Australian Open championAaron Baddeley has declined an invitation to play alongside Ernie Els in the
$1.6 million Heineken Classic in Perth from January 27-30.
The 18-year-old amateur
will instead accept an offer to play in the $500,000 New Zealand Open the week
before at Paraparaumu Beach in Wellington.
Baddeley's father, Ron,
said last night that while the offer to play with Els was tempting, it would
have meant Aaron playing three events in a row – the Heineken, the Greg
Norman International and the Australian Masters.
"It would be too much. It's
very hot in Perth. We'll be pretty much sticking to our plan (devised in consultation
with coach Dale Lynch) of not playing more than two events in a row next year,"
he said.
"We've pretty much decided
our itinerary. We're just waiting on answers from a couple of events."
One of those events is The
US Masters at Augusta National. Bruce Devlin, the last amateur before Baddeley
to win the Australian Open, in 1960, and now a commentator on American television,
has lobbied the Augusta committee on the teenager's behalf.
It could be the first week
in January before Baddeley knows if he has received an invitation to play Augusta
in April.
The highlight of his early
season in Australia will be the clash with Spanish teenager Sergio Garcia in
the Australian Masters at Huntingdale next February.
Baddeley became the youngest
Australian Open champion when he kept at bay a field including Greg Norman, Colin
Montgomerie and Nick Faldo at Royal Sydney last month.
He then played in the Players'
Championship at Royal Queensland, where he shot a creditable six under to finish
in a tie for 19th. He declined an invitation for the Australian PGA Championship
and joined the Coolum Classic last week as a member of an amateur team in the
pro-am format.
For the past two days he
has been one of the main drawcards at the Jack Newton Celebrity Classic at the
Peter Thomson-designed Twin Waters layout on the Sunshine Coast.
