When professional Andre Stolz won the 2009 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship, it was a welcome returned to the winners circle. Stolz, from the New South Wales Central Coast, hadn’t won a tournament since he claimed his biggest career win on the US PGA Tour in 2004, but following his win last year the drought was officially broken and his return to professional golf confirmed.
Despite taking some time off, (admittedly a little too much time,) over Christmas, this week’s defending champion teed off at the Sandhurst Club this morning in perfect conditions, determined to put in another good showing in an event that continues to grow in stature each year.
“Its awesome, I mean this event used to be part of the Von Nida Tour and is now part of the PGA Tour of Australasia and you can see by the standard of the field that you’ve got to play pretty damn well to win and even just make the cut,” Stolz said about the event previously won by the likes of Stuart Appleby, Peter Thomson, Peter Senior, Stuart Appleby and more recently Marc Leishman and Cameron Percy.
“For me personally I’m starting to feel like I’m hitting some form, even though it’s at the wrong end of the summer.”
Stolz said he felt rusty in New Zealand two weeks ago, but feels he is on the right track after last week’s much improved performance at Moonah Links.
He performed well in the first two rounds at Moonah rising to the pointy end of the leaderboard by the end of day two, but suffered at the hands of his putting and a broken driver over the course of the all important weekend rounds.
“I caved the face in on my driver on Saturday. I was wondering why I had hit a few poor tee shots and when I got back to the range it was cracked. I had to use a back up for Sunday and its been okay.”
“I putted really badly on Sunday, I had 35 putts, but other than that I hit the ball pretty well tee to green and so far this week it feels pretty good.”
Having never played Sandhurst before this week Stolz has brought with him fellow Central Coast PGA Member Grant Binns to help him navigate his way around the North Course.
“I haven’t been here before but my caddy has been around here quite a few times.”
“(Grant) played a lot of the trainee tournaments here so he knows where we are going.”
And for Stolz, that’s hopefully the top of the leaderboard come Sunday’s final round.
The 2010 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship presented by Frankston City will be played at the Sandhurst Club on the North Course (par 72) from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th February.
Stolz teed off this morning at 7.30am, grouped with other marquee players Michael Curtain and Jason Norris.
With $110,000 up for grabs, entry to the 2010 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship presented by Frankston City is free for all spectators.