The debate over professionals playing in amateur golf tournaments is heating up again, and two well-known voices in Australian golf have some strong opinions about the rule.
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On the September 9, 2026, episode of the Talk Birdie To Me podcast, hosts Nick O’Hern, a former world No. 16, and Mark Allen spoke strongly against professionals playing in amateur Pennant golf in Victoria. Allen held golf course architect Mike Clayton responsible for the policy. He said Clayton had convinced the Victorian Golf Association to allow professionals to play Pennant years ago.
“It was the stupidest idea ever,” Allen said. “It was a dumb, stupid idea and it’s got to be changed immediately so it doesn’t happen anymore.”
Allen said the selling point at the time was that big names would draw sizeable crowds. He cited the example of former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy returning to play Pennant.
“Jeff Ogilvy will come back and play Pennant,” Allen said, recounting how the Victorian Golf Association had pitched the idea to him. “He was talking about getting big crowds and all this kind of stuff. It was just a ridiculous concept.”
Allen didn’t buy it then, and he’s not buying it now. He said he now cringes whenever he sees a professional playing Pennant, whether for his own club or another club.
O’Hern said that someone had approached him about playing in this kind of arrangement when he returned to Australia. He declined, but offered an alternative.
“I said, look, no thank you, but if you want, I’m happy to talk to the pennant teams and sort of help out where I can. And that’s kind of what I did for a couple of years.”
The two hosts also said the problem is not just about Pennant. Allen pointed out that some clubs, like Peninsula Kingswood, have taken a different approach. They have a separate club championship for professionals rather than putting them in the main amateur competition. Allen said this was a much more reasonable way to handle it.
For both hosts, the bigger problem is that some lesser-known professionals are now quietly getting spots on pennant teams across Victoria. This means real club members, including young players who have worked hard to earn their place, are missing out on the chance to compete.
Clayton shared his side of the argument in the Golf Society of Australia’s newsletter back in December 2014. He believes allowing professionals to play Pennant was a natural change for the competition. He said better players had always taken spots away from weaker players, and that was just how competition worked. Clayton also felt young amateurs could learn a lot by playing alongside experienced professionals.
Clayton argued that young players like Ryan Ruffels, Todd Sinnott, and Lucas Herbert could only benefit from playing against a U.S. Open champion in a Pennant match. In his view, it could be a great learning experience for them.
By 2018, Clayton was still defending the decision in Golf Victoria magazine. He argued that leaving professionals out of club competitions was unfair and that golf was simply moving into a more modern era.
But Allen now sees things differently. Based on what he said, he feels the years since then have shown that Clayton’s idea did not work as expected. Allen believes the bigger crowds never came, and the benefits Clayton promised young players never materialized the way Clayton had argued they would.
Instead, Allen believes many lesser-known professionals are now taking Pennant spots away from junior club members who have worked hard to earn them. In simple terms, he said there are now so many professionals playing that fans may not even know who they are, while junior club members are being left out.
For anyone outside Victoria, Pennant golf is basically the state’s biggest interclub competition. It is also one of the oldest competitions of its kind in the world, going back to 1899. Clubs select their best players for distinct divisions, and those teams face other clubs in match play across Melbourne and nearby areas.
Pennant has also been an important stepping stone for some of Australia’s best amateur golfers. Players like Geoff Ogilvy, Marc Leishman, and Aaron Baddeley came through the Victorian amateur system before becoming professionals. The competition has always been strongest when clubs put their best genuine amateur members in the team, especially players who have earned their place after years of playing club golf.
Under current rules, professionals who meet certain criteria can regain their amateur status, making them eligible to play in amateur events including the Pennant. And that is exactly what O’Hern and Allen are questioning. Their point is simple: just because the rules allow something does not mean it is the right thing to do.