An eagle on the opening hole of his second round has catapulted Gold Coast amateur Lewis Hoath to the top of the leaderboard at the Isuzu Queensland Open.
It may be a blink in time or a signal for the rest of a hectic Friday with some golfers in line for 27 holes to catch-up on Thursday’s rain-hit first round.
Hoath birdied two of his final three holes early in the day to complete his first round as a fine four-under-par 68.
He had a short break and was back out on the course to grab his eagle on the 500m par five first hole to reach six-under.
Queensland’s Chris Wood (68) grabbed two early birdies in the second round to join him at the top at six-under through 22 holes.
Their second round starts jumped them ahead of the four first round leaders who carded 67s…Queensland veteran Michael Wright, 2015 Queensland Open champion David Bransdon, in-form Victorian Andrew Martin and Newcastle’s Blake Windred.
Defending champion Anthony Quayle predicted that 20-under would be a winning score this week and Friday’s early scoring suggested such a target is within range.
NSW golfer Travis Smyth finished his opening round (68) and picked up an early second round birdie to get to five-under.
Chuna’s Guxin Chen (69) moved to five-under as well with two second round birdies through seven holes.
Sam Brazel’s fine par save with a long bunker shot from wet sand on his final hole for a morning 69 got him into contention.
Brilliant par save from the wet sand for @SamBrazelGolf on his closing hole for a quality 69 in Rd1 #QldOpen @PGAofAustralia pic.twitter.com/6WBkUSgfMg
— Isuzu #QldOpen (@GolfAustQLD) March 11, 2021
The six female players in the field were hanging tough with Stephanie Kyriacou and amateur Grace Kim carding 74s to open.
Follow the live Queensland Open leaderboard at pga.org.au.