Men’s, women’s Australian Opens to be played concurrently

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The men’s and women’s Australian Open golf tournaments are set to be played at the same time on two sandbelt courses in southeast Melbourne in December.

Golf Australia said Friday the marquee domestic events will be played from Dec. 1-4 with Victoria Golf Club as the primary course and nearby Kingston Heath also hosting play on the first two days.

The men’s event will headline the PGA Tour of Australasia while the women’s event will be sanctioned by the WPGA Tour of Australasia.

The men’s event will also be sanctioned on the DP World Tour. The Australian PGA tournament scheduled to be held the week before at Royal Queensland in Brisbane is also sanctioned by the former European tour.

Field sizes of 144 men and 144 women will compete for an equal split of the minimum 3.4 million Australian dollars ($2.4 million) in prize money.

“This truly is a coup for Australian golf — it presents a great opportunity for the game and will take the two open championships to another level,” Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland said.

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