A 35-year-old Port Moresby local playing just his third professional event provided the feelgood story on the opening day of the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia season.<\/p>\n
As a gruelling seven-month season long race began at the PNG Open, few would have forecast Gideon Tikili being at the pointy end of the leaderboard after the first round on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The mature age Tikili has only played in two previous professional Australasian events before \u2013 last year\u2019s PNG Open and the WA PGA Championship in Kalgoorlie. He missed the cut in both.<\/p>\n
But after a sparkling three-under 69 at Royal Port Moresby Golf Club in front of several family and friends, Tikili can be forgiven for daring to dream against far more accomplished colleagues from Australia and the United States.<\/p>\n
Asked what it would be like to have a great result in his national Open, Tikili said: \u201cObviously, it\u2019d be really good. But still three days (to go), so just take it slowly. (On Friday), just one shot at a time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to be patient (in the first round), not to panic when I get a bogey, so (it\u2019s) something that I worked on. So, I\u2019m pleased with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tikili\u2019s six birdies had him easily the best of the Papua New Guinean players in the field, which is headed by Queensland\u2019s Louis Dobbelaar, who continued his great form from the Pro-Am events during the off-season with a five-under 67 in his opening round.<\/p>\n
He leads by a shot from a quartet of chasers, Will Florimo, Taj Egea, James Marchesani and defending champion Cory Crawford, who all carded 68s.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve probably consolidated a bunch of the work I\u2019ve done with my coach (Ken Berndt) over the last year-and-a-half or so,\u201d Dobbelaar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last six months has been quite nice and we\u2019ve been able to play some solid golf and show up with just some normal stuff, which has been good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dobbelaar, who regularly plays in Pro-Am competition with cricket legend Ricky Ponting at the New Zealand Open, had an eagle and five birdies in his opening 11 holes to reach seven-under, and then steadied the ship after back-to-back bogeys.<\/p>\n
Quizzed on the possibility of making a flying start to the season, he said: \u201cIt\u2019d be nice for sure. It\u2019d be good to get off to a good start this season. I\u2019ve got some good goals for the year, so it\u2019d be nice to kick off the year with a really good one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Play was suspended late on Thursday with a number of players to finish their first round early on Friday, including Sam Slater (-3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 35-year-old Port Moresby local playing just his third professional event provided the feelgood story on the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21692,21713,21703,21672,21643,21718,21665,15888,21707,21711,21709,21649,21686,21693,21645,21689,21646,21650,15353,21721,21669,21702,21679,987,21658,21695,21691,5997,21704,15378,21681,21717,21663,21688,21662,2610,17813,21654,44,21720,21667,15928,21694,21706,21700,21705,21701,19050,21675,261,21668,21710,21670,21708,21677,1407,777,20920,21714,21657,21666,4834,20922,21697,21676,21690,21659,21685,21660,21715,21680,21683,21655,16238,21671,21661,21684,15764,17898,21696,21719,21656,21678,17921,21652,21673,21648,20719,21674,21682,21716,21664,20682,17919,21699,17588,21712,1402,21687,21653,21698,21651,21644,21647],"class_list":["post-58270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-21692","tag-s-louis-dobbelaar","tag-s-png-open","tag-s-six-birdies","tag-11-holes","tag-68s","tag-a-35-year-old-port-moresby-local","tag-a-bogey","tag-a-bunch","tag-a-fairytale-story","tag-a-five-under-67","tag-a-flying-start","tag-a-good-start","tag-a-great-result","tag-a-gruelling-seven-month-season","tag-a-number","tag-a-quartet","tag-a-really-good-one","tag-a-shot","tag-a-sparkling-three-under-69","tag-a-time","tag-an-eagle","tag-australasia-season","tag-australia","tag-back-to-back-bogeys-quizzed","tag-both-but","tag-chasers","tag-contention","tag-cricket-legend-ricky-ponting","tag-day-one","tag-defending-champion-cory-crawford","tag-dobbelaar","tag-dream-round","tag-far-more-accomplished-colleagues","tag-five-birdies","tag-friday","tag-front","tag-gideon-tikili","tag-golf","tag-his-great-form","tag-his-national-open","tag-his-opening","tag-his-opening-round-he","tag-his-third-professional-event","tag-james-marchesani","tag-just-one-shot","tag-just-some-normal-stuff","tag-kalgoorlie","tag-ken-berndt","tag-last-year","tag-local-gideon-tikili","tag-long-race","tag-louis-dobbelaar","tag-my-coach","tag-only-his-third-career","tag-play","tag-players","tag-png-open","tag-png-open-first-round","tag-pro-am-competition","tag-professional-event","tag-queensland","tag-royal-port-moresby-golf-club","tag-sam-slater","tag-seven-under","tag-several-family-and-friends","tag-some-good-goals","tag-some-solid-golf","tag-taj-egea","tag-the-best","tag-the-challenger-pga-tour","tag-the-cut","tag-the-feelgood-story","tag-the-field","tag-the-first-round","tag-the-last-six-months","tag-the-last-year-and-a-half","tag-the-leaderboard","tag-the-new-zealand-open","tag-the-off-season","tag-the-opening-day","tag-the-opening-roung","tag-the-papua-new-guinean-players","tag-the-png-open","tag-the-pointy-end","tag-the-possibility","tag-the-pro-am-events","tag-the-season","tag-the-ship","tag-the-spotlight","tag-the-united-states-asked","tag-the-wa-pga-championship","tag-the-work","tag-the-year","tag-their-first-round","tag-this-season","tag-three-days","tag-thursday","tag-thursday-the-mature-age","tag-tikili","tag-two-previous-professional-australasian-events","tag-underdog-local-golfer","tag-unheralded-local-gideon-tikili","tag-will-florimo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}