Garcia trails at Australian PGA
Print Edition
Sergio Garcia withstood two rain delays and his earliest career starting time for a 5-under-par 67 and was a stroke behind the leaders at the Australian PGA Championship.
Adam Bland, who bogeyed his final hole, and fellow Australian Jordan Zunic, who chipped in for eagle on his last, shared the first-round lead yesterday after afternoon starts.
“I think we definitely had the better side of the draw today,” Bland said after his 66. “The conditions were perfect. The greens were soft so we could attack.”
Garcia was in a five-way tie for third with Australians Marc Leishman, Peter Senior, Daniel Nisbet and Michael Wright.
Masters champion Garcia, starting on the 10th hole at 6:10am at Royal Pines on Gold Coast and in a group with Adam Scott, had three birdies over his final seven holes. “Other than a couple of times where it poured down on us, it was a fun day,” the Spaniard said. “In a tournament I think probably the earliest I’ve teed off ... I want to say it was the closest I’ve had a dinner and a breakfast, ever.”
Scott, playing with a long-handled putter, was 1 over through 16 holes before birdieing his final two for a 71. Scott used a broomstick putter when he won the Masters in 2013, but switched to a short putter after a ban on anchoring the putter against the body began in 2016.
“A good start and a good finish, mixed bag in the middle,” said Scott, who was 2 under after three holes. “Some positive signs toward the end ... didn’t let Sergio get too far ahead. I had a couple of putts that I would have liked to make from 15 feet or so that just slipped by.”
Garcia said he wasn’t aware that Scott had returned to the longer putter until just before the round began.
“I looked at him throughout the whole day and you could see that he was making sure that he had it away from his chest,” Garcia said. “But we know Scotty’s a great gentleman, he’s a great boy and he’s never going to do anything that shouldn’t be done.”
Defending champion Harold Varner III of the United States shot 71, while Mike Weir of Canada, the 2003 Masters champion, had a 73.
In Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province, Asian Tour rookie William Harrold of England exploded into life in the first round of the Asian Golf Championship by shooting a course-record 8-under 64 to lead by four shots yesterday.
The 29-year-old Harrold, who came through the Qualifying School earlier in January, signed for a bogey-free round highlighted by eight birdies at the Kaikou Golf Club’s West course.
Thai hotshot Namchok Tantipokhakul fired five birdies against a bogey to sit second at the US$350,000 tournament, which marked the first event sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the Chinese Golf Association in China since 2008.
Seven players, including local prospects Liu Yanwei and Ye Jianfeng, shared third place following rounds of 69.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
