Pro Wins $300k Car But Fans Miss Out On $1 Million As It Rains Holes-In-One At The Australian PGA
The first round of the BMW Australian PGA Championship may have been shortened due to lightning, but before that it was raining holes-in-one in Queensland.
Both Daniel Gale and Kazuma Kobori hit holes-in-one at Royal Queensland Golf Club, but not all aces are the same as Gale’s effort at the 11th won him the keys to a new BMW M5 Touring worth around $300,000 ($200,000 USD).
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Spaniard Sebastian Garcia led the way on seven under after 15 holes when play was suspended for the day – with Gale in behind and a host of big names in the chasing pack.
The two holes-in-one dominated the day’s headlines though, with Gale reflecting on his 8-iron from 169 yards that resulted in him being able to pick up the keys to a brand new car.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet in all honesty,” said Australian Gale. “The hole-in-one’s great – I guess it helps relax me a lot because it’s quite a nice prize – but I’ve got a job to do this week and my focus doesn’t change.”
Kobori just knocked down a wedge from 129 yards and also found the bottom of the cup – with his hole-in-one actually being the first of the day.
Should someone pull that off at the Party Hole during the $1m event on Saturday, though, there’ll be some scenes at Royal Queensland.
Early starts for Aussie stars
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The home fans always love to see their Australian golfing heroes playing on home soil, but they had to arrive early to catch the likes of Min Woo Lee, Adam Scott and Cameron Smith – with all three having early tee times.
That meant getting up at 2:45am for Smith, who was not too happy with the early start despite going on to shoot 69.
“Oh geez. Not getting up at 2:45, I can tell you that much,” said Smith when asked what was the best thing about playing on home soil. “That was crazy.”
“It happens every year, but I think just being at home, I don’t think it’s got anything to do with playing golf.
Lee branded it “annoying” while veteran Scott cut his prep time down to get some extra minutes in bed.
“Yeah, I gave myself an extra 30 minutes this morning, 3:30 sounded reasonable. I guess,” Scott said.
“That’s pretty wild getting up that early to play golf. The good bit is you get kind of nine holes in fairly cool weather and now I can go and have a second breakfast.”
Tiger’s former caddie back in action
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With Tiger Woods’ legendary caddie Steve Williams on his bag, it was a sound start of 69 for Australian Anthony Quayle in his first tournament now a full-time on the DP World Tour.
“He’s probably the most positive and clear caddie that I’ve ever worked with,” Quayle said.
“He probably has a reputation for being quite intense, but my experience today wasn’t that at all.
“It was just very direct; this is what we need to do here. You think you can do it? Yep, let’s do it then. There was no room at all for any sort of doubt at any point.”
