Australian Amateur Champion Quinn Croker has made the jump into the professional ranks.
AUSSIE young guns Jasper Stubbs, Quinn Croker and Phoenix Campbell have turned professional after competing in the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship in Japan in early October.
The trio were part of a seven-strong Australian contingent at the Asia-Pacific, won by China’s Wenyi Ding, who shot four consecutive rounds of 67, for a 12-under par total, in gaining redemption after being beaten in a playoff by Stubbs in the same event when played at Royal Melbourne 12-months ago.
As for the Australians, while none were able to mount a serious challenge at the Taiheiyo Club Gotemba in Japan, with Campbell the best placed 10-shots behind the winner, all three will take strong amateur records into the professional ranks.
Campbell, who finished his amateur career with a tie for 34th at the Japan Open at Tokyo Golf Club the week following the Asia Pacific, took up the two-year exemption available to him courtesy of his win at the Queensland PGA Championship last year. The Victorian’s debut as a pro came at the 100th WA Open where he made the 36-hiole cut before finishing in a tie for 52nd.
Stubbs, 32nd in defence of his Asia Pacific title, became the first to play as a professional when he teed it up at Kalgoorlie at the WA PGA, missing the 36-hole cut, while Croker, the reigning Australian and Queensland Amateur champion, travelled to the US in mid-October, where he was successful in winning his way through the first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School in Florida.
Croker earned Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia membership by winning the Future Tour category last season. His first Australasian event as a professional was scheduled to be at the Webex Players Series South Australia in Willunga.
The 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship will be played in Dubai from October 23-26.
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