[Photo: Tristan Jones\/ LET]<\/p>\n
It permeated the television screens so evidently last week that those closest to her reached out to let her know.<\/p>\n
Those who have seen the embryonic years of Stephanie Bunque\u2019s career could see it also.<\/p>\n
As the 28-year-old Victorian played her way into the second-to-last group at the halfway mark of last week\u2019s Australian Open, a new player emerged.<\/p>\n
The player her contemporaries, veteran tour officials and good judges thought she would be when Bunque turned professional five years ago.<\/p>\n
The player Stephanie Bunque started to doubt that she ever could be.<\/p>\n
The final leaderboard will show that Bunque finished tied 14th at the 2026 Australian Open, a tournament co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour.<\/p>\n
What it may come to represent could be far more significant.<\/p>\n
As a 23-year-old in her professional debut in 2021, Bunque was in the mix at the first edition of Webex Players Series Victoria.<\/p>\n
Last week at Kooyonga Golf Club, Bunque finally looked like she belonged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad that\u2019s sort of coming through because that\u2019s how I feel,\u201d Bunque shares ahead of Round 1 of the Australian WPGA Championship at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club on Thursday, where she shot par+5 for a 76.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do feel confident. There\u2019s obviously still some things I have to smooth out with my game and things like that, but there really is just a different sort of feeling I have internally that\u2019s allowing me to move forward rather than standing in my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018I felt the game owed me something\u2019<\/p>\n
When Bunque played in the third-to-last group on debut in January 2021, current DP World Tour player David Micheluzzi was effusive about his fellow Victorian\u2019s ball-striking, adding that \u201cwhen she gets the putter going, that\u2019s when she\u2019s scary\u201d.<\/p>\n
US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy said that \u201cit clearly shows that she\u2019s got what it takes to play at the higher level\u201d.<\/p>\n
That higher level has proved elusive.<\/p>\n
Turning professional as much of the world remained in lockdown complicated Bunque\u2019s formative years\u2026 and setbacks continued.<\/p>\n
She was disqualified at Second Stage of LPGA Tour Qualifying School in October 2021 when she self-reported that the range-finder she had been using for six holes had the slope functionality turned on, a rules breach at the professional level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something I struggled with for a long time,\u201d Bunque concedes.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly recently, I\u2019ve realised that from that moment up until now, I\u2019ve really, truly felt like this game owed me something. And to go through all of this and feel like I wasn\u2019t progressing and getting results and things like that, it really was weighing on me like a big mental battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
She flirted with television commentary, was a semi-regular on Paul Gow\u2019s golf show on Fox Sports and, when she failed to secure exemption to Final Stage of LET Qualifying School through the LET Access Series in 2024, came very close to walking away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very close to quitting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided earlier in that year if I didn\u2019t make it straight to Final, I wouldn\u2019t go to Q school, just because I didn\u2019t have money. I literally had no money. I was depressed and I was about to quit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when I decided that I needed things to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Be brave\u2019<\/p>\n
When Bunque tees off at 7:15am AEST on Thursday, there will be a single mantra pushing her forward.<\/p>\n
\u2018Be brave.\u2019<\/p>\n
It has been instilled in her by South Australian-based coach Gareth Jones, the man credited with turning Japanese golf into an international powerhouse over the past decade.<\/p>\n
The pair have not made dramatic technical changes since linking up at the start of 2025, Jones instead going about instilling belief and course strategy into a player blessed with talent but without the clear way in which to apply it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe hasn\u2019t really done too much to change me technically, but he\u2019s really just allowed me to lean into him for support and another voice. That really helped me gain my confidence again,\u201d says Bunque.<\/p>\n
\u201cBe brave, is all he says.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the biggest change has come from within.<\/p>\n
Bunque also began working with a new sports psychologist in 2025 and a month before returning to Q School in December last year, verbalised how she felt the game had treated her.<\/p>\n
Doing that changed her mindset and her relationship with the golf gods.<\/p>\n
After believing that she had missed advancing to Final Stage by a single stroke, Bunque was advised by LET officials that the classification had been adjusted from the top 19 and ties to the top 21 and ties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat moment was probably the first time I felt like I had a bit of luck on my side,\u201d Bunque says.<\/p>\n
Although she finished tied 30th and didn\u2019t obtain a 2026 LET card, Bunque now has a Category that she can convert into full status with another strong week at Sanctuary Cove.<\/p>\n
Thanks to top-20 finishes at the Women\u2019s NSW Open and the Australian Open, Bunque is currently 26th on the LET Order of Merit.<\/p>\n
Accruing more Order of Merit points this week will put her in prime position to earn full status when the category re-rank takes place mid-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can be in the top 60 or 70 by the end of May, I can get re-ranked into a better position, which means that I can keep playing most of the regular season events,\u201d Bunque adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely looks like a full season on the LET for me, which is pretty cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Tristan Jones\/ LET] It permeated the television screens so evidently last week that those closest to her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,199975,272883,755,122462,262170,269505,44,85,272884,39133,178135],"class_list":["post-551629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-open-2026","tag-australian-wpga-championship","tag-golf","tag-golf-australia","tag-golf-comeback","tag-let-tour","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-stephanie-bunque","tag-womens-golf","tag-wpga-tour-of-australasia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}