WA Open History

The Western Australian Open Golf Championship – more commonly referred to simply as the WA Open – is Western Australia’s biggest and most prestigious golf tournament, which has a proud history dating back to 1913.

The WA Open was born from the WA Amateur Championship, which was first contested in 1911 and consisted of a 36-hole stroke play qualification stage followed by match play to determine the champion. The leading four players in the stroke play qualified in 1911, increasing to eight in 1912.

In 1913, the stroke play stage was opened up to professionals, becoming the first Western Australian Open Championship. It was played at the Fremantle Links on August 28, with nearly 30 players competing.

In both 1911 and 1912, amateur Norman Fowlie had led the stroke play stage, but in 1913 he was overpowered by fellow amateur Clyde Pearce, who had won both the Australian Open and Australian Amateur in 1908. Pearce claimed the inaugural WA Open with rounds of 77 and 78, three ahead of Fowlie. The leading professional, David Dakers, came seventh.

The 1914 championship was again played on the Fremantle Links in late August. This time, Fowlie reversed the 1913 result, winning by three strokes from Pearce after rounds of 80 and 77. Two professionals entered but were well down the field.

Due to the First World War, it was until not 1921 that the WA Open was played again. Reg Forbes won with a score of 160, while professional Percy Maunder was one of three players tying for second, a single stroke adrift.

Maunder went one better in 1922, edging out amateur Arthur Geere to become the first professional to lift the coveted trophy – not to mention the £10 first prize.

Throughout the 1920s, the WA Open was dominated by the Cassidy brothers, amateurs Eddie (pictured, below left) and Tom (below right), who won every championship between them from 1923-29.

Eddie was unbeatable for five years straight between 1923-27, winning his first WA Open at the tender age of 16. After wrapping up his fifth, however, he quit the sport to pursue a career in accountancy.

Younger brother Tom continued the Cassidy family legacy in fine style, though, and secured back-to-back titles in 1928-29 whilst still in his teens. He would claim two more WA Open crowns in the 1930s after turning pro.

Greats of the game

It wasn’t until 1983 that Terry Gale equalled Eddie Cassidy’s record of five WA Open triumphs – at which point some of the most celebrated golfers in the game had already had their names etched on the Roy Paxton Bowl.

Future Open Championship winner Kel Nagle won three straight WA Opens from 1950-52, while in 1956 a little-known South African named Gary Player claimed the title at Mount Lawley Golf Club. He would win the first of his nine career Majors at The Open Championship three years later.

Gale earned his first WA Open crown in 1972 whilst still an amateur – a feat he repeated in 1975. After turning pro, he won again in 1980, 82 and 83 before breaking Cassidy’s record and becoming the WA Open’s first six-time champion in 1990.

Two further Open champions also added their names to the WA Open roll of honour in the 80s – Ian Baker-Finch in 1984 and Greg Norman in 1986.

More recently, Stephen Leaney has become synonymous with the WA Open, winning his first title in 1991 as an amateur and going on to match Gale’s total of six wins with further victories in 1994, 1997, 2002, 2004 and 2017.

Other notable winners of the tournament since the turn of the century include Kim Felton (2001, 03, 06), Brett Rumford (2005), Ryan Fox (2014), Ollie Goss (2012) and Curtis Luck (2016). Tasmania’s Simon Hawkes was a two-stroke winner of the 2023 championship at Joondalup Resort.

The WA Open has formed part of the PGA Tour of Australasia’s event schedule since 2009. The 36-hole All Abilities Championship for golfers with physical or mental disabilities was incorporated into the WA Open in 2, while several women have earned invites and exemptions into the event.

Kristie Smith (pictured below) was the first woman to take on the men at the WA Open in 2008, with many others following in her footsteps, including WA Major champions Minjee Lee and Hannah Green. So far, amateur Kirsten Rudgeley is the only woman to make a WA Open cut, back in 2019 at Cottesloe GC.