Down Under Cream Rises To Top At Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.

2 years ago by Comments Off on Down Under Cream Rises To Top At Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.

The cream of Australian golf is clearly rising to the surface ‘Down Under’ at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane.

Perth-born Min Woo Lee, and one of game’s newest 2024 PGA Tour members, heads the field into Saturday’s tradition ‘moving day’ posting a second round five-under 66 to move to 12-under-par on the famed Royal Queensland course.

Double Australian PGA Championship winner Adam Scott signed for a bogey-free six-under 65 to just one back at 11-under.

And Victorian Lucas Herbert, a three-time DP World Tour champion and also a winner on the PGA Tour, signed for a 68 to be only four adrift of the lead.

Lee, 25, and earlier the week celebrating his doulbe major winning sister Minji being again honoured with the annual Greg Norman medal as the being performed Australian-born golfer of 2023, is himself a double DP World Tour winner while earlier this year he was sixth at the Players Championship and went one place better in the US Open.

While just a few weeks ago, Lee won on the Asian Tour with success at the Macua Open, and amazingly just a week prior to his sister winning in Japan.

One of Lee’s two DP World Tour victories was a first pro careeer success at the ISPS Handa Vic Open.

Lee’s second round included six birdies and just the one bogey.

“I hit a couple bad swings on the last three holes, but overall, really happy with the way I went,” Lee reflected after his round.

“Very solid and kept doing the right things. Today was a bit more shaky than yesterday, but felt like I’ve made up and down when I needed to.

“Yeah, again, you’ve got to be smart and aggressive when you can. So this course, sometimes it does make you play a bit more aggressive and that’s where it bites you. So it’s a course where you just have to play with your brain and just attack the pin from the right spots”.

Also adding Lee’s confidence of past results is his current form, recently capping off an impressive season with a tied 15th in last week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship to end the 2023 season in tenth place on the Race to Dubai Rankings.

Now poised at the top heading into the weekend, Lee will tee-up along Scott, who posted a six under par 65 to move to within one stroke of the lead.

“Yeah, every time I’m with Scotty, it’s good times and yeah, I’m, I’m going to be looking at his swing all day and chatting away, but yeah, he’s a good bloke and hopefully I can play some good rounds to finish”, Lee said.

Scott, who joined the host Royal Queensland club as an 11-year-old, will be seeking a third Joe Kirkwood trophy having first won the Australian PGA in 2013, and in the same year he won the Masters, and then a second in 2019.

Big disappointment was the showing on hometown hero and three-time event champ, Cam Smith crashing out of the event with scores of 73 and 78, and recording just two birdies, one each day of his two rounds.

 



Comments are closed.