Defending champion Ollie Bekker leads the WA Open after an eventful opening day at Secret Harbour Golf Links.
The South African (pictured above), who resides in Perth’s northern suburbs, fired a bogey-free, seven-under-par 65 in calm, afternoon conditions to establish a one-stroke lead over Victorian Todd Sinnott.
Something of a shock winner of the 2025 WA Open at Mount Lawley, Bekker has since relocated his family to Perth and has played enough rounds at Secret Harbour to know how to build a score.
“It’s funny, not really being Australian and having local knowledge, but yeah, it definitely helps,” said Bekker.
“I enjoy the golf course. I think it’s a golf course where you’ve got to position yourself well from the tee box, which I did today. Then you can give yourself quite a few opportunities if you’ve managed to hit the good tee shots.”
Should Bekker go on to defend his title he would become the first player since West Australian icon Terry Gale went back-to-back at the WA Open in 1982-83.
WA quintet well placed
An intriguing day’s play commenced at 7am in sheeting rain, with a persistent, cold easterly breeze causing the early starters some difficulties after fine weather earlier in the week.
Out early, and playing in some of the day’s worst weather, Curtis Luck and amateur Josiah Edwards put in spirited showings to card three-under-par 69s to end the day in a share of 7th.
They were joined late in the day by Jordan Doull, Hayden Hopewell and Jordan Jung, the latter making his professional debut after coming through WA Open Pre-Qualifying as an amateur on Monday.
Jung’s rollercoaster round featured eight birdies, a bogey and a quadruple-bogey on the par-four 14th.
Earlier, Royal Perth amateur Edwards looked like being the story of the day as he raced to five-under-par through nine holes to hit the top of the leaderboard.
Josiah Edwards made a flying start to the WA Open with five birdies in his opening nine holes
Starting on the 10th, Edwards didn’t put a foot wrong, reaching the turn in just 31 strokes thanks to five birdies and no bogeys.
He found the going tougher on his back nine but scrambled well to limit the damage to just two dropped strokes.
“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with that, it’s a good first round,” Edwards told GolfWA.
“Three under is not amazing, but it’s not the worst. I know I can go low, and there’s hopefully three more days’ worth of golf to do that.”
Elsewhere amongst the WA contingent, Scott Barr, Haydn Barron, Ollie Marsh, Joe Owen, Adam Brady and Jarryd Felton all matched or beat par – Felton aided by the reassuring presence of Major-winning wife Hannah Green on the bag.
View the full leaderboard here.
The 2026 WA Open takes place at Secret Harbour from October 15-18. Entry is free for spectators all week. Find out full details of the event here.
