Former European Tour winner Mike Clayton sounds off on the Australian Open winners

Former European Tour winner Mike Clayton sounded off on the Australian Open winners. The ISPS HANDA Australian Open for men and women concluded with its finale on Sunday, December 1. The enthralling tournament was filled with surprises, and finally, Ryggs Johnston won his maiden professional event by registering an easy three-shot win. Meanwhile, Jiyai Shin won the Women's Australian Open.

Following the tournament, Mike Clayton shared his opinion about the winners, the golf course, and the conditions. In his recent article for Golf.org.au, the Aussie golfer talked about Johnston's victory at the recently concluded ISPS HANDA Australian Open (men), writing:

"Conventional wisdom says it’s impossible to win on the Sandbelt courses without knowing how to play them and Johnston hadn’t even time to play a practice round at either course. Likely the rain affected and softer than usual greens helped but this was a remarkable achievement and one hugely helpful to his DP World Tour status."

Clayton also mentioned Women's Australian Open winner Shin in his article and wrote:

"Shin earns less credits for her remarkable play because she largely competes on the women’s Tour in Japan, a Tour which is now more popular than the equivalent men’s, one in the age of Isao Aoki, Jumbo Ozaki, Tommy Nakajima and Graham Marsh was almost as big, in prizemoney terms, as the Tour in the United States."

However, Clayton was critical of the event while comparing it with the 1970s. He wrote:

"There was much comment on the set up of the golf courses and the greens being noticeably softer than years past. No doubt they were, and the rain surely didn’t help but it’s been a long time since Sandbelt greens played anything like they did in the famed (or infamous) era in the 1970s when Royal Melbourne was at its Claude Crockford, fiery peak. In truth, those 1970s days bordered on silly and somewhere in between what we saw this year and Royal Melbourne of the 1970s is the ideal."

Notably, Mike Clayton has enjoyed decent success as a professional golfer. He turned pro in 1981 and won eight events in his career. On the European Tour, he won the Timex Open by three strokes over Peter Teravainen and Sam Torrance.

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A look into the performance of 2024 Australian Open winners

Ryggs Johnston and Jiyai Shin had an amazing outing at last week's Australian Open. In the men's event, Johnston started with a solid round of 65. He shot 68 in the second round and then carded two more rounds of 68.

Notably, the play was held at two different golf courses, Kingston Heath and Victoria. Johnston played the first round at Kingston Heath, followed by the second at Victoria. He played the final two rounds at Kingston Heath and finally registered an easy three-shot win.

The women’s events were also held at both golf courses. Jiyai Shin played the first round at Victoria Golf Course and shot 69, followed by 68 in the second round at Kingston Heath. She played the final two rounds at Kingston Heath, shooting 67 and 70, and registered a two-stroke win over Ashleigh Buhai.