{"id":421239,"date":"2024-09-10T03:16:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T03:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=421239"},"modified":"2024-09-10T07:11:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T07:11:32","slug":"liv-star-set-to-defend-australian-open-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=421239","title":{"rendered":"LIV star set to defend Australian Open title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>T\ufeffhe summer of <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/golf\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"golf\">golf<\/a> will have plenty of star power after both defending <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/australian-open-golf-259n\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Australian Open\">Australian Open<\/a> champions confirmed they will travel Down Under in November.<\/p>\n<p>Golf Australia on Tuesday confirmed Chile&#x27;s Joaquin Niemann and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/golf\/australian-open-2023-womens-results-ashleigh-buhai-goes-back-to-back-20231203-p5j8gn.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"South Africa&#x27;s Ashleigh Buhai\">South Africa&#x27;s Ashleigh Buhai<\/a> will contest the men&#x27;s and the women&#x27;s Open respectively\ufeff.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#x27;s Open will be held at two\ufeff courses &#8211; Kingston Heath Golf Club and The Victoria Golf Club &#8211; in Melbourne from November 28.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2024-josh-addo-carr-drug-test-phil-gould-canterbury-bulldogs-future-police-arrest-20240910-p5k997.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gould refuses to guarantee Foxx&#x27;s future after drug arrest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2024-sydney-roosters-injuries-finals-chances-preview-billy-slater-exclusive-20240909-p5k99h.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Slater&#x27;s plea to injury-plagued Roosters on eve of finals<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/nrl\/news-2024-canterbury-bulldogs-manly-sea-eagles-clash-moved-player-recovery-times-20240910-p5k99m.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Players dealt blow after NRL scheduling call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The men&#x27;s, women&#x27;s, and all-abilities tournaments are held concurrently and at the same venues, making the Australian Open a unique event.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/liv-golf-series\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"\ufeffLIV Golf\">\ufeffLIV Golf<\/a> star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/sport\/golf\/australian-open-2023-results-joaquin-niemann-wins-in-playoff-against-rikuya-hoshino-min-woo-lee-third-20231203-p5j8go.html\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Niemann lit up Sydney&#x27;s The Australian Golf Club last year and beat Japan&#x27;s Rikuya Hoshino in a thrilling Sunday playoff\">Niemann lit up Sydney&#x27;s The Australian Golf Club last year and beat Japan&#x27;s Rikuya Hoshino in a thrilling Sunday playoff<\/a> to clinch the title.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"a479ea23-63a0-4c10-bcbf-2205dadba7a0\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/a479ea23-63a0-4c10-bcbf-2205dadba7a0\" alt=\"Joaquin Niemann of Chile kisses the Stonehaven Cup after winning the Men&#x27;s ISPS HANDA Australian Open on the 18th green following the ISPS HANDA Australian Open at The Australian Golf Course on December 03, 2023 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe\/Getty Images)\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;To have the opportunity to defend a title, especially a national Open, is something truly special that I am greatly looking forward to,&quot; Niemann said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I thoroughly enjoyed the Australian Open experience last year and think it will be a fantastic way to end a successful year.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Having played on the Melbourne Sandbelt previously, I can&#x27;t wait to try and go back-to-back across Kingston Heath and Victoria at this year&#x27;s tournament.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Niemann was a genuine rising star of international golf but his world ranking has slipped to 108 since his defection to LIV, where players are unable to accrue ranking points.<\/p>\n<p>His victory at last year&#x27;s Open earned him entry to the US Masters &#8211; considered golf&#x27;s most prestigious men&#x27;s tournament.\ufeff<\/p>\n<p>South African veteran \ufeffBuhai is ranked 56th in the women&#x27;s game and will be searching for a third successive Australian Open title.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"2aa588ea-f384-42b6-a725-66f3c746322f\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/2aa588ea-f384-42b6-a725-66f3c746322f-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Ashleigh Buhai of South Africa is showered by Minjee Lee and Hannah Green of Australia.\" data-width=\"4954\" data-height=\"3329\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&quot;I have a long history with Australia and have always loved visiting, and especially competing in the Australian Open which I&#x27;m thrilled is returning to the Melbourne Sandbelt,&quot; Buhai said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The names on the Australian Open trophy are special to be included alongside. Fortunately, I have had two years of looking at the trophy and I am hoping to make it a third this year.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Niemann will be joined in the Australian Open field by Aussie star Min Woo Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Lee won last year&#x27;s Australian PGA Championship, which is held the week prior to the Open.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>T\ufeffhe summer of golf will have plenty of star power after both defending Australian Open champions confirmed they will travel Down Under in November. Golf <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=421239\" title=\"LIV star set to defend Australian Open title\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":383162,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421239"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=421239"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421242,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421239\/revisions\/421242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/383162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=421239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=421239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=421239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}