Three-time winner Cameron Smith and his compatriot Elvis Smylie lead a strong home contingent after the delayed second round of the BMW Australian PGA Championship.
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The duo got to 10 under par in glorious sunshine on Saturday after heavy downpours at Royal Queensland Golf Club forced play to be abandoned on Friday, with the tournament now reduced to 54-holes.
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Smith triumphed at this event in 2017, 2018 and 2022, and the 150th Open Champion carded a brilliant 65 which yielded seven birdies and one dropped shot, while Smylie mixed six gains and two bogeys in his 67 to top a leaderboard dominated by Australian stars.
Marc Leishman is their closest rival at nine under, with David Micheluzzi – who earned his DP World Tour card for 2024 via the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit – at eight under, alongside the only overseas player inside the top five, South African Aldrich Potgieter.
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Potgieter made a blistering start with three birdies in his opening three holes and picked up further shots at the fifth, seventh and ninth to reach the turn in a blemish-free 30 and sit three clear at ten under.
But he dropped back with bogeys at the 10th and 18th, while Smith recorded three birdies and one bogey on the back nine, and Smylie went one better with four birdies – including a crucial gain on the last – to separate themselves from the chasing pack.
Englishman Matt Southgate, Switzerland’s Joel Girrbach and Ben Eccles are three off the lead at seven under. Spaniard Ivan Cantero and South African Ryan van Velzen are one shot further back alongside six Australians: Jason Day, Cam Davis, Matias Sanchez, Lincoln Tighe, Harrison Crowe and Jack Buchanan.
Player Quotes
Cam Smith: It was a bit better day today, which always puts a smile on your face and yeah, obviously the golf was pretty good as well. Started really solid and kind of kept it going the whole way through. Maybe a few errant shots there at the end, but you kind of expect that throughout round of golf. So yeah, pretty solid, all in all.
It will be a lot of fun (potentially playing with Leishman on Sunday). Obviously Leish and I are really good mates and really good competitors as well. We play against each other in most practice rounds as well, so it’ll be a really fun time.
It’d be nice (to win again). I’d like to think this is my home event. This tournament’s always been really nice to me and it’s always really nice to be in contention here. I feel like obviously the crowd is behind me here and lots of good family and friends out here as well cheering me on, so it’s a really cool environment for me, which is probably why I’ve played so well. But at the same time, you’ve got to go out and do it, I suppose. So yeah, looking forward to tomorrow.
Elvis Smylie: I finished really strong. Birdie on 16, and then managed a really good two-putt on 17 from a tricky position. And then, yeah, had really nice wedge shot into the last and made a nice five-footer for birdie. So I’m obviously in a good position heading into tomorrow. That’s why I work hard. It’s why I practise. It’s to put myself in these positions come Sunday.
Like I said on Thursday, every part of my game’s in really good shape. There was a couple of shots that were a bit loose today, but as soon as I was in tricky positions, I did a really good job at getting out of it without doing any damage. So yeah, I’m feeling really good heading into tomorrow.
This is a home game for me. I only live an hour away and I’ve played Royal Queensland a lot of times. Probably not as many as Cam, but I still know the course really well and the course has presented really well, especially with all the rain. So a massive, massive kudos to the course super and his team. So yeah, hopefully the weather is nice again tomorrow.
