Gaunt in three-way Masters tie
BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2010 Australian Masters | Round One | 11 Nov 2010
Former roommates and close friends on the Nationwide Tour, Adam Bland and Alistair Presnell and a resurgent Daniel Gaunt lead after the opening day of the 2010 JB Were Masters following their rounds of 6 under par 65. The trio have opened up a two shot gap over a large group at 4 under.
Pre tournament favourite Tiger Woods is well enough placed four shots off the pace after his opening round of 69 while second favourite in the event Robert Allenby had a horror day on the greens and finished with a round of 73.
The weather was conducive to good scoring all day but more especially for those with early tee times, and it did not take long for those with that luxury to announce their intentions.
When the morning field had completed their rounds, Bland and Presnell led the tournament at 6 under par, Presnell making the almost perfect start when he eagled the reachable par four first. His only blemish came when he bogeyed the par four 9th but he recovered to share the lead with Bland as the afternoon field set out.
Presnell has just completed his second year on the Nationwide Tour again failing to secure his PGA Tour card for 2011 but continuing to make progress in his professional career. His round continued an almost unbelievable run for him in tournament golf in Victoria as earlier in the year he had put together a final round of 60 to win the Victorian PGA Championship at the nearby Sandhurst Golf Club. Effectively, therefore, he has played his last 36 holes of tournament golf in Melbourne in a collective 18 under par.
Presnell has exemption to the Final Stage of USPGA Tour School in December in three weeks time courtesy of finishing 38th on the Nationwide Tour money list but he is undecided if he will head to Florida or not. “I haven’t been playing well in the last month or so, so it is a bit of a question of whether or not I will go back for the Final Stage,” said the 31 year old Victorian. “The decision is being made based on whether I do or don’t play well this week.”
Like several others in this field however, South Australian Bland is off to the USPGA Tour School’s Stage 2 in California next week and has given himself a significant boost of confidence with his opening round of 65.
“I think this week the expectations just aren’t there,” responded Bland when asked what has caused the improvement to recent form. “I’ve been playing some pretty bad golf for three months and really struggling mentally and just decided to come home for two weeks to forget about it.”
“I worked with my coach Ian Triggs for the past week or so and it just seems to be getting back to where it needs to be so maybe this is a kind of turning point for me.”
Bland has been a previous winner on the Von Nida Tour and Canadian Tours and has finished second on the Nationwide Tour in previous seasons.
Daniel Gaunt, a former member of Victoria Golf club prior to leaving for the UK twelve years ago, played in the slightly more difficult afternoon conditions and was clearly the best of those in the afternoon field. Gaunt is a 31 year old Victorian whose golfing career has taken on a whole new dimension in 2010. Having played the European Tour unsuccessfully in 2004, Gaunt’s game had slipped to the point where he was struggling on even the Europro mini tour in 2009 for both motivation and cash.
“I was really disappointed the way I finished off the season on the Europro Tour last year (2009) and was nearly at a point where I thought I might give it away,” he said earlier this year.
“I decided to give it one more go and made a conscious decision to try and enjoy it. I read a few books including one by Dipak Chopra and learned to chill out a little more and realise everyone hits bad shots. It is however how you cope with them that matters most. I began also to realise there were a few more important things in life than golf”
As a result of that change in attitude, Gaunt played so well early in the season on the Europro Tour that he was granted an invitation to play a European Challenge Tour event in July. In winning that event he earned exemption on to the Challenge Tour and a few months later became one of the lucky twenty from that tour to gain a European Tour card for 2011 by finishing 5th on the Challenge Tour rankings. The battles of earlier seasons in Europe were but a faint memory then and today they became even more distant.
“I am enjoying going to the golf course now rather than it being the chore it was previously,” he said today referring to his new found enthusiasm on the golf course.
Woods was solid if unspectacular and importantly has done little damage. While he did not take full advantage of the conditions he enjoyed courtesy of his early tee time, he should still be a factor by Sunday especially as he learns more and more about this great layout. After a slow start when he dropped shot at his third hole of the day, Woods recovered nicely and played well from tee to green but he continued to struggle on the greens. It seems close but how close it is to being where it needs to be to win this week remains to be seen.
“I felt pretty good,” said Woods. “That was probably the highest score I could have shot today. I hit a lot of good shots gave myself a bunch of looks early but every putt I hit was a little shy and not hard enough to hold the pace. I tried to hit them a little harder on the way in but still left them a little short.”
“It was a great atmosphere out there on the back nine when more and more people came out.”
“I just have to be patient as I am right there and only four back.”
With the weather turning for the worse over the next few days those who have made a good start are well positioned to capitalise but on a quality golf course such as Victoria Golf Club no-one is immune to the potential dangers the course holds.
A crowd of 13,500 attended on day one, well down on last year but still enough to give the tournament a great atmosphere.
