Hickmott course record sets pace at PGA

Australasian PGA Tour | 2009 Victorian PGA Championship | Round One | 05 Feb 2009

Victorian Luke Hickmott remains at the top of the leaderboard at the end of round one of the Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship after shooting a course record 11 under 61 today.

Benign conditions this morning greatly favoured the early groups with the only change to the top ten on the leaderboard coming late in the day, with the addition of New South Welshman Andre Stolz who managed a four under in testing winds. In fact the only other addition to the top 25 after this morning’s rounds was Brad Kennedy who shot three under this afternoon to be tied fifteenth.

Hickmott holds a three shot lead from Victorian Ryan Haywood (64) who closed on eight under, with last week’s Victorian Open runner up Scott Laycock (65) tied for third alongside 2007 Queensland PGA Champion Andrew Bonhomme (65) a further shot back on seven under. Queensland’s Stuart Bouvier (66) is fifth on six under, ahead of WA’s Kim Felton and Sydney’s Ewan Porter who are tied sixth after opening rounds of five under 67.

A group of seven players including Shaun Harmer, Matthew Ecob, Andrew Crawford, Ryan Haller, Dale Harris and localman David McKenzie are on four under (68). All started in the calm morning conditions with the exception of the seventh player Andre Stolz who battled the afternoon conditions well. Stolz started at the tenth and looked set to come home on five under except for a late bogey on the 8th to drop back to four under.

But it is Hickmott who has created the headlines at Sanctuary Lakes today.

The 27-year-old from Melbourne’s western suburbs broke the previous record set in 2006 by Marc Leishman and matched in 2008 by Queenslander Cameron Percy.

Starting on the tenth tee, the 2003 Victorian Amateur Champion made the most of the favourable morning conditions with the highlight being a flurry of seven birdies in the middle of his round to give him a three shot lead.

“It was great! I had good playing partners (Kim Felton and David Lutterus) and managed to hole a few putts so it was an enjoyable day,” said the 27 year old from Melton.

“It couldn’t have been easier, there was no wind and the greens were really soft and the fairways here are really wide. The course just played perfectly.”

Fellow Victorian Ryan Haywood who also played this morning remains in outright second place on eight under. Starting at the first, Haywood picked up birdies at four and nine but it was his back nine that brought him home.

Hitting down the right side of the fairway at 12, Haywood used a four iron approach shot to give him a four foot putt for eagle, which he followed with three consecutive birdies.

“Last week I didn’t drive the ball very well and today I was still struggling for the first seven or eight holes and I just picked up a little thing myself on the tee and said something to my brother David (his caddy) and then I hit the drive straight down the middle and didn’t miss a shot after that,” said Haywood.

Round two of the 2009 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship tees off tomorrow with the first groups off the tee at 6:55am.

Players are competing for the Jack Harris trophy. Harris was a five time winner of the Victorian PGA Championship.

Source – PGA Tour