Global tour winners Ryan Peake, Haydn Barron, Curtis Luck, Connor McKinney and Hayden Hopewell have all been confirmed in the field for next week’s WA Open.
The popular local golfers will tee it up at the 102nd staging of the WA Open, which runs from October 15-18 at Secret Harbour Golf Links.
Peake, Barron, McKinney and Hopewell are all returning to WA from Europe, while former PGA Tour ace Luck continues his comeback from career-threatening injuries.
They join a stacked field with a strong WA contingent that also includes two-time Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia winner Jordan Doull; six-time European Tour winner Brett Rumford; and past WA Open champions Braden Becker and Daniel Fox.
Peake is a significant draw card given his prominent global status. The left-hander won the New Zealand Open in March 2025, earning a spot in The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, where he played with Phil Mickelson for the opening two rounds.
His high finish in the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Order of Merit for 2025 saw him earn playing rights on the DP World Tour this year, where he has just concluded his rookie season.
Ryan Peake shot to global prominence after his thrilling New Zealand Open win in 2025
Also returning to home soil after a rookie year on the DP World Tour is McKinney, the Joondalup Country Club product who won his breakthrough tour title at Webex Players Series Perth in January.
McKinney, 24, earned his DP World Tour status at Q-School last November and has a previous best finish of T2nd at the WA Open, achieved at his home club in 2023.
Barron and Hopewell, meanwhile, return to compete at Secret Harbour from the European HotelPlanner Tour.
Big-hitting Barron has enjoyed a strong year on Europe’s second tier circuit, racking up four top 10 finishes, including one at last weekend’s Abu Dhabi Challenge. Closer to home, he also achieved a first tour title of at Webex Players Series Murray River in February of this year.
Barron’s best finish at a WA Open came in 2020, when he finished 2nd – just a stroke behind fellow amateur Hopewell, who was in the middle of a hot streak in his home state open.
WA’s Haydn Barron has shown strong form on the European HotelPlanner Tour in 2026
Between 2019-2021, Royal Fremantle’s Hopewell didn’t finish lower than 2nd in the WA Open, with winner and runner-up finishes at his home club in 2020-21 following on from his runner-up finish at Cottesloe in 2019.
Another amateur to enjoy WA Open glory was Curtis Luck, who scored a two-stroke victory in the 2016 championship at The Western Australian Golf Club.
Luck went on to be a winner on the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as spending a season on the PGA Tour before a serious shoulder injury threatened to derail his career.
Now back to full fitness after playing a sporadic schedule on the PGA Tour of Australasia over the past two seasons, Luck is a perennial contender in domestic tour events and will be amongst the favourites at Secret Harbour.
Speaking ahead of this week’s WA PGA Championship in Kalgoorlie, Kim Felton, Tour Development Manager for the PGA of Australia – and a three-time WA Open champion himself – welcomed news of the quintet’s return.
“It’s great to see these players returning to support our Tour and helping showcase the strength and momentum of professional golf in Australia,” he said.
“The fields we’ve assembled across the two WA events are among the strongest we’ve seen in recent years. The WA PGA and WA Open will provide a brilliant start to the Aussie Summer of Golf and golfing fans should be very excited to watch.”
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.
