Scores after round two ><\/a><\/b><\/p>\nFox firing in Australian PGA Champs | 01:40<\/p>\n
It is also the second time in three years that Smith has missed the weekend in his hometown of Brisbane. <\/p>\n
The 32-year-old has long had problems with a wayward driver, but at his best was always able to mask such an issue with his stellar short game and sublime putting. <\/p>\n
The concern aspect of Friday afternoon\u2019s disappointing round was that Smith\u2019s magic on the greens deserted him as it has done all too often this year. <\/p>\n
He uncharacteristically pulled his putts left on several occasions, and when he did so to squander a chance to pull a shot back at the par 5 15th, commentator Alison Whitaker was left baffled. <\/p>\n
\u201cBizarre scenes from Cameron Smith, who is normally one of the best putters in the world,\u201d the professional turned broadcaster said. <\/p>\n
In the same afternoon marquee group, Lee was turning heads for all the right reasons as he briefly jumped into a share of the lead before a bogey on 18 left him one shot adrift at 8-under. <\/p>\n
The 27-year-old, who won his first PGA Tour title earlier this year, treated the crowd at Royal Queensland to a long drive contest with Marco Penge \u2013 the Englishman who came second to Rory McIlroy in this year\u2019s Race to Dubai rankings. <\/p>\n
Cameron Smith\u2019s nightmare year just got worse.Source: Supplied<\/p>\n
Lee and his soon to be PGA Tour colleague were launching them a mile off the tee but also showing off their short game skills as they made 13 birdies between them. <\/p>\n
Penge lit up the front nine with six birdies, but crucially the Australian did not drop a shot until the last. <\/p>\n
The 2023 champion fired one of the rounds of the day with a five-under par round of 66.<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s Friday afternoon surge also boosted Australia\u2019s chances of maintaining the host nation\u2019s stranglehold on the Kirkwood Cup. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, an incredible birdie blitz late in the day saw New Zealand\u2019s Kazuma Kobori snatch the overnight lead at 10-under. <\/p>\n
Kobori was at six-under walking off the 14th green before making birdie on each of the final four holes in a low round of 63. <\/p>\n
Veteran Brett Rankin is one back at \u20139 after playing 27 holes in the morning to complete his first round and play his second. <\/p>\n
Also at \u20149 is Anthony Quayle, who has attracted attention this week for having Tiger Woods\u2019 former caddie Steve Williams on the bag, is also in the mix as he threatened to outshine Lee in the afternoon field with a bogey free effort for a second straight day. <\/p>\n
They share a tie for second with China\u2019s Wenyi Ding. <\/p>\n
Marc Leishman, meanwhile, produced one of the highlights of the day during his second round 68, holing out from a greenside bunker for eagle at the par 5 seventh.<\/p>\n
He also showed off impressive firepower making five birdies, but stopped himself from going really low with four bogeys.<\/p>\n
They are the sort of blunders that could limit a weekend charge towards a first Australian PGA title, and Leishman says he is spurred on by his recent near misses on home soil.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very competitive. Yes, I\u2019m easy going but get in the heat of the battle and I fight hard,\u201d the 42-year-old said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo definitely being close here, the last few years finished in third here, the Aussie PGA, the last two years and third of the Australian Open last year. <\/p>\n
\u201cHaving opportunities and not getting over the line has been I guess a little frustrating and a bit disappointing, but from every time you don\u2019t win you learn something. So<\/p>\n
hopefully I\u2019ve learned enough out of those tournaments, and tournaments that I haven\u2019t won around the world and have won for that. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, the will\u2019s there to really want to win one of these things.\u201d <\/p>\n
DAVIS REDISCOVERS \u2018LOVE FOR THE GAME\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
A three-month hiatus from tournament play is proving to be the best thing for Australia\u2019s Cam Davis.<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old has opened the Australian PGA with rounds of 68 and 67 to be among the contenders heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n
It comes as Davis enjoyed a break from the weekly grind for the first time in seven times.<\/p>\n
He last played a professional tournament back in August, at the opening event of the PGA Tour\u2019s FedEx Cup playoffs, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, and Davis feels rejuvenated by the time away from the golf course after a challenging year that included missing the cut in half of the 22 events he played. <\/p>\n
\u201cI needed a break this year, so I was glad that I kind of already locked up my status for next year early enough to be able to take that time off,\u201d the two-time PGA Tour winner said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s pretty much seven years straight where I haven\u2019t taken an off season. I\u2019ve just kind of grinded all the way through it. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean playing in Australia is amazing. It\u2019s also the one little period of time the PGA Tour is not playing, so if anything I was always playing more golf than a lot of the guys were over there. So it was great to take the time off. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to get the love for the game back. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit rough towards the end of my season, so yeah, it\u2019s worked out really well. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fresh and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA – JUNE 13: Cam Davis of Australia hits a tee shot on the fifth hole during the second round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Andy Lyons\/Getty Images\/AFP (Photo by ANDY LYONS \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA \/ Getty Images via AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
INSANE, RECORD BREAKING DEBUT<\/b><\/p>\n
Little known Spaniard Rocco Repetto Taylor produced one of the craziest finishes to a round ever seen at Royal Queensland as half of the field had to wrap up their opening rounds on Friday morning at the Australian PGA Championship.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old, who celebrated his birthday yesterday and was promoted from the secondary HotelPlanner Tour this year, went on a ridiculous birdie-birdie-eagle-eagle-birdie-birdie run to play the last six holes of his first round in eight-under par.<\/p>\n
Repetto Taylor needed only a tournament record 29 shots to navigate the front nine, his second nine, and he signed off on a seven-under par round of 64 to sit one shot back from countryman Sebastian Garcia at -8 at the end of the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst round in Australia, first round on the DP World Tour, so very, very happy. I\u2019m going to remember it for a long time,\u201d Repetto Taylor said.<\/p>\n
The rookie\u2019s day did not start swimmingly, however, as he made bogey on the second when his wedge shot into the green hit his playing partner\u2019s ball marker and ricocheted over the back.<\/p>\n
His luck turned in incredible fashion in the closing holes as he holed out for eagle at the par 4 sixth from 64 metres, and followed that up by draining a 15-foot eagle putt at the par 5 seventh.<\/p>\n
He then finished with a bang, holing a putt from almost 20 metres off the green after chunking a chip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Smith\u2019s nightmare year just got worse as the major winner missed the cut at the Australian PGA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[71437,5262,188151,186,22631,22422,70035,188157,188152,22626,2826,86460,188154,188155,188159,22617,13691,188158,188150,188156,188160,79,187134,16,15,188153],"class_list":{"0":"post-599363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-cameron-smith","9":"tag-adam-scott","10":"tag-afternoon-wave","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-brisbane","14":"tag-chris-hyde","15":"tag-daniel-hillier","16":"tag-daniel-nuttall","17":"tag-getty-images-inc","18":"tag-golf","19":"tag-joaquin-niemann","20":"tag-lightning-forces","21":"tag-marc-leishman","22":"tag-notable-tee-times","23":"tag-oceania","24":"tag-queensland","25":"tag-rasmus-neergaard-petersen","26":"tag-royal-queensland-golf-club","27":"tag-ryan-fox","28":"tag-sebastian-garcia","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-tee-times-inc","31":"tag-uk","32":"tag-united-kingdom","33":"tag-woo-lee"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115627808291204283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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