South African golfer Leon Trenerry and former PGA Tour of Australasia player Neale Smith have secured their spots on the 2025 PGA Legends Tour. The qualifying event took place at Murwillumbah Golf Club, where Trenerry topped the Final Stage with a score of 7-under par, finishing four strokes ahead.
Trenerry, who will turn 50 in June, spent six years on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour before moving to Australia in December 2020. He completed the Membership Pathway Program at Oxley Golf Club in Brisbane by 2023. Matthew Rogers from Meadowbrook Golf Club finished second with a score of 3-under but must wait until his own milestone birthday in May to compete.
Other top performers included Derrin Morgan from Victoria, Mark Gilson from New South Wales, and David Tapping also from Victoria. They rounded out the top five finishers who earned higher category status for the upcoming season. Players finishing between sixth and twenty-fifth positions also gained status for the tour starting January 30 in New Zealand.
Neale Smith, who was active on the Australasian Tour during the 1990s and played in Canada from 2000-2005, has become known as a mental coach for golfers like Jason Day and Hunter Mahan through his company Process Performance. After spending two decades based in America, Smith returned to compete last year at both the NSW Senior Open and Australian PGA Senior Championship before earning his tour category with rounds of 74-72 at Q School.
The standout performance came from Denis Brosnan, a PGA Life Member aged 79, who bettered his age by ten strokes during Round Two to tie for sixth place alongside Douglas Gardner and Chris Hollingsworth.
The first event of the new season is scheduled as the Expol Waihi Legends Pro-Am at Waihi Golf Club in New Zealand. It marks one of five tournaments set to open the year.
