Stuart Appleby (born 1 May 1971) is an Australian
professional golfer who plays on the
PGA Tour Champions. He was a nine-time winner on the
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 ...
.
Early life
Appleby was born in
Cohuna, Victoria, and grew up on a nearby
dairy farm
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a h ...
. He began in golf by hitting balls from paddock to paddock after his farm chores were completed. As a youth, he played
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...
.
Professional career

Appleby turned professional in 1992 and began his career 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 ...
. In 1995 he won twice on the
Nike Tour (now known as the
Web.com Tour), the second tier men's tour in the U.S. He was the eighth player to win his first Web.com Tour start. He qualified to compete on the
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 ...
the following year by finishing the season fifth on the money list.
[
Appleby has won nine times on the PGA Tour. He was a member of the International Team in the Presidents Cup five times, and featured in the top ten of the Official World Golf Ranking in 2004. His best performance in a major championship came in 2002, where he lost in a four-way playoff to Ernie Els at ]The Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
.
In 2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
, during the final round of the inaugural Greenbrier Classic, Appleby became the fifth player in history to shoot a 59 in an official PGA Tour event, and won the PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year award.
Appleby was limited to seven starts before back surgery in March 2015. He made a start on the Web.com Tour for the first time in twenty years at the Nova Scotia Open, where he finished T36. Qualified for a medical extension, Appleby was allowed entry into the Web.com Tour Finals, but did not make a cut and played the 2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
season on a major medical extension. He burned through his medical extension and finished 143rd in the FedEx Cup. He tried to regain his Tour card through the Web.com Finals, but did not finish high enough when Hurricane Matthew threatened Florida and the final tournament was cancelled, leaving the top 25 players with their cards, and Appleby finished 31st, leaving him with limited status for the 2017 season. He finished 192nd in the FedEx Cup, limiting him to the Past Champions category for 2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
.
Personal life
Appleby's first wife Renay was struck and killed by a taxicab outside London Waterloo station in 1998, shortly after he had missed the cut at The Open Championship
The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
.
Appleby married his second wife, Ashley Saleet, in 2002, and they live with their four children in Orlando, Florida
Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...
. After the 1999 plane crash that killed his friend and next-door neighbour Payne Stewart, he has been one of the key father figures for Stewart's children, Chelsea and Aaron. In his spare time, Appleby enjoys motor racing.[ He is the ambassador for Golf Australia's Crown Lager Social Golf Club and patron for Stuart Appleby Junior Golf.
]
Professional wins (20)
PGA Tour wins (9)
PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)
PGA Tour of Australasia wins (3)
Nike Tour wins (2)
Nike Tour playoff record (1–1)
Australasian Foundation Tour wins (5)
*1991 Queensland Open (as an amateur)
*1994 Victorian PGA Championship, Tasmanian Classic, South Australian PGA Championship, Nedlands Masters
Other wins (1)
Results in major championships
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
Summary
*Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2007 PGA – 2009 Masters)
*Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (four times)
Results in The Players Championship
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Results in World Golf Championships
1Cancelled due to 9/11
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = Tied
NT = No tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.
Note: Appleby is the only golfer to compete in the first 32 WGC events.
Team appearances
Amateur
* Sloan Morpeth Trophy (representing Australia): 1992
* Australian Men's Interstate Teams Matches (representing Victoria): 1991, 1992
Professional
* World Cup (representing Australia): 1996, 2003, 2009
2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...
* Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Australia): 1997
Events January
* January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States.
* January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis.
* January 1 ...
, 1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
* Presidents Cup (International Team): 1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...
(winners), 2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
, 2003 (tie), 2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
, 2007
2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year.
Events
January
* January 1
**Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...
See also
* 1995 Nike Tour graduates
* 1996 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates
* Lowest rounds of golf
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Appleby, Stuart
Australian male golfers
PGA Tour of Australasia golfers
PGA Tour golfers
Australian expatriate golfers in the United States
Korn Ferry Tour graduates
Sportsmen from Victoria (state)
Golfers from Orlando, Florida
1971 births
Living people
Presidents Cup competitors for International