By Tony Webeck

The next generation of Australian superstars have announced their arrival in spectacular fashion with a weekend of wins unlike anything the game in this country has ever seen before.

Their names may be unfamiliar to many but 26-year-old Cameron Davis, 25-year-old Lucas Herbert and 20-year-old Stephanie Kyriacou all won on major tours in a fashion that suggests that they are just getting started.

The 2017 Australian Open champion, Davis (67) came from the clouds in the closing stages of the Rocket Mortgage Classic, playing his final seven holes in 5-under par to join a playoff with Joaquin Niemann and Troy Merritt at 18-under.

Niemann fell by the wayside at the first playoff hole, Davis missing opportunities to win on the first four sudden-death holes before Merritt’s bogey on the fifth and Davis’s tap-in par secured his breakthrough PGA TOUR title.

Hours earlier Lucas Herbert completed a wire-to-wire win at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Mount Juliet Estate for his second European Tour title, bringing out the bulldog within to complete a three-stroke victory that was not as straightforward as the margin suggests.

Fighting a misbehaving driver, Herbert (68) scrapped and clawed his way to an outward nine of 35 as challengers joined him at the top of the leaderboard.

A birdie at 10 restored the one-stroke advantage with which Herbert began the day but he gave it straight back at the par-3 11th. Pars followed at the next three holes and when he left the 14th green he and American Johannes Veerman were locked together at the top once again.

But two brilliant bunker shots on the next two holes – for birdie at 15 and par at 16 – gave the Bendigo native the momentum to push towards victory, two closing birdies completing a remarkable week that began with a round of 8-under 64 on Thursday.

Not only does the win secure Herbert a place in The Open Championship to be held at Royal St George’s next week but is projected to move him up to a career high of 54 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

But it all began with Kyriacou, who like Herbert led from day one in claiming the Ladies European Tour’s Big Green Open in the Netherlands in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Winner of the Australian Ladies Classic at Bonville whilst still an amateur on her way to the 2020 LET Rookie of the Year, Kyriacou produced a bogey-free 5-under 67 in the final round to win by two strokes at Rosendaelsche Golf Club.

Central Coast product Dimi Papadatos almost made it four professional wins in the one weekend as he finished second by one stroke at the Kaskada Golf Challenge on the Challenge Tour while Queensland amateur Louis Dobbelaar continued his excellent results in America, adding the prestigious North and South Amateur to his victory at the Dogwood Invitational last month.

Results

PGA TOUR

Rocket Mortgage Classic

Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan

Winner Cam Davis         68-68-67-67—270         $US1.35m

Won on the fifth hole of sudden death playoff

T14      Jason Day         67-73-69-66—275         $121,875

T41      Cameron Percy 71-70-71-68—280         $24,115

T41      Aaron Baddeley 69-70-69-72—280         $24,115

T52      Matt Jones        70-69-71-71—281         $17,775

MC       Danny Lee        71-73—144

MC       Rhein Gibson    73-72—145

European Tour

Dubai Duty Free Irish Open

Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, Ireland

Winner Lucas Herbert   64-67-70-68—269         €484,990

T9        Jason Scrivener 67-69-70-69—275         €58,699

T17      Min Woo Lee    68-68-73-69—278         €35,970

T28     Maverick Antcliff 69-72-68-71—280         €26,338

MC       Wade Ormsby   71-72—143

MC       Jake McLeod     77-72—149

MC       Ryan Fox           76-76—152

MC       Scott Hend        75-78—153

Ladies European Tour

Big Green Egg Open

Rosendaelsche Golf Club, Netherlands

Winner Stephanie Kyriacou       66-72-65-67—270         €30,000

T29      Whitney Hillier  74-73-68-74—289         €2,006

MC       Kristalle Blum   79-77—156

MC       Amy Walsh       81-78—159

Challenge Tour

Kaskada Golf Challenge

Kaskada Golf Resort, Brno, Czech Republic

Winner Marcel Schneider          65-65-71-67—268         €32,000

T2        Josh Geary        69-67-66-67—269         €16,000

T2        Dimitrios Papadatos      70-67-65-67—269         €16,000

T54      Blake Windred  65-73-72-74—284         €730

MC       Deyen Lawson  70-71—141

MC       David Micheluzzi           74-72—146

LPGA Tour

Volunteers of America Classic

Old American Golf Club, The Colony, Texas

Winner Jin Young Ko     63-70-66-69—268         $US225,000     

T26      Katherine Kirk   68-69-70-72—279         $12,786

T47      Sarah Jane Smith  66-74-71-72—283         $5,158

Champions Tour

Dick’s Sporting Goods Open

En-Joie Golf Club, Endicott, New York

Winner Cameron Beckman        67-69-68—204 

T38      David McKenzie 71-69-74—214

T49      Stephen Leaney 73-71-72—216