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.
He 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.
He was the leader after the third round of the 107th
U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on June 16th, 2007
with a two over par score of 212 (72-70-70). He
finished with an 80 and ended T-13.
