WA’s Curtis Luck will play in the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush after claiming a runner-up finish at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open.
The top-three non-exempt finishers at Kingston Heath earned their Open spots, with Luck joining surprise champion Ryggs Johnston and Marc Leishman (T3rd) in stamping his ticket to Portrush.
It represents an excellent consolation for Luck, who led the championship by a stroke on the back nine before dropping shots on each of the two closing holes to hand the initiative back to Johnston.
Surprise-package Johnston, aged 24, was in imperious form all week and was rock-steady on his inward nine to close with a four-under-par 68 for an 18-under-par total and a three-stroke win over Luck.
Leishman tied with local hope Jasper Stubbs at -14 and secured the final Open exemption courtesy of his higher world ranking.
And while Luck had cause to rue his wayward finish, he was able to take plenty of positives from the week as he continues his comeback from neck and shoulder injuries.
““Obviously [qualifying for The Open] is a massive perk. The finish wasn’t ideal, but at the end of the day I was not really hitting balls three months ago, so I don’t think I can complain too much,” Luck said.
“I’ve been pretty rusty the four events I’ve played down here in Australia and I think that probably showed down the stretch I was doing my best to clinging on, but it got the better of me.”
His strong form in his run of Aussie events – which included a third-place finish at the WA Open in October – also gave Luck a sense of optimism that his game can hit the heights once predicted of it in the late 2010s.
“I think I make it pretty hard on myself quite often, so if I could clean up those areas, yeah, I still believe absolutely 100% that I could be right up there with the best,” he added.
Curtis Luck joins Ryggs Johnston and Marc Leishman in qualifying for the 2025 Open Championship
Elsewhere in the field, Min Woo Lee was unable to find his top gear as he recovers from a knee injury, but finished with a two-under-par 70 to share 27th place alongside Brett Rumford.
On his first start on home soil since earning turning professional in July, WA’s Karl Vilips fired three rounds in the 60s on his way to a T46th finish.
Day to forget for Green
Hannah Green started the final round just one shot back from overnight leader Jiyai Shin as she looked to become the first home player to win the Women’s Australian Open since Karrie Webb in 2014.
However, it was a chastening day for the world number six, who was six over par for her round when she reached the turn, carding three bogeys and a treble-bogey in the process.
Although she steadied the ship on the back nine, coming back in level-par 37 strokes, the damage was done. It was left to defending champion Ashleigh Buhai to take the fight to Shin, The popular Korean stood firm against Buhai’s charge to post a two-stroke victory at -19 and claim her second Australian Open crown, 11 years after her first.
Hannah Green endured a frustrating final day at Kingston Heath
It was a tough end to what has been a stellar year for Green, who finished at -6 for the championship in a share of fourth with fellow Aussie Grace Kim – a stroke behind Korean amateur Hyojin Yang.
“I had such a good year, I don’t want to really dwell on my last round of the year being here at the Aussie Open, and being in contention all week and not having a trophy,” said Green.
“Overall I’m just really happy with how I tried to fight it out there, I was struggling hard and it probably could’ve been worse, so I’m happy with the result.”
After flirting with missing the cut, Minjee Lee improved as the week went on to finish T7th on -3 for the championship.
View all the scores from the men’s and women’s Australian Opens here.
Photos: Getty Images
