Yellow Rock professional golfer Josh Cabban was in Papua New Guinea late last month defending his PGA Tour of Australasia South Pacific Export Radler PNG Open title.
The 23-year-old who is a carpenter by trade, won the tournament last year, but this time he didn’t settle into a rhythm and finished 21st at three under par in a field of 100.
South Australian Brad Moules, who is fresh out of a PGA traineeship, won the tournament at 11-under.
“I never got into the rhythm and got the momentum going,” Cabban said.
“Last year I holed a few more putts.”
He said the tropical Port Moresby course was good, but had its challenges.
“There were different types of grass producing bumpier greens as it was more tropical,” Cabban said.
“The humidity was unbelievable at 95 per cent.”
While in PNG he also played in the Lae Open, to finish 10th at 9-under the card.
Back in Australia, it was on to the WA Open for his first time on the Western Australia Golf Club course in Perth last weekend. Cabban shot 3 over in the first two rounds and was unlucky to miss the cut by just one shot.
The cool conditions were a total contrast to the previous week and the course was fast.
“The rough is unbelievably long here. It’s up to your socks – it’s five or six inches long,” Cabban said.
“If you miss the fairway it will be hard to advance.”
“You never know what you will get. A couple of bad bounces and it could not go your way, or it could go the other way.”
He’ll also play in the four-day WA PGA in mid-May, before turning his focus to making the Japanese qualifying school from August, which would enable him to play on the Japanese Tour from March next year.
Cabban said he appreciated the backing of his sponsors, Anytime Fitness and Lister and Cole.