[PHOTO: Andy Cheung/Getty Images]
Su Oh has the shortest name in this year’s Australian Open field but arguably the deepest well of Sandbelt experience at her disposal.
Between her own upbringing in Melbourne and the unmatched experience of her caddie Mike Clayton, Oh arrived at Kingston Heath Golf Club today with more knowledge than most. And it helped.
The former Olympian (2016) co-leads her national championship after the first round, sitting at seven-under-par alongside Korean amateur Hyojin Yang, who toured the Victoria Golf Club layout in round one. They’re a stroke ahead of Hannah Green, who shrugged off jetlag to shoot six-under in the afternoon wave at Kingston Heath. Justice Bosio was five-under after carding a 68 at the same course.
A good result this week would represent a remarkable turnaround in form for Oh after an awful 2024 season abroad. With limited starts on the LPGA Tour, she played in numerous Epson Tour events, yet last made a cut in any tournament in May and has plummeted to 657th in the world ranking.
Such wretched form meant nothing today as she fed off good vibes, Clayton’s expert guidance and instruction advice from her new coach Ritchie Smith (who also teaches Minjee and Min Woo Lee, as well as last week’s Australian PGA champion, Elvis Smylie). Oh missed only two greens in regulation in plucking nine birdies from the Kingston Heath layout on an enviable late-spring day in Melbourne.
“I’ve worked really hard past few months with Ritchie and I felt like I was hitting the ball much better, so I knew it was there,” Oh said. “But I’m very happy and proud I just did it. Yeah, I think I had to dig deep and believe in what I’ve been practising and I’m really happy it paid off today.”
Oh, who first competed in an Australian Open in 2009 when she was 12 years old, is playing in the championship for the first time since it shifted to a concurrent event with the men’s field in 2022. It made for a different feel, while having Clayton on the bag added another element to her opening round.
“It’s so funny. He was not happy with preferred lies [being in play] today, let me tell you that. But I guess they have to do it because of [how wet the course was at] Victoria. That’s a little bit flatter, so that makes a bit more sense.
“He’s just funny. It’s just Clayts. He had a comment or two about some of the trees out there, but I was like, ‘What are you looking at?’ But yeah, he’s a great caddie. We play so much golf together that he is very good with my yardages and how it’s playing. So I’m very comfortable with him there. And I was like, ‘Look, I haven’t been playing well, so if I hit a bad shot, don’t say anything to me.”
So few bad shots on day one gave the pair only good things to discuss, with surely more talking points set to rise in their second round at Victoria Golf Club tomorrow.
