Hickmott retains lead at Victorian PGA
Australasian PGA Tour | 2009 Victorian PGA Championship | Round Two | 06 Feb 2009
Victorian Luke Hickmott holds a two shot lead heading into tomorrow’s third round of the 2009 Cellarbrations VIC PGA Championship at Sanctuary Lakes.
Hickmott’s overnight three shot buffer was reduced by one as Alistair Presnell, Andrew Bonhomme and Stuart Bouvier all moved to 11 under today, with Presnell shooting the round of the day, an eight under 64. Bonhomme shot a four under 68 and Bouvier a five under 67.
Teeing off 12:30pm, Hickmott managed two under in conditions far more testing than the ideal scenario he encountered yesterday morning when he broke the course record by two shots after firing a sizzling 11 under par 61.
“I felt like I had about 80 today after yesterday,” said Hickmott, who shot four birdies and finished with one of two bogeys in his round today.
“We were really lucky with the conditions until we got to 16 and then the wind picked up. Those last three holes are definitely harder on the course in these wind conditions so it just made it a little tougher.”
“I didn’t play so great but I was happy to get away with a couple under. I guess my putting on the back nine kept me in the round.”
A professional for five years, Hickmott is gunning for his first four-round win and will be playing with good mate Presnell who shot a bogey free eight under this afternoon. The pair will be hoping to improve on the last round they played together at the 2007 Australian Masters. Tied in 13th place at the half way mark Hickmott shot a three over 75 and Presnell a 79 to fall to T42 and T65 respectively at the end of the third day.
“That was a day we both wanted to forget quickly because we both played really poorly, but it will be fun to play together, we get along really well,” said Hickmott.
Presnell agreed.
“I was looking forward to playing with Luke in the Masters. I played a horrid front nine and I brought him down on the back nine,” he joked. “If we perform a little better than last time it will be happy times!”
Presnell’s unblemished round today came after he shot a 63 in a club comp at Huntingdale on Wednesday suggesting he is back in form, but he admitted it was his best competition round in a long time.
“I’m very happy, four under either side in windy conditions I couldn’t have hoped for anything better.”
He credited the recent work he has done with coach Darren Cole (also Hickmott’s coach) for his improvement.
“The ball striking I have been working on with my coach is finally showing and it’s nice,” he said.
“Having distance control was the main thing today. It gave me a lot of opportunities for birdies, I birdied four par 5’s and two of the par 3’s which to me showed I was playing well.”
Hickmott and Presnell are grouped with Andrew Bonhomme and will tee off in the final group at 9am.
Stuart Bouvier, also tied for second place will be in the group before at 8:50am alongside Ryan Haywood who shot two under today to sit in 5th place on 10 under and Andre Stolz who was five under after the morning round and who is one of four players alongside West Australian Stephen Dartnall, Victorian Scott Laycock and New South Welshman Matthew Ecob who are tied for sixth place on nine under.
Fifty professionals and one amateur Bryden MacPherson made the cut which finished at four under. MacPherson finished at minus six after rounds of 70 and 68, fairing better than many of the big names at the event.
Stephen Dartnall (-9), Scott Laycock (-9), Paul Sheehan (-6), Kim Felton (-6), David McKenzie
(-6), Peter Senior (-5) and Steven Bowditch (-4) are other notables who will be in action on the weekend.
The 2009 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship continues tomorrow at Sanctuary Lakes with the first groups teeing off at 7:40am.
Due to the extreme temperatures expected in Melbourne tomorrow, Saturday February 7, the PGA of Australia has announced today that tee times for round three at the Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship have been revised and play will begin at 7:40am.
Source – PGA Tour
