Craig A. Spence (born 17 September 1974) is an Australian professional golfer.

Early life and amateur career

Spence was born in

Colac, Victoria Colac is a town in the Western District (Victoria), Western District of Victoria, Australia, approximately 150 kilometres south-west of Melbourne on the southern shore of Lake Colac. History For thousands of years clans of the Gulidjan people ...

and first played golf at the age of 10. Around the age of 15 he began competing at an amateur level. He then went on to the

Victorian Institute of Sport The Victorian Institute of Sport (VIS) is the government-funded sporting institute of the Australian state of Victoria. It provides high performance sports programs for talented athletes, enabling them to achieve national and international succ ...

, winning two Victorian Amateurs back to back.

Professional career

In 1996, Spence turned professional and joined the

PGA Tour of Australasia The PGA Tour of Australasia, currently titled as the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tour for men, owned and operated by the PGA of Australia. Official events on the tour count for World Golf ...

. In 1999, Spence made his professional breakthrough with victory in the Ericsson Australian Masters. Having opened up with a 9-under-par first round, he finished by hitting a 6 iron to two feet for a birdie on the final hole to win by a single stroke over Australia's most successful golfer, playing partner

Greg Norman Gregory John Norman (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian former professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as List of World Number One male golfers, world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 88 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA ...

. Following that win Spence received invites to tournaments around the world, on five of the major

tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

. He managed to record top 5 finishes in events on all of those tours. At the end of 1999, Spence earned his

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

card for the 2000 season with a top 10 finish at the tour's

Qualifying School In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

. His rookie year on the PGA Tour was a struggle and he missed out on keeping a full card for 2001, finishing 129th on the money list. He made just two cuts the following season to lose all playing rights on the tour. He spent two more years in the United States competing mostly on mini-tours while receiving invites to a limited number of second tier

Nationwide Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

events. He also continued to play on the PGA Tour of Australasia with limited success, though he did have an exceptional round playing the 2003 Johnnie Walker Classic at the Lake Karrinyup Country Club in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. Spence had a spectacular third round in that tournament where he equalled the course record of 63, set the previous year in the same event by

Retief Goosen Retief Goosen (born 3 February 1969) is a South African professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He has won two U.S. Opens, in 2001 and 2004, headed the European Tour Order of Merit in 2001 and 2002, and was in the top ten of t ...

. The round also included eight consecutive birdies between the fourth and eleventh holes that matched the records for both the European and Australasian tours. Spence then turned his attentions to Europe at the end of 2003, earning a spot on the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

for 2004 via the qualifying school. In his début European season, he made just three cuts as he failed to keep his card for the 2005 season. He then returned to the United States, to play on the Gateway Tour in preparation for another try at qualifying for the PGA Tour. Having missed out on reaching the final qualifying tournament by one shot in 2006, he and his family moved back to Australia.

Amateur wins

*1994

Victorian Amateur Championship The Victorian Amateur Championship is the state amateur golf championship of Victoria, Australia. It has been played annually since 1899, except for the war years. Two players have won the championship six times, Michael Scott between 1904 and ...

*1995 Luxembourg Amateur Championship,

Professional wins (3)

PGA Tour of Australasia wins (1)

PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (0–1)

Gateway Tour wins (1)

Other wins (1)

*1997 Borrego Springs Open (U.S. mini-tour)

Results in major championships

''Note: Spence never played in the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply the Masters, or as the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four men's major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week in April, the Masters is the ...

or the

PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. The PGA is one of the four men's major golf champi ...

.''
CUT = Missed the half-way cut

Results in World Golf Championships

Team appearances

Amateur *

Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches The Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches were an amateur team golf competition for men between the states and territories of Australia. The event started in 1904 when New South Wales played Victoria. Until World War II the event was played a ...

(representing Victoria): 1994 (winners), 1995

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Craig Australian male golfers PGA Tour golfers PGA Tour of Australasia golfers European Tour golfers Victorian Institute of Sport alumni Sportspeople from Colac, Victoria Sportsmen from Victoria (state) 1974 births Living people