Kirsten Rudgeley and Hayden Hopewell are hoping home comforts will help them mount serious title challenges at this week’s Webex Players Series Perth event.
After strong seasons on the Ladies European Tour and Challenge Tour respectively, the Perth pair shape as two genuine chances at the inaugural Webex Players Series Perth event, which runs from January 9-12 at Royal Fremantle Golf Club.
Like tournament hosts Minjee and Min Woo Lee, Hopewell is a member at Royal Fremantle and already boasts a tournament win at the venue having taken out the COVID-impacted WA Open in 2020.
Mount Lawley product Rudgeley has not played the golf course since her amateur days but knows it well enough to be in the frame to join Hannah Green, Sarah Jane Smith and Min A Yoon as women to have won a mixed-field Webex Players Series event.
Being able to relax at home between rounds and enjoy a short commute to the course are advantages that Rudgeley hopes will boost her chances of a first tour title.
“It’s great to have an event here,” said Rudgeley. “I was just saying to Mum and Dad last night, I can’t remember the last time I played a tournament in Perth.
“You can go home, you can do your own thing. Just having your own car makes it so much easier.”
With a third LET season approaching in February, Rudgeley is also single-minded in how she hopes to use home-ground advantage this week.
“Any chance you can beat the boys, it’s good fun,” said Rudgeley, who finished 12th on the LET Order of Merit in 2024 to narrowly miss out on an LPGA Tour card for 2025.
“What the Players Series has done is great for Australian golf, allowing us women to be able to play with the men as well. I think it’s amazing.”
Can she win it? Rudgeley certainly believes so. “There’s no point being here unless you’re going to try and win,” she added.
Kirsten Rudgeley is targeting victory at Webex Players Series Perth
Hopewell back on familiar ground
Hopewell is also enjoying the comforts of home after a year in which he played 28 events on the Challenge Tour in such varied locations as South Africa, India, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal and Poland.
There are associated difficulties with such widespread travel, of course, and Hopewell painted a picture of the frustrations touring pros can face on a regular basis.
“I rocked up to Poland at 9pm expecting to get a hire car within an hour and at 3am we were still waiting,” Hopewell recalled.
“Eventually we caught a $300 Uber to the accommodation. Then we had to play a practice round the next day and then the tournament the day after.
“They’re just the things you’ve got to deal with on tour sometimes. Thankfully I was with my sister, so at least we had a laugh about it after, but at the time I was furious.”
“You don’t realise how convenient it actually is (to have a tournament at home). You don’t have the Monday with the flight, accommodation, hire car. It’s good to be in your own bed this week.”
Hopewell was yet to turn pro when he won the WA Open five years ago, making birdie at each of his final three holes to win the 54-hole event to finish one clear of Haydn Barron and Brody Martin.
He then missed out by one stroke to Braden Becker at the COVID-delayed 2021 WA Open, also at Royal Fremantle.
Hayden Hopewell is delighted to be back playing on home soil
The scale of the tournament this time around is slightly bigger but presents the same opportunity in the eyes of the 23-year-old.
“It is the Webex Players Series, so there’s a few extra marquee tents which makes it feel a little bit bigger but I’m seeing all the familiar Aussie Tour faces,” said Hopewell.
“It just feels good to be competing against these guys again. This course and the two tournaments here in the past, I definitely hold close to my heart. Hopefully we can get another one.”
The Webex Players Series is a playing opportunity for women and men professionals and elite amateurs, competing in the same field for the same prize purse in mixed pairings.
For the final two rounds, they are joined by competitors in the Webex All Abilities Players Series and Webex Junior Players Series.
Entry is free for spectators all four days with the final two rounds to be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo from 1pm-4pm Saturday and 11am-4pm Sunday AWST.
Keep up to date with the latest elite golf news in GolfWA’s news section and on our Facebook and Instagram feeds.
