The Brisbane native and son of PGA Professional Brett Maxwell, Maxwell delivered a stunning start to his second round to take a stranglehold of the two-day tournament at Redcliffe Golf Club.

Established stars converged on Redcliffe for one of the richest tournaments on the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series but Maxwell showed impressive composure to win by one, Nathan Barbieri (65) runner-up for a third time at Redcliffe.

Maxwell began the tournament with a 2-under 69 but played his first five holes in 5-under on Friday, the highlight a hole-in-one at the 134-metre par-3 13th, his fourth hole of the day.

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He kept the foot to the floor with a birdie at three and eagle at the par-5 fourth to get to 10-under, enough of a buffer to absorb a bogey at the par-3 seventh and win by one.

“That was really special, especially to have that in a ‘tourny’ round,” said Maxwell.

“I’ve been playing with the Tricolour Concreting guys who have been big supporters of mine for a long time so today was just really special and I’m really grateful.”

HOW THE WINNING ROUND UNFOLDED

Four shots separated Maxwell from Round 1 leader Aaron Pike when Round 2 began but he made quick inroads on the deficit.

He made birdie at his opening hole, the par-5 10th, and then added a second in three holes at the par-4 12th.

The hole-in-one on 13 provided a sudden boost and he backed it up with a third birdie at the short par-4 14th.

Six straight pars through the middle of his round kept Maxwell within reach of the top of the leaderboard before his birdie on three and eagle at four propelled him to the front of the pack.

WHAT THE WINNER SAID

“I have a little rule where when I make a birdie I’m allowed to look at the leaderboard,” said Maxwell.

“It gives some good incentive to keep the ego in check, I guess.

“Coming down the last nine holes, I was looking every hole. That’s the best part about the pro-ams and why it’s such a good pathway onto the tour, you get to create environments and create winning pressure.

“I’ve decided with my team to focus on the Aussie season and to only dabble with Asian Tour Q School.

“Being my first year with full status on the Tour, I’ll be keeping my focus here and also pursuing the Asian Tour Q School in Australia at the end of the year.”

LEADERBOARD RUNDOWN
1          Zachary Maxwell          69-64—133
2          Nathan Barbieri            69-65—134
3          Aaron Pike                   65-70—135
T4        Douglas Klein               72-64—136
T4        Matthew Millar             69-67—136
T4        Gavin Fairfax                66-70—136
T4        Nathan Page                68-68—136

NEXT UP

Pacific Golf Club makes its return to the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series schedule on Monday with the Reside Communities Pacific Pro-Am to be followed by the Howeston Pro-Am on Wednesday.