Cameron Smith’s bid for a third successive Australian PGA Championship title got off to a rocky start yesterday as the double-defending champion slumped to a two-over 74 at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.
The world No. 53 will start the second round seven strokes adrift of compatriots Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin, who each opened with five-under-par 67s to lead the A$1.5mn ($1.02mn) event co-sanctioned by the European Tour.
Smith, who started on the 10th hole, plunged down the leaderboard in a horror run of three holes with a double-bogey on the second and back-to-back bogeys at the third and fourth.
Smith said fatigue had played a part in his poor round after a big week at the Presidents Cup where he was a member of the International team that lost to the United States at Royal Melbourne on Sunday.
“I’m just tired,” he told reporters.
“Just a long couple of weeks and it was as easy as it’s going to get out there this morning, so it was pretty disappointing to shoot what I shot.”
SCORE
67- Lucas Herbert, Brett Rankin
68- Nick Cullen, Ryan Chisnall (NZL), Travis Smyth, Min Woo Lee, Wade Ormsby
69- Ryan Fox (NZL), Nick Voke (NZL), David Smail (NZL), Andrew Dodt, Michael Wright, Harry Bateman (NZL), Jason Norris
70- Michael Hendry (NZL), Anthony Quayle, Damien Perrier (FRA), Aaron Cockerill (CAN), Kade McBride, Yuan Yechun (CHN), Stephen Allan, Jordan Mullaney, Samuel Eaves, Adam Scott, Stewart Cink (USA), Johannes Veerman (USA), Jack Senior (ENG), Calum Hill (SCO), Terry Pilkadaris
71- Steven Jeffress, Cameron Champ (USA), Brad Kennedy, Dale Whitnell (ENG), Zach Murray, Sam Brazel, Ben Eccles, Gavin Fairfax, Justin Warren, Rhein Gibson, Richard Green, Bryce Easton (RSA)
from Gulf Times https://ift.tt/2S8Y0rT
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