Paul Foley (born c. 1959)
is an Australian professional golfer. Foley turned pro as a teenager and quickly won an official event on 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 ...
, the 1980
Traralgon Classic, "stunning an experienced field."
For remainder of the decade he played on 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 ...
and
Asia Golf Circuit
The Asia Golf Circuit was the principal men's professional golf tour in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s through to the mid-late 1990s. The tour was founded in 1961 as the Far East Circuit. The first series of five tournaments was held in 196 ...
, winning one more significant event, the 1982
Queensland PGA Championship
The Queensland PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. The tournament is currently held at Nudgee Golf Club in Nudgee.
History
The event was founded as the Queensland Professional Championship in 1926. The inaugura ...
. Since retirement he has shepherded his daughter, Samantha, as a touring professional.
Early life
Foley started playing golf in his early youth. He recorded his first hole-in-one at 13.
Early in his career he worked as an assistant professional at
Royal Queensland Golf Club
The Royal Queensland Golf Club is a golf club and course at the end of Curtin West Avenue, Eagle Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Located beside the Brisbane River is a 10-minute drive from the Brisbane CBD. It has hosted the Australian O ...
.
In 1978 Foley won the Australian Professional Trainee Championship.
In late 1978 or early 1979 he turned professional.
Professional career
Roughly one year after turning pro Foley "stunned an experienced field" at the
Traralgon Classic and won his first professional tournament. He opened the final round at even par, several shots behind the leaders. However, he shot a front nine 33 (−4), which included five birdies, to get into contention. He played even better on the back nine, recording a six birdies for a 29 (−6). His final round 62 (−10) beat the course record by two strokes.
It was the best score of his career, in any sort of event, by 6 shots.
Fellow Australian
Wayne Grady
Wayne Desmond Grady (born 26 July 1957) is an Australian professional golfer.
Early life
Grady was born in Brisbane, Brisbane, Australia.
Professional career
In 1978, Grady turned professional. He began his career on the PGA Tour of Aust ...
finished runner-up, six behind.
Later in the year, he won the Australian Four-Ball with partner
Geoff Parslow, a club professional at
Tweed Heads
Tweed Heads is a coastal city at the mouth of the Tweed River in the Northern Rivers region of the state of New South Wales, Australia. Tweed Heads is the northernmost town in New South Wales, and is located in the Tweed Shire local government ...
. They defeated
Bob Shaw
Robert Shaw (31 December 1931 – 11 February 1996) was a science fiction writer and fan from Northern Ireland, noted for his originality and wit. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 1979 and 1980. His short story " Light of Other Da ...
and
Ted Ball
Edward A. Ball (4 November 1939 – 17 April 1995) was an Australian professional golfer. He won several dozen significant tournaments in his career.
Early life
Ball was born in Hornsby, New South Wales. He had a decorated amateur career, inc ...
by one shot, shooting –18 as a team.
Foley played in the
1981 Open Championship
The 1981 Open Championship was a men's major golf championship and the 110th Open Championship, held from 16 to 19 July at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England. Bill Rogers won his only major championship, four strokes ahead of run ...
at
Royal St George's Golf Club
The Royal St George's Golf Club is a golf club located in Sandwich, Kent, England. It is one of the courses on The Open Championship rota, and the only one in South East England. It has hosted 15 Open championships, the first in 1894 when it b ...
, earning his place through final qualifying. He had rounds of 78 and 81 and missed the cut. He stated later in his career that Royal St George's is one of the best golf courses he has ever played on.
Foley would play well in late 1982 at two event in his home state of
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. In October, he finished in a tie for third place at the
Dunhill Queensland Open. Late in the season, on 12 December, he tied
Peter Fowler
Peter Randall Fowler (born 9 June 1959) is an Australian professional golfer. He played on the European Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and the European Senior Tour.
Early life
Fowler was born in Hornsby, New South Wales.
Professional care ...
at the end of regulation of the
Queensland PGA Championship
The Queensland PGA Championship is a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia. The tournament is currently held at Nudgee Golf Club in Nudgee.
History
The event was founded as the Queensland Professional Championship in 1926. The inaugura ...
. They defeated
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 ...
,
Ossie Moore
Ossie Moore (born 6 July 1958) is an Australian professional golfer.
Early life
Moore was born in Murwillumbah.
Professional career
Moore played on the European Tour from 1984 to 1991. His best finish was second at the 1987 PLM Open. Moore ...
, and
Wayne Grady
Wayne Desmond Grady (born 26 July 1957) is an Australian professional golfer.
Early life
Grady was born in Brisbane, Brisbane, Australia.
Professional career
In 1978, Grady turned professional. He began his career on the PGA Tour of Aust ...
by one shot. Foley defeated Fowler on the first playoff hole.
Foley later described it as his biggest win.
Foley would continue to play well through the mid-1980s. He played well at the 1983
Australian Open
The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...
, placing in second place after the first round and remaining one back entering Sunday. However he played poorly in the final round and finished outside of the top three. In 1984, he played excellently on the Queensland circuit, winning 10 pro-ams. Also that year, he represented Australia in the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
, playing with
Mike Harwood
Michael Geoffrey Harwood (born 8 January 1959) is an Australian professional golfer.
Early life
Harwood was born in Sydney.
Professional career
In 1979, Harwood turned professional and has extensive experience on the PGA Tour of Australasia an ...
.
The following year, he finished runner-up at the 1985
Western Australia PGA Championship. Five shots behind entering the final round, Foley shot a 68 (−4) but was usurped by
Ian Stanley
Ian Christopher Stanley (born 28 February 1957) is a British musician, songwriter and record producer. He was a member of Tears for Fears for most of the 1980s, and played a key role in the making of their multi-platinum-selling second studio a ...
's 66. He finished one back of Stanley. Much later in the year he played excellently at his home state's open, the
Queensland Open
The Queensland Open, originally called the Queensland Championships, and also known as the Queensland Lawn Tennis Championships, Queensland Grass Court Championships and the Queensland State Championships, was a tennis tournament played in Bris ...
. Well behind
David Graham entering the final round, Foley made an early run with two birdies and an eagle to get within four shots of Graham at the turn. That would be as close as he would get, however, as Graham pulled away on the back nine and won by five. Foley's −14 total was eight better than those that finished in joint third place, which included
defending Masters champion Bernhard Langer
Bernhard Langer (; born 27 August 1957) is a German professional golfer. He is a two-time Masters champion and was one of the world's leading golfers throughout the 1980s and 1990s. In 1986, he became the sport's first number one ranked playe ...
.
Foley went on a dry spell for several years but in 1988 he began to turn it around. Early in the year, in March, he finished a distant third in the
Indonesia Open behind
Hsieh Yu-shu
Hsieh Yu-shu (, born 5 November 1960) is a Taiwanese professional golfer. Though he only won two prominent events, the 1988 Indonesia Open and the 1993 Mercuries Taiwan Masters, he was a consistent contender on the Asia Golf Circuit and Asian ...
. Later in the year, he had a chance to win at the
Tasmanian Open
The Tasmanian Open is an annual golf tournament held in Tasmania, Australia.
History
The Tasmanian amateur championship was first played in 1902 as a 36 hole stroke-play event. From 1910 the stroke-play acted as qualifying for a match-play stage ...
, holding third place entering the final round, but fell to
Brett Ogle
Brett James Ogle (born 14 July 1964) is an Australian professional golfer.
Early life and amateur career
Ogle was born in Paddington, New South Wales. He was adopted at six weeks of age and was brought up in the town of Goulburn.
He took up th ...
. In 1989, he played excellently at the
West End South Australian Open
The South Australian Open was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour of Australasia and the Nationwide Tour.
History
The event started in 1933 as the South Australian Close Championship. In 1950 it was renamed the South Australian Open, although it ...
, taking the second round lead and then finishing eagle-birdie on Saturday to assure him a final group pairing with
Nick Price
Nicholas Raymond Leige Price (born 28 January 1957) is a Zimbabwean former professional golfer who has won three major championships in his career: the PGA Championship twice (in 1992 and 1994) and The Open Championship in 1994. In the mid-1 ...
on Sunday. During the final round Price started birdie-par-eagle and built a 7-shot lead after 8 holes to "virtually seal his win." Foley, however, played admirably over the final round at
Royal Adelaide and shot a 72 (−1) to finish joint runner-up. Following year, he recorded his final top-10 in a
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 ...
event, a T-9 in the
Nedlands Masters
The Nedlands Masters was a professional golf tournament in Australia, held at the Nedlands Golf Club in Nedlands, Perth, Western Australia. It was first played in 1947, again in 1950, and then annually from 1962. Like the Masters Tournament, the w ...
.
Foley largely stopped playing as a touring professional after the 1991–92 season.
Personal life
Foley lives in
Inglewood, Queensland
Inglewood is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Goondiwindi Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Inglewood had a population of 936 people.
Geography
The town sits on the southern Darling D ...
.
He is married to a Thai woman, Preeya Phiboon, who manages a hotel in Thailand.
They have a daughter, Samantha Foley. She has had some success as an amateur golfer.
Like her father, she has intentions of becoming a professional.
Professional wins (4)
PGA Tour of Australasia wins (2)
PGA Tour of Australasia playoff record (1–0)
Sources:
Other wins (2)
*1978 Australia Trainee Championship
*1980 Australian Four-Ball Championship (with
Geoff Parslow)
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 Queensland): 1976
Professional
*
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...
(representing Australia):
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...
Results in major championships
CUT = missed the halfway cut
''Note: Foley only played in The Open Championship.''
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Paul
Australian male golfers
PGA Tour of Australasia golfers
1959 births
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
20th-century Australian sportsmen