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A two-round total of 16-under par has seen Deyen Lawson defend his Border Open title by five strokes at cluBarham Golf and Sports Club in Barham.
A winner of the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series event in Deniliquin earlier in the week and runner-up to Aaron Wilkin at the recent Asian Development Tour in Vietnam, Lawson gave no one else a look in as he claimed the 66th edition of the Border Open.
A round of 9-under 64 on day one gave the Gold Coast-based Victorian a three-stroke lead heading into Round 2, matching the best score of the day with a 7-under 66 to win by five from rookie Nathan Page (66).
Lawson’s lone bogey of the tournament at the par-3 12th on Sunday briefly gave the chasing pack hope but he closed out a commanding title defence with three straight birdies from the 14th hole.
“To make three in a row when they were starting to push was really solid,” said Lawson.
“I hit a couple of good wedge shots into a foot and a couple of feet, which is one of the things I’ve been working hard on.
“I knew if I just kept playing solid and hit a couple of good wedge shots then I would be OK.”
With his WA Open championship defence less than a month away, Lawson is seeing the hard work he has done with coach Darrell Brown transfer to low scores and good results.
“That’s the thing with golf, when you do put the hard work in it doesn’t necessarily translate into results so it feels really good to go back-to-back,” he said.
“I’m more focused on the process more than anything. But obviously when you get good scores and results it makes the hard work worth it.”
Adding to the opportunity to shoot low scores, Lawson praised the presentation of the golf courses in both Deniliquin and Barham for rewarding good play.
“The condition of the courses is really good so you tend to score well if you play well,” he added.
“There are some really gettable par 5s so if you can get it going you can go quite low.”
The adidas PGA Pro-Am Series completes its Murray River run with the inaugural Murray Bridge Pro-Am over two days, starting Thursday.
Brad Burns had to wrangle a troublesome putter and a fast-finishing Scott Barr to complete a wire-to-wire win at the $80,000 Port Moresby Legends Classic in Papua New Guinea.
A six-stroke leader at the start of the final round, all signs pointed towards a Burns procession at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.
A former four-time winner of the PGA Legends Tour Order of Merit, Burns discovered early that he would not have things all his own way.
After missing the PNG Senior Open a week prior, Barr applied pressure from the outset.
Two three-putts on the front nine kept Burns in check as Barr found birdies easy to come by but it was at the 14th hole where the tournament was almost turned on its head.
Barr’s chip-in moved him to 5-under on his round and when Burns three-putted again, the two-shot swing reduced the lead to just one.
A timely birdie at the par-5 15th increased Burns’s buffer and when Barr found the creek with his tee shot on 18, the winner was effectively decided.
“I just lagged the last putt up as close as I could so I wouldn’t three-putt again,” said Burns, whose 1-over 73 final round and 6-under total was enough for a three-stroke win.
“I’m over the moon.”
Tied for third at the PNG Senior Open a week ago, the win moves Burns ahead of Andre Stolz on the Order of Merit as he admitted to feeling the pressure of being the hunted on Sunday.
“I was a bit nervous actually,” Burns conceded.
“I had three three-putts on the day so I didn’t putt very well but Scotty has had a couple of chip-ins.
“He was 5-under after 14 and playing great but just wobbled a little bit coming home.”
Barr’s 2-under 70 was equal to the best of the day and secured outright second, four shots clear of Grahame Stinson (74) in third with Stolz (72), Murray Lott (74) and Brendan Chant (74) all tied for fourth.
The PGA Legends Tour returns to Australian shores this week for the inaugural Watson Leisure Centre Legends Classic at Coffs Harbour Golf Club on Friday.
Minjee Lee gave it her best guess and then played a brilliant approach at the second playoff hole to clinch the Kroger Queen City LPGA Championship in Cincinnati.
Leading by two at the start of the final round, Lee (71) saw a five-stroke lead evaporate under a back-nine charge by England’s Charley Hull (69), Lee having to hole a clutch par putt from five feet at the 72nd hole to extend the tournament to a playoff.
Hull very nearly holed an improbable birdie putt from beside the grandstands at the back of the green at the first playoff hole at Kenwood Country Club, Lee two-putting for a matching par to book a second additional trip down 18.
Lee and Hull both found the left rough with their tee shots and after Hull played her approach to just outside 10 feet to the right of the hole, Lee went to work.
Given the firmness of the fairway and the putting surface, the 27-year-old played a pitching wedge from 145 metres that skipped up, rolled out and came to rest just two feet from the hole.
“I had like 145 metres to the pin, but you have to land it like 25 yards short of the green because I was also coming out of the rough,” Lee explained in her winner’s press conference.
“You can’t really predict how far it’s going to run so it was just a guesstimate.
“I just was like, Oh, it’s probably going to run this much, so I just need to put it on a good line and it’ll probably just roll up there.
“It was just really trusting that it was going to come out the way I thought it was going to come out and that it was going to roll all the way to the pin.”
Chasing a ninth LPGA Tour title, Lee extended her advantage with birdies at the second, seventh and eighth holes on Sunday.
Her two at the par-3 eighth put her four strokes clear, a lead that would balloon to five with just eight holes to play.
A double-bogey at the par-5 12th gave Hull a sliver of hope, hope that she converted into a share of the lead with three straight birdies from the 14th hole.
Lee was unable to find the final birdie she needed to separate herself again but stayed in the fight long enough to earn a fifth career playoff appearance.
“After that putt (at the 72nd hole) I just told myself, Let’s go and win this one,” said Lee, who lost a playoff to Jin Young Ko at the Cognizant Founders Cup earlier in the season and is now 2-3 in playoffs in her career.
“Obviously at Founders with Jin Young, that playoff didn’t go my way so this one I really wanted to make it go my way.”
Queenslander Anthony Quayle narrowly missed out on the playoff needed to decide the winner at the Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea.
Tri-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour, Asian Tour and Korean PGA Tour, Quayle was one back at the start of the final round but was never able to bridge the gap.
A wayward second shot that forced Quayle (69) to take a drop led to a bogey at the par-5 13th yet the 29-year-old continued to push.
A superb approach from the rough at the par-4 15th went unrewarded, a closing birdie at the par-5 18th bringing Quayle up into a tie for third and two shots out of the playoff won by Guntaek Koh (68).
Kiwi Ryan Fox and Min Woo Lee both finished inside the top 10 at the Horizon Irish Open on the DP World Tour, Richard Green fired a Sunday 65 to finish tied for eighth at the Ascension Charity Classic on the Champions Tour and Amy Walsh and Kelsey Bennett logged top-10s at the LET Access Series Rose Ladies Open in England.
Results
LPGA Tour
Kroger Queen City Championship
Kenwood Country Club (Kendale Cse), Cincinnati, Ohio
1 Minjee Lee 67-69-65-71—272 $US300,000
T36 Gabriela Ruffels 69-69-74-72—284 $11,262
T41 Stephanie Kyriacou 71-72-73-69—285 $8,681
T41 Lydia Ko (NZ) 68-73-72-72—285 $8,681
T55 Sarah Kemp 72-71-73-71—287 $5,571
MC Grace Kim 71-75—146
MC Karis Davidson 77-71—148
MC Su Oh 76-75—151
DP World Tour
Horizon Irish Open
The K Club, Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland
1 Vincent Norrman 68-71-70-65—274 €951,046.98
T3 Ryan Fox (NZ) 71-69-66-70—276 €266,293.15
T7 Min Woo Lee 71-67-69-70—277 €129,566.17
T12 Daniel Hillier (NZ) 68-71-70-69—278 €88,531.29
T54 Jason Scrivener 69-68-76-71—284 €17,902.06
MC Adam Scott 73-70—143
Japan Golf Tour/Asian Tour/Korean PGA
Shinhan Donghae Open
Sky72 Country Club (Ocean Cse), Incheon, South Korea
1 Guntaek Koh 69-66-66-68—269 $US188,666.67
Won in sudden death playoff
T3 Anthony Quayle 65-70-67-69—271 $53,234.57
T19 Travis Smyth 70-69-67-69—275 $11,502.47
T25 Zach Murray 70-68-68-70—276 $9,307.41
T50 Brad Kennedy 70-68-70-72—280 $4,225.93
T50 Junseok Lee 67-72-72-69—280 $4,225.93
T72 Scott Hend 69-68-74-73—284 $2,022.22
81 Brendan Jones 71-70-74-75—290 $1,244.44
WD Won Joon Lee 67-70—137 $1,140.74
MC Todd Sinnott 71-71—142
MC Kevin Yuan 69-77—146
Ladies European Tour
Big Green Egg Open
Hilversumsche Golf Club, Netherlands
1 Trichat Cheenglab 69-68-67—204 €45,000
T11 Kirsten Rudgeley 68-70-71—209 €6,150
T50 Wenyung Keh (NZ) 77-67-73—217 €1,332
MC Hanee Song (NZ) 74-74—148
MC Momoka Kobori 80-70—150
Challenge Tour
Challenge de España
Club de Golf Playa Serena , Almería, Spain
1 Martin Couvra (a) 67-70-66-65—268 ——-
MC Blake Windred 70-73—143
PGA TOUR Canada
Fortinet Cup Championship
Country Hills Golf Club, Calgary, Alberta
1 Hayden Springer 66-62-67-67—262
59 Jason Hong 66-69-73-77—285
Epson Tour
Black Desert Resort Championship
Soldier Hollow Golf Club (Silver Cse), Salt Lake City, Utah
1 Nataliya Guseva 66-67-65—198 $US56,250
13 Robyn Choi 66-67-70—203 $6,551
T23 Cassie Porter 69-71-66—206 $3,951
T33 Hira Naveed 73-69-66—208 $2,754
T38 Amelia Garvey (NZ) 71-69-69—209 $2,184
Champions Tour
Ascension Charity Classic
Norwood Hills Country Club, St Louis, Missouri
1 Steve Flesch 66-66-62—194 $US300,000
T8 Richard Green 68-69-65—202 $60,000
T23 Mark Hensby 70-72-65—207 $19,600
T33 Rod Pampling 71-67-71—209 $12,086
T45 Stuart Appleby 70-69-72—211 $7,400
T65 John Senden 75-71-71—217 $2,140
T65 David McKenzie 74-69-74—217 $2,140
Legends Tour
WCM Legends Open de France
Golf de Saint-Cloud, France
1 Adilson Da Silva 65-65-68—198
T15 Michael Long 72-69-70—211
T22 Jason Norris 74-68-72—214
T29 Peter Fowler 74-71-72—217
T29 Michael Campbell 72-74-71—217
LET Access Series
Rose Ladies Open
The Melbourne Club At Brocket Hall, England
1 Chiara Tamburlini 71-68-65—204 €11,200
T5 Amy Walsh 70-73-67—210 €2,572.50
T7 Kelsey Bennett 72-70-70—212 €2,205
T28 Kristalle Blum 73-73-72—218 €921.67
First year Coolangatta Tweed Heads Golf Club Associate Jack Wright will need to overcome a record field of entries to add the coveted Coca-Cola Pampling Plate to his growing list of tournament wins in 2023.
Bolstered by a higher than normal intake of first year Associates in the Membership Pathway Program, 66 players will contest Monday’s 36-hole stroke play qualifier at Caboolture Golf Club before the top 24 advance to the match play section starting Tuesday.
Now in its 19th year, the event is named and sponsored by PGA TOUR Champions Professional Rod Pampling and continues to grow thanks largely to the Pampling family’s support, including the significant prizemoney that they have donated for almost two decades.
“We love watching the event from a distance with the live scoring,” said Pampling.
“Knowing we have helped out these PGA Associates playing for some extra prizemoney in a format they don’t play too often is very satisfying.
“It will be great to see if Dylan Gardner can go back-to-back this year however we understand there are some quality Year 1 Associates in the system this year.”
The most prominent of those is Wright, who among his eight wins to date boasts the recent NSW/ACT Associate Championship at Tura Beach Country Club.
In Year 3 of the MPP at Pelican Waters Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast, Gardner too has a solid year, recently winning the Woodford PGA Open Match with a 36-hole total of 15-under par.
Given his success at Caboolture last year it is a timely confidence boost as he seeks to go back-to-back.
“This is my favourite event of the year,” said Gardner, pictured with Marge Pampling.
“This is my third year playing the event and no doubt this will be the toughest to win with the quality of players in the field.”
Runner-up in the Pampling Plate 2021 and the Queensland PGA Associate champion in 2022, Bailey Arnott was top-10 at the NSW/ACT Championship two weeks ago and will be another of the fancied chances.
With improvements both on and off the golf course, Caboolture Golf Club General Manager, Trent Scaysbrook, is again excited to welcome PGA Associates to the club.
“We are thrilled to again have this prestigious event at our club,” said Scaysbrook.
“We will have a number of members getting involved and of course Rod’s mother Marge adds that special touch by providing food and coffee for the players.
“We have renovated 12 of our bunkers and the course is looking in great shape.”
All players will contest the 36-hole Coca-Cola Pampling Plate qualifying that doubles as the Pro-Am supported by the Caboolture Golf Club, players vying for a share of $5,000 in prizemoney.
The top 24 players will then compete for $10,000 in a match play format over three days with the final to take place on Thursday.
This year will mark the first time that live scoring will be in operation.
Click here to stay across all the matches as they play out.
Brad Burns put on another peerless display of island golf to move six strokes clear at the Port Moresby Legends Classic at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.
A regular visitor to Papua New Guinea throughout his career – including the PNG Open at Royal Port Moresby in May – the four-time SParms PGA Legends Tour Order of Merit winner backed up his 3-under 69 on day one with a 4-under 68 on Saturday to take a stranglehold on the tournament.
Grahame Stinson (70), Scott Barr (71) and Guy Wall (73) are in a tie for second at 1-under but will have their work cut out to rein in a runaway Burns.
And the key to making birdies on the tropical greens?
“Take all the grass out and just hit ‘em hard,” Burns said.
“Hopefully the hole gets in the road occasionally and you sink a couple.
“I’m playing all right, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”
With Royal Port Moresby playing firm and fast, Burns added that the key to his low scores has been making par saves at crucial times.
“I putted well all day and chipped well,” he said.
“That’s the key around here. If you do miss a green you’ve got to get up-and-down.
“Hit a few good shots coming home, couple of putts didn’t go in but a good, solid day.”
The final round starts at 8.40am on Sunday with the lead group of Barr, Stinson and Burns to tee off at 11.40am
Australian Anthony Quayle will start the final round of the Shinhan Donghae Open one back instead of one in front following a costly double-bogey on the final hole on Saturday.
Seeking his first Japan Golf Tour title in a tournament co-sanctioned with the Asian Tour and Korean PGA Tour, Quayle moved into the outright lead with a birdie at the par-4 11th.
He would maintain that advantage all the way up until the par-5 18th hole where – after finding the front bunker with his third shot – three-putted for a double-bogey to sit one back of Canada’s Richard T. Lee (67) and South Korean Guntaek Koh (66) and in a share of third place with overnight leader Wooyoung Cho (71) and Ok Tae Hoon (67).
The 2021 Queensland PGA champion, Quayle got off to a strong start at Sky72 Golf and Resort with birdies at his opening two holes. He was tied for the lead with Cho after nine holes when he reached the turn in 31.
Having played the 18th hole in 3-over the first three rounds, the 29-year-old knows he needs to make amends to complete the biggest win of his career to date.
“I didn’t put a foot wrong until the last,” Quayle said.
“Me and the last hole haven’t got on too well so far. Hopefully if it comes down to it, it will be a bit more friendly (on Sunday).
“Everything feels really good. I feel like I have played quite solid. I have holed a couple I probably shouldn’t have, and I have missed a couple I feel like I should have made.
“I feel like the score is reflective of how I played. I have a chance on a Sunday, which is nice.”
A runner-up on four previous occasions on the Japan Golf Tour – including earlier this year at the Sega Sammy Cup – Quayle hopes to put those experiences to good use to get over the line on Sunday.
“A couple of those close finishes have been mistakes on my part, and a couple of them have been other people better on the day,” he added.
“But I feel I have learned a lot and how to get the best out of those situations.
“Some of those lessons will come in handy tomorrow.”
Fellow Aussies Zach Murray and Travis Smyth are also well positioned for a prominent finish.
Murray had five birdies in six holes to close out his front nine in a round of 4-under 68 while Smyth had an eagle and five birdies in his 5-under 67, the pair tied for 12th at 10-under and five strokes off the lead.
While Quayle is the hunter in Korea, Minjee Lee is now the hunted at the Kroger Queen City Championship on the LPGA Tour.
Seeking her first win since the US Women’s Open in June last year, Lee began her third round at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati with three straight birdies and never took a backward step.
The 27-year-old added four more birdies on the back nine in a bogey-free 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead at 15-under from England’s Charley Hull (68) and Peiyun Chien (73) of Chinese Taipei.
Minjee’s brother, Min Woo Lee, is in a share of 10th going into the final round of the Horizon Irish Open on the DP World Tour, four back of German Hurly Long.
Kiwi Ryan Fox matched Rory McIlroy, Billy Horschel and Nick Machem for round of the day in Round 3, his bogey-free 66 elevating Fox to a tie for fourth and three shots off Long’s 13-under total through 54 holes.
Photo: Courtesy JGTO Images
A gutsy Anthony Quayle produced a remarkable fightback to stay in the title race at the Shinhan Donghae Open in South Korea.
The 29-year-old Quayle, still seeking his breakthrough win on the Japan Golf Tour, salvaged a two-under-par 70 at the Sky72 Golf Club in Incheon to enter the weekend tied for fourth and four shots back of amateur leader Cho Woo-young.
Quayle, who fired an opening 65, endured a frustrating start after beginning his second round from the 10th tee.
He dropped shots at the par-3 12th and the par-4 third holes but sparked a late-round rescue with his first birdie of the day at the par-4 fourth.
He followed that up with a birdie at the par-5 fifth and made it four birdies in his final six holes with further birdies at the seventh and ninth holes.
His two-round total of 9-under is just one back of second spot, 21-year-old Cho establishing a three-shot lead at the halfway mark with a round of 8-under 64.
Quayle’s fellow Queenslander Scott Hend is 7-under and tied for 12th after rounds of 69-68, level with Sydney’s Won Joon Lee (67-70) with Brad Kennedy (70-68) and Zach Murray (70-68) tied for 23rd at 6-under par.
A second round of 4-under 68 has put West Australian Jason Scrivener in position for his first top-10 finish since January at the Horizon Irish Open at The K Club.
Splitting his time between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR in 2023, Scrivener had three birdies on the trot from the eighth hole to be one of 10 players tied for 10th at 7-under, six shots back of co-leaders Shubhankar Sharma (66) and Jordan Smith (65).
Making his first start since The Open Championship, Min Woo Lee is one back of Scrivener in a tie for 20th, playing the back nine in 5-under 32 to make an impression on the leaderboard.
On the LPGA Tour, Minjee Lee backed up her opening round of 5-under 67 with a 3-under 69 on Friday to be tied for seventh at the Kroger Queen City Championship in Ohio.
Lee is six shots back of the leader, Peiyun Chien of Chinese Taipei, but just two back of a three-way tie for second between Ruoning Yin (66), Morgane Metraux (66) and Ruixin Lin (69).
Gabi Ruffels made it back-to-back rounds of 3-under 69 to be tied for 14th through two rounds as Sarah Kemp (71) and Stephanie Kyriacou (72) made the cut on the number.
Following on from her career best finish since turning professional last week, West Australian Kirsten Rudgeley (68) is tied for fourth after the opening round of the Ladies European Tour’s Big Green Egg Open, Robyn Choi is tied for third at the Black Desert Resort Championship on the Epson Tour and Kelsey Bennett is tied for fourth after two rounds of the Rose Ladies Open on the LET Access Series.
Photo: Courtesy JGTO Images
Four-time Order of Merit winner Brad Burns harnessed the firm and fast conditions best to establish a one-stroke lead after Round 1 of the $80,000 Port Moresby Legends Classic at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club.
A regular visitor to Papua New Guinea for more than a decade, Burns was at Royal Port Moresby in May for the PNG Open won by Lachlan Barker, the opening event of the 2023/2024 PGA Tour of Australasia season.
On that occasion players were faced with a water-logged golf course with very little run, conditions that could not have been further from what welcomed the field of 46 SParms PGA Legends Tour players on Friday.
Tied for third at last week’s PNG Senior Open, Burns had three birdies inside his first six holes at Royal Port Moresby but could not advance his score any further, ending the day with a score of 3-under 69 to lead Guy Wall (70) by one.
“I got off to a great start. I was 3-under after six and then put the handbrake on a little bit,” conceded Burns.
“Three-putted nine, birdied 10 to be 4-under but then came home a little slow.”
Based on the Sunshine Coast, Burns had little trouble adjusting to the hot and humid conditions, adjusting to the change in the golf course his greatest challenge.
An opening round of 2-under 70 was Burns’s best score when he finished tied for 41st in May and he was happy to see the ball rolling out for the inaugural Legends Classic.
“Hell of a lot different,” Burns said of the course conditions.
“Back in May it was an absolute quagmire. They’d had that much rain it was frightening.
“This week there are cracks in the fairways so we’re getting a little bit more run which is great.
Burns’s sole bogey of the day came following an errant drive at the par-4 14th, Wall outright second at 2-under followed by in-form Western Australian Brendan Chant at 1-under.
Round 2 commences at 7.30am Saturday.
Just one stroke separated the top-11 finishers as four players shared top spot at the Stuart Appleby Cohuna Pro-Am at Cohuna Golf Club.
The Murray River swing of the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series continued in Cohuna with one of the tightest leaderboards in recent memory.
James Gordon’s 3-under 69 was the best of the morning wave but the best scores would come later in the afternoon, despite a change in the weather on the back nine.
PNG Open champion Lachlan Barker burst out of the blocks to be 5-under through eight holes but ultimately had to hold on for a round of 4-under 68 and tie Ryan Peake, Anthony Choat and Ryan Lynch for top honours.
Gordon was one of seven players to finish just one shot back at 3-under, Barker thankful for the early birdies and a final one at his penultimate hole to secure a share of victory.
“A very hot start, that’s how I’d describe it,” Barker said of his round.
“Early on the putter was very warm. I was 5-under through eight holes and the conditions were really good to start.
“After that the afternoon groups had to put on their wet weather gear and battle it out on the back nine.
“I dropped a couple of shots but really hung on and made one late birdie to end up shooting 4-under 68.”
While the putter took the plaudits for the early run of birdies, Barker said that his shot selection from the tee was integral in providing the opportunities for the putter to run hot.
“You had to have a good strategy so I used anywhere from 4-iron right through to driver. Made the right club choices on a lot of occasions and gave myself looks at birdies and was able to convert.
“I attribute my score to the putter and the tee shots.”
Like Barker, Peake and Choat both had six birdies and two bogeys in their rounds of 4-under while Lynch dropped just the one shot to also end the day on top.
Last year’s Cohuna Pro-Am was also disrupted due to rain, Barker praising the presentation of the course on his second visit to Cohuna.
“The course was in the best condition that I’ve seen it and from all reports, from the people who have been coming here for years and years, this is the best it’s been,” said Barker.
“That back nine was a struggle. The weather really packed it in so it was a tale of two nines today.”
The adidas PGA Pro-Am Series moves further along the Murray River for the 66th Border Open Pro-Am at cluBarham Golf and Sports Club starting Saturday.
Despite entering the week with an injured back, Australia’s Anthony Quayle has opened the Shinhan Donghae Open in Korea with a 7-under 65 to sit in a share of second after Round 1.
Tri-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour and Korean Tour, Spain’s David Puig leads the tournament by one after his own bogey-free eight-under 64. It was a score that Quayle very nearly matched, while Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai shares second with the Queenslander.
Out in the second group of the day from the first tee, Quayle set a hot pace early following an opening birdie after dropping a 50-foot putt, adding three more in a row from the third hole and another at the ninth to turn in 5-under 31.
More birdies followed at the 11th, 12th and 17th before the world No.338 made a rare bogey at the par-5 18th that saw him end the day in second rather than a share of the lead.
Going long of the final green with his third shot, Quayle came up short with his chip from the back, however, he was simply happy to be somewhat pain free after receiving treatment earlier in the week.
“It was nice. I didn’t have the best prep coming into the week. I hurt my back last week, so I tried to be a little bit more low-key in my preparation and be a little bit more cautionary,” Quayle said.
“Not sure what the back issue is. I saw the physio yesterday, my self-diagnosis was wrong – which is probably not uncommon for a professional golfer.”
An issue potentially caused by an extended period of overloading the back of the pelvis, Quayle will no doubt be cautious with his back for the remainder of his week.
However, his first round performance suggests the old adage to beware the injured golfer could prove true around Sky 72’s Ocean Course.
“Came out today, back felt great, everything felt pretty good. I probably had low expectations, so was able to play freely and roll a few in,” said Quayle, who is chasing his third pro win after the 2020 Queensland Open and 2021 Queensland PGA.
Quayle was joined in the top-10 by compatriots Won Joon Lee and Junseok Lee after the pair signed for opening rounds of 5-under 67 to sit in a share of eighth in Incheon.
Meanwhile, Minjee Lee made a good start to her Kroger Queen City Championship campaign in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Starting the day with a hat-trick of birdies from the first hole, the two-time major champion added another at the par-3 eighth to create an ominous presence on the LPGA Tour leaderboard.
The West Australian could only manage one more birdie on the back nine though among eight pars to record a bogey-free round of 5-under 67 and share of sixth, two shots back of solo leader, China’s Ruixin Lin.
“I’m just really enjoy playing the courses (in Ohio),” Lee, who missed the cut here last year, said.
“I think it really suits my eye. I’ve played well at Dana (Open), and hopefully I can finish well here.
“I started really well. I had three birdies off the bat… so it was really nice to have a fast start.
“Made one more on the front and then one more on the back, so it was pretty steady, pretty solid all day.”
Gabi Ruffels continues to impress as she broadens her LPGA experience, the 23-year-old 3-under and four strokes off the lead.
Photo: Courtesy JGTO Images
