobbelaar is not alone in leaving South Australia with his star shining a little brighter.
Finishing at 8-under and in a share of 11th, amateur Jazy Roberts was the best of the women in the field at just 21 years of age.
Owning an already-glittering amateur record, one that includes winning this year’s Australian Amateur Championship, Bendigo’s Roberts looked like a seasoned professional as she took on both male and female professionals.
A winner of events in America and England, Roberts will no doubt join the play-for-pay ranks before long, where she aims to continue the golden age of Australian women’s golf, which includes major winners Hannah Green, Minjee Lee and Grace Kim.
Louis Dobbelaar has moved to the top of the Order of Merit.Source: Supplied
PHONE A FRIEND
Heading into the weekend in the mix for a second Tour win, Dobbelaar was in search of caddie to carry his bag.
Hailing from Queensland, and with competitors snapping up players who had missed the halfway cut, the Brisbane product made a hail mary call to a caddie with plenty of experience, and a winning way in the family.
At one time travelling consistently with Dobbelaar before fatherhood, Gary Kissick, a PGA Associate and husband to retired tennis star Ash Barty, was on the other end of the call.
Kissick arrived in Adelaide on Saturday morning in time for a storm to roll over Willunga and delay play for over an hour before carrying the clubs for the eventual runner up.
The joys of a quick caddie stint might’ve worn off when he headed to the airport in the wee hours for an early morning flight back to Queensland.
Nonetheless, he might’ve had an improved rating on the 6/10 Dobbelaar gave him in Kalgoorlie on the Fox Sports social channels.
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RULES ARE MADE TO NOT BE BROKEN … EVEN IF NOBODY KNOWS
The official rules of golf book expands to in excess of 500 pages, including clarifications and local rules that would put even the most ardent golf fan to sleep quicker than counting birdies.
Full of oddities and every possible scenario, players should know the rules, including the local rules of the week that are published on a piece of A4 paper and handed out `on the first tee, in addition to the “hardcard” of the Tour they are playing on, which has more depth on the rules in play.
Among the rules last week at Willunga was the distance marking posts lining the fairways that are so common at public golf courses to signify 100 metres and so on to the centre of the green.
Despite being physically movable, they were classified immovable obstructions — a fact that Jake McLeod and amateur Rachel Lee found out after having already moved the ‘immovable’ on Thursday.
Following a second round 65 on Friday, McLeod, rather than getting away with something seemingly inconsequential while he was in the mix, called the rules officials and alerted them to the issue.
Jake McLeod called the penalty on himself.Source: Supplied
The Queenslander, and Lee playing in the same group and among the top-10 at the time, were retroactively handed a two-shot penalty.
McLeod ultimately finished in seventh place. It would have been fourth if not for the penalty.
But he was able to live with himself, and no doubt has some good golfing karma coming his way.
“I can’t sleep at night if I’ve done the wrong thing,” McLeod said.
“I heard about that they were immovable this week. Most weeks they are movable, so this week it’s not and that’s how it is and got the ruling wrong.
“I called up last night and let them know and to be honest, I thought it could have been disqualified.
“I didn’t really know what the ruling was, but they’ve amended all that now and it was two shots.”
Meanwhile, the Tour resumes at the NSW Open in two weeks after McLeod and Lee joined American Tyler McCumber a fortnight prior in doing the noble thing.
The Aussie Tour this season has proven a shining example of eight time major winner Tom Watson’s view on the sport.
“Golf is a game of ego, but it is also a game of integrity: the most important thing is you do what is right when no one is looking.”