Aaron John Baddeley (born 17 March 1981) is an
American-
Australian professional
golfer. He was born in
Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA and now plays on the U.S.-based
PGA Tour, has joint U.S. and Australian citizenship and was raised in Australia from the age of two. He represents Australia in professional golf.
When he was in his late teens, Baddeley was seen as one of the most promising talents in world golf. He was the youngest player ever to represent Australia in the
Eisenhower Trophy and he won the
Holden Australian Open as an amateur in 1999 and retained his title in 2000, by which time he had turned professional. In 2001, he won the
Greg Norman Holden International in Australia. He won the
PGA Tour of Australasia's Order of Merit in 2000/01. However of the following few years he came to be overshadowed by his Australian contemporary
Adam Scott, who is less than a year older than Baddeley but reached the
world top 10 in 2005.
In 2002, Baddeley played on the second tier
Nationwide Tour in the U.S. and placed tenth on the money list to earn a PGA Tour card for 2003. He had second place finishes on the PGA Tour in 2003 at the
Sony Open in Hawaii and 2004 at the
Chrysler Classic of Tucson. However he struggled for consistency, and after a solid rookie season, when he finished 73rd on the money list, he only just retained his card in 2004, when he came 124th. In 2005 he moved back up the rankings to 78th and in 2006 he won his first PGA Tour title at the
Verizon Heritage.
Baddeley won his second PGA Tour tournament in early 2007 and reached the top 50 of the world rankings. By September, he had entered the top 20.
Baddeley was the leader after the third round of the
U.S. Open at
Oakmont Country Club on 16 June 2007 with a two over par score of 212 (72-70-70). He finished with an 80 and ended T-13.
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