American golfer Tyler Griggs is set to make his debut on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia at the PNG Open, which begins Thursday at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club. Griggs, a UCLA graduate, is among 11 American players in the field, most of whom earned their place for the 2025-2026 season through Qualifying School held in Georgia in July.
Griggs finished 19th at Kinderlou Forest and aims for a strong start to secure spots in larger tournaments as the season progresses. This trip marks his first time competing in Australia, though he has family ties to the region. His uncle, JJ West, played on the Australian tour between 1996 and 2000 and achieved a tie for fourth place at the 1996 Australian Players Championship on the Gold Coast.
Griggs will also compete at the Tailor-Made Building Services NT PGA Championship in two weeks. He expressed enthusiasm about joining the tour: “Funnily enough, my uncle played on the Australian tour back in the day, back in the ‘90s, so I’ve known about it for a long time,” said Griggs.
“Just recently I was doing a lot of Monday qualifiers for the Korn Ferry, PGA TOUR and then PGA TOUR Americas and then I got an e-mail for the Australian Tour.
“I’ve known that it’s pretty legit so I figured might as well go take a crack at that.
“I was lucky enough to get some status and get into the first two events, so I’m pretty happy.”
Ty Gingerich is another American looking to establish himself early this season. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati last year, Gingerich won both the 2024 Indiana Amateur Championship and Big 12 Men’s Golf Championship. He tied for fifth place at Qualifying School but has not yet secured exemptions for either the BMW Australian PGA Championship or men’s Australian Open.
“As of now, I’m not exempt for Aussie PGA or Aussie Open, so I’d like to work my way into playing in those events and kind of go from there,” said Gingerich.
“I guess the first goal is the start of the season and then hopefully, by the end of the season, to win the Order of Merit would be great.
“There’s a lot of good opportunity here on the Australian tour. I saw the e-mail come about Q School and kind of did some research and seemed like a good opportunity for me.
“I didn’t have any status this year, so thought I might as well go play and see what I can get out of it, and it worked out well.”
The group of American players this week includes Chris Malec—who led Qualifying School—as well as Nathan Jordi, Ben Carpenter, Brock Healy, Kameron Williams, Scotty Kennon, Viraj Garewal, Matthew Cleary and Colin Andrade. The tournament will also feature Brisbane’s William Bruyeres defending his title alongside previous champion Lachlan Barker and seven other winners from last season. Round one starts Thursday at 7am AEST.
