The Adelaide-born pair of Adam Scott and Wade Ormsby have much more in common than sharing the lead midway through the second round of the Australian PGA Championship being staged on the RACV Royal Pines Resort course on the Gold Coast.
Scott and Ormsby are tied at 7-under par with Scott backing-up his opening score of 70 with a 5-under par 67 on Friday’s ‘Yellow Day’ and with Ormsby adding a 69 to his Thursday 68 in the group immediately behind.
Their fathers, Phil Scott and Peter Ormsby, are both long-time PGA Professionals and the pair have been playing with and against each other since their early teens.
Five years ago Ormsby was staying at Scott’s Sanctuary Cove home for the Australian PGA week but the visit was short-lived after missing the cut leaving Scott and Great Chalmers who fought it out over a marathon seven-hole playoff and with Chalmers coming out in front.
Adam Scott again has long-time good friend, Wade Ormsby as a house guest for this week’s Australian PGA Championship. (Photo @PGAofAustralia)
“We drove to the course a couple of times that week so it was fun to have Wade around,” Scott said of hosting Ormsby in 2014.
“He has also stayed in my place in Europe a bunch.
“The great thing with Wade he is neatest, tidiest bloke there is so he’s always welcome to stay at my place because he cleans the joint up.”
Ormsby and Scott last played together at Royal Pines two years ago alongside Spanish superstar Sergio Garcia, Ormsby coming off a breakthrough win the week prior at the Hong Kong Open.
A second European Tour title eluded the South Australian in February when a double-bogey at the par-3 17th cost him the Vic Open title but rather than dwell on it concentrated on putting himself in contention more regularly.
Round 2 of the #AusPGA is well and truly underway.
And it’s Yellow Day!
Golf’s biggest stars, including @AdamScott, have decked out in yellow for Challenge. pic.twitter.com/TPPitBdtP1
— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) December 19, 2019
“You just try to get on with it straightaway and take the positives from it,” said the 39-year Ormsby who broke through two years ago to capture the 2017 UBS Hong Kong Open and his first win on the European Tour.
“The start of last year I was just trying to get myself in contention a lot more. Made a few changes in the golf swing. That was the main reason I did the changes, to get myself in the hunt more and I’ve clearly done that in the last 12 months.
“Haven’t converted them yet for wins but just got to keep on putting yourself in the hunt and that’s what I’ve done the last 12 months.”
When he rolled in a birdie putt from 12 feet at the 18th hole – his ninth of the day – Ormsby had moved out to 8-under and a three-shot buffer.
His first bogey of the week came when a birdie putt at the par-3 third slipped five feet past, a tee shot that leaked right on the short par-4 sixth leading to a second dropped shot and a share of the lead with Scott at 6-under.
A second consecutive eagle at the par-5 15th kick-started Scott’s round, three birdies in the final four holes giving him the perfect platform from which to build over the closing two rounds.
“I pulled a 7-iron somewhere that I didn’t like very much and made a bogey but other than that I think I pretty much hit 16 greens today, so it was fairly stress free,” Scott said, his lone bogey coming at the par-4 fourth when he missed the green left.
“I played fairly defensive into the greens because I thought the pins were actually a little more tucked today and to get it really close you must risk hitting it down some of the big runoffs off these greens.
“I didn’t really want to do that too much and I played safe. I rolled a lot of nice putts. A lot went by the edge, but I made a couple as well.”
The other big mover of the morning was South African Bryce Easton, who had five birdies and the lone bogey at the 17th in a round of 68 to move to 5-under and a share of third.
- Thanks to PGA of Australia
