Queenslander Adam Scott has broken Australia’s hoodoo at Augusta, making sporting history by becoming the first Aussie to claim the green jacket in the tournament’s illustrious history.

It wasn’t the limousine hotel pick up, the guard of honor upon my arrival or even the caddie for my clubs and the caddie for my camera. It wasn’t the ridiculously high service standards or the delicious ‘halfway house’ dumplings, which are actually served twice during the round. It wasn’t even the free polo shirt that’s apparently on the way. Last month Shanqin Bay became the first Chinese course in the Planet Golf World 100, purely and simply because it belongs there. Period.

Following recent news that the Australian PGA Championship would be leaving its former Sunshine Coast home at the Palmer Coolum Resort, comes today's announcement that the tournament is moving to an early November date. According to the media release, the aim is to capitalise on the availability of premier players that time of year. The 2013 Australian PGA will start November 7 at the RACV Resort at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast. Royal Pines has hosted the Ladies Masters tournament for many years.

A recent press release from China caught my eye. It appeared on Colin Montgomerie’s own web site, and was picked up by a number of ‘respected’ news agencies across Asia, all of whom regurgitated the article verbatim. The article covers the story of Montgomerie traveling to China earlier this month to officially open his course at Imperial Springs Golf Club, in Guangdong Province. This is the same Imperial Springs Golf Club that created headlines in 2011 when it pulled out of hosting an LPGA event at the last moment. We understand that members have been golfing on the course for more than 18 months. Regardless of when the course was actually finished and open for play, what’s telling about the recent Montgomerie visit was the generosity, and originality, of some of the language used by the ‘designer’ to celebrate the occasion.

According to reports in the Adelaide Now newspaper, Greg Norman’s 9-hole course at Port Hughes on the Yorke Peninsula is in danger of being shut-down. The project was placed into receivership last July, with debts totally more than $13 million. Receivers have tried to move the remaining residential allotments, and keep the golf course operating, but sales have been almost nonexistent and golf course patronage has halved, from an already dangerously low base.