Porter's 67 leads the way
FINGAL, Australia – Australian Ewan Porter posted a 5-under 67 to
grab a one-shot lead over Fran Quinn at the inaugural Moonah Classic – a
co-sanctioned event on the Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR of Australasia.
Fabian Gomez and Chris Kirk are two behind Porter.
Winds gusting up to 30 mph greeted the 156-player field and by the end of
the day only 20 players managed to break par at the par-72 Moonah Links –
site of the 2003 and 2005 Australian Open.
Porter made the turn at even-par 36 and appeared to be one of those who
would fail to finish in red numbers. But the 25-year-old caught fire on the
back nine with birdies on Nos. 10, 13, 14, 15 and 16 to surge to the top of
the leaderboard.
“I really did a good job of staying in the present today,” said Porter, who
finished in a tie for 48th place at last week’s HSBC New Zealand PGA
Championship. “
Porter is hoping to turn success this week into a full-time spot on the
Nationwide Tour.
“It is a huge opportunity for me this week,” said Porter. “I really, really
want to go well this week because I’m going over to the States in about
three weeks. I’ll base myself there for the year in Scottsdale, Arizona. It
would be nice to play full time on a Tour.”
While Porter is making just his 25th start in a Nationwide Tour event,
Quinn is making his 275th career start on the Nationwide Tour – the sixth
most starts in Tour history.
“I played exceptionally well all day,” said Quinn. “I drove the ball
exceptionally well … and obviously made some putts. The conditions were
pretty difficult. To finish at four-under, I am very pleased. If you told
me before I went out I would be under par, I would have signed up for that
and never hit the golf course.”
Tee McCabe is among a group of seven players at 2-under-par. Seeing his
name on the leaderboard would have been considered unlikely after he
arrived at the course Thursday morning without his yardage book. An ensuing
drive back to the hotel seemed to save the day, but things took another
turn for the worse when McCabe somehow lost the book on the way to the
first tee. He was lucky enough to borrow a yardage book on the first hole
only to open it and find metric measurements.
“It was a good thing my caddie is an Australian,” said McCabe. “Otherwise I
would have had no idea how to read it. Luckily the rules officials were
kind enough to bring one out to me later and it was measured in yards. I’m
going to pin it to my pants on Friday so I don’t lose it.”
A flustered McCabe three-putted the first hole from eight feet for bogey –
one of three bogeys on the day.
“It was an interesting day to say the least,” said McCabe. “I was a little
rattled at the start of the round. I had a bunch of stuff going through my
head this morning. It bothered me more than it should have … but you really
need a yardage book on this course because of all of the bunkers.”
A chip-in for eagle from 20 yards out on the par-5 second hole cleared
McCabe’s mind. He later added another chip-in from 15 yards for birdie on
the par-3 13th hole.
“I was fortunate enough to chip in on the second hole for an eagle and that
got me back on track,” said McCabe, who hit 10 of 14 fairways and 11 of 18
greens in regulation. “I also chipped in on No. 13. It was a ridiculous
chip … one that you’ll only make one in a thousand times.”
McCabe was less than thrilled with his ball-striking during the first
round, but a stellar short game has his hopes high heading into the next
three days.
“My goal is to stay out of the bunkers this week and to not lose my yardage
book again,” he said.
First Round News & Notes: Paul Sheehan, currently in a tie for fifth place,
is very familiar with Moonah Links after finishing runner-up here to Robert
Allenby at the 2005 Australian Open … The first-round scoring average was
74.687 … Darron Stiles, winner of last week’s HSBC New Zealand PGA
Championship, was sailing along quite well at 3-under through 16 holes, but
a double bogey/bogey finish dropped him to an even-par 72 … The Moonah
Classic is offering a purse of $850,000 (AUD), with Sunday’s winner taking
home $153,000 (AUD).
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