Sebastian García leads the Australian PGA Championship, but storm halts play
The adverse weather in Brisbane halted Sebastian García’s progress at the Australian PGA Championship, after local stars performed well in the opening round. The Spanish golfer, in excellent form, topped the leaderboard on Thursday, with seven under par after 15 holes, with a three-stroke lead before organizers suspended play due to thunderstorms. The spectators were asked to leave the field, anticipating the suspension of the game due to the heavy rain falling. García arrived after a victory in China and two top-five finishes in his last five participations. With two par-5s to play, a lower score was possible when the round resumed. However, the course record, a 63 under par, could not be reached due to the course conditions.
Sebastian Garcia. Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images
New Zealander Ryan Fox, China’s Wenyi Ding, Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, and Anthony Quayle, who had Steve Williams as a caddie, shared the lead at the club with four under par (67). Adam Scott, who bogeyed the last hole, and Min Woo Lee were one stroke behind after their rounds of 68. Cameron Smith, three-time winner, holed a long birdie putt on his final hole to finish two-under par, as did defending champion Elvis Smylie. Marc Leishman and Cam Davis were among the afternoon players who were stranded at two under par with holes to play. There were also two holes-in-one, including Kazuma Kobori’s on the 17th hole and Daniel Gale’s, who won a BMW valued at almost $300,000 with his effort on the 11th hole. Smith revealed the hard work he has done to recover his short game. Smith, a three-time champion and former world No. 2, without a title in more than two years, began his Thursday round at 2:45 a.m. and signed a card of 69 strokes, two under par, to start the $2.5 million event. Smith’s sensational putting and chipping game shone when he won The Open in 2022, but the Queenslander, the only one to miss all four major cuts this year, has been searching for that magic ever since. On Thursday he made 10 one-putts and 26 in total, and he thought that the hard work he had done since returning to Brisbane might be paying off. “I made a lot of good six-to-eight-foot putts, but I didn’t make anything outside of that all day, so it was good to see that one go in,” he said about his birdie on the ninth hole. “I had a day off and didn’t hit many balls. I’ve been doing a lot of chipping and putting, trying to get back to that part of my game, feeling comfortable with it, and it definitely showed today.” Lee’s approach to the final hole hit the pin, forcing him to settle for par. Scott, a two-time winner of the event before it returned to Royal Queensland in Brisbane five years ago, bogeyed his holes 1 and 18. Lee, winner in 2023, lamented having “a good problem” when his precision approach hit the flag, while Scott indicated that his consistent approach would be the mode of operation heading into the weekend. “It’s a difficult course to make a lot of putts unless you’re putting it close all the time,” said Scott, who is seeking his first 72-hole victory since February 2020, about his childhood club. “Once you get away from the hole, the grain changes, breaks, there is a lot of movement. It’s important not to get frustrated.”
