Stuart Appleby

Appleby was born in Cohuna, Victoria, and grew up on a nearby dairy farm. 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.^[3]

Appleby turned professional in 1992 and began his career on the PGA Tour of Australasia. 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 following year by finishing the season fifth on the money list.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

In 2010, 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,^[6] and won the PGA Tour Comeback Player of the Year award.^[7]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 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.

Appleby's first wife Renay was struck and killed by a taxicab outside London Waterloo station in 1998,^[8][9][10] shortly after he had missed the cut at The Open Championship.

Appleby married his second wife, Ashley Saleet, in 2002, and they live with their four children in Orlando, Florida. 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.^[11] In his spare time, Appleby enjoys motor racing.^[3] He is the ambassador for Golf Australia's Crown Lager Social Golf Club^[12] and patron for Stuart Appleby Junior Golf.

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	16 Mar 1997	Honda Classic	68-68-67-71=274	−14	1 stroke	Michael Bradley, Payne Stewart
2	7 Jun 1998	Kemper Open	70-63-69-72=274	−10	1 stroke	Scott Hoch
3	2 May 1999	Shell Houston Open	70-68-70-71=279	−9	1 stroke	John Cook, Hal Sutton
4	12 Oct 2003	Las Vegas Invitational	62-68-63-66-69=328	−31	Playoff	Scott McCarron
5	11 Jan 2004	Mercedes Championships	66-67-66-71=270	−22	1 stroke	Vijay Singh
6	9 Jan 2005	Mercedes Championships (2)	74-64-66-67=271	−21	1 stroke	Jonathan Kaye
7	8 Jan 2006	Mercedes Championships (3)	71-72-70-71=284	−8	Playoff	Vijay Singh
8	23 Apr 2006	Shell Houston Open (2)	66-67-69-67=269	−19	6 strokes	Bob Estes
9	1 Aug 2010	Greenbrier Classic	66-68-65-59=258	−22	1 stroke	Jeff Overton

PGA Tour playoff record (2–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	2002	The Open Championship	Steve Elkington, Ernie Els, Thomas Levet	Els won with par on first extra hole after four-hole aggregate playoff; Els: E (4-3-5-4=16), Levet: E (4-2-5-5=16), Appleby: +1 (4-3-5-5=17), Elkington: +1 (5-3-4-5=17)
2	2003	Las Vegas Invitational	Scott McCarron	Won with birdie on first extra hole
3	2006	Mercedes Championships	Vijay Singh	Won with birdie on first extra hole

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner-up
1	20 Dec 1998	Schweppes Coolum Classic	68-67-67-69=271	−17	4 strokes	Craig Spence
2	25 Nov 2001 (2002 season)	Holden Australian Open	69-70-67-65=271	−17	3 strokes	Scott Laycock
3	14 Nov 2010	JBWere Masters	71-69-69-65=274	−10	1 stroke	Adam Bland

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runner(s)-up
1	19 Mar 1995	Nike Monterrey Open	68-70-67-68=273	−15	Playoff	Rafael Alarcón
2	1 Oct 1995	Nike Sonoma County Open	69-69-65-66=269	−19	4 strokes	Bobby Collins, Joe Durant, Jerry Kelly

Nike Tour playoff record (1–1)

No.	Year	Tournament	Opponent(s)	Result
1	1995	Nike Monterrey Open	Rafael Alarcón	Won with birdie on seventh extra hole
2	1995	Nike Ozarks Open	P. H. Horgan III, Mike Schuchart	Schuchart won with birdie on second extra hole

• 1991 Queensland Open (as an amateur)
• 1994 Victorian PGA Championship, Tasmanian Classic, South Australian PGA Championship, Nedlands Masters

No.	Date	Tournament	Winning score	To par	Margin of victory	Runners-up
1	3 Aug 1999	CVS Charity Classic (with Jeff Sluman)	63-59=122	−20	2 strokes	Brett Quigley and Dana Quigley

CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied

• Most consecutive cuts made – 6 (2007 PGA – 2009 Masters)
• Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (four times)

CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place

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.^[13]

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
• Alfred Dunhill Cup (representing Australia): 1997, 1998
• Presidents Cup (International Team): 1998 (winners), 2000, 2003 (tie), 2005, 2007

• 1995 Nike Tour graduates
• 1996 PGA Tour Qualifying School graduates
• Lowest rounds of golf

• Official website
• Stuart Appleby at the PGA Tour of Australasia official site
• Stuart Appleby at the PGA Tour official site
• Stuart Appleby at the Official World Golf Ranking official site