Golf Australia (GA) and the Professional Long Drive Association of Australia (PLDA) have today announced the signing of an alignment agreement, aimed at driving increased participation at PLDA events among professional long drivers, amateur golfers just wanting to try a new form of the game and significant growth in female participation.

PLDA are the Australian representative body of the Professional Long Drive Association, who own and operate the World Championships and Ladies World Championships, to be held later in 2022 in Las Vegas and Japan respectively.

Operating multi-category events (Open, Ladies, Seniors and Amateur) across Australia, this alignment agreement formally welcomes the PLDA to the Australian Golf family and will provide with it significant opportunities to increase the number of long-drive events and align with Australian Golf’s key strategic purpose of ‘more people playing more golf’.

Joel Taylor – National Head for Event Organisation, PLDA Australia – said that it was a fantastic development for long drive in Australia. “The opportunity to align formally with the governing body for the sport and recognise the opportunity that exists in growing long drive events across the country is an extremely exciting one. We want more women and men, girls and boys to play in PLDA events and we expect a very full schedule throughout 2022 across the country.”

David Gallichio – General Manager of Golf Participation at GA – agreed that the opportunity for alignment was an extremely positive development. “We’ve been very clear in our national strategy that all golf is golf, and we recognise that long drive – and PLDA Australia by extension – is a way for people to play the game and have a lot of fun at the same time. Attending the event at Victoria Park in Brisbane in February reiterates that there is golf for everyone, and we can’t wait to work with PLDA to build their event schedule, provide more opportunities for people to participate and align even further with Australian Golf.”

Under the agreement, PLDA events will be accessible to all through Golf Australia’s national events platform, with a clear aim to develop each event to include all categories and classes of participants.

For more information, please contact:

Martin Blake – Media Manager, Golf Australia - martin.blake@golf.org.au

Joel Taylor – PLDA Australia – 0452 319 427