McIntosh leads QLD PGA after historic 59

BY Bruce Young | Von Nida Tour | 2005 Queensland PGA | Round Two | 11 Nov 2005

As the second day of 2005 Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Championship drew to a close, the dust was only just beginning to settle on what had been an historic day in Australian golf.

23-year-old Wollongong left hander, Brad McIntosh, had created that history earlier in the day when he became the first golfer to break 60 in a professional tournament in this country. His brilliant early morning round (he started at 7.00am) was the talk of not only the tournament but of Australian golf. McIntosh fielded requests for interviews from a wide cross section of the Australian sporting media and he was in hot demand even after he had left the course some two hours after his round. Both McIntosh and the Greater Building Society Queensland PGA Championship now have a profile in Australian sport that was not the case as day two dawned.

Not that McIntosh is an unknown to golfing fans. Many will be aware that he attended the University of Houston, which has educated such Australian golfing stars as Steve Elkington and more recently Wade Ormsby and that he has already won on the Von Nida Tour. He has now won two Von Nida Tour events including last week’s Roadcon Queensland Open and the Toyota Southern Classic in 2004. His performance today however provides a special place for him in Australian golf irrespective of the direction his career takes from this point forward. The indications are however that he is destined for a highly successful future in the professional game.

His eleven birdie, one eagle and one bogey round was produced on a golf course that was admittedly there for the taking, but in order to do so McIntosh produced, in his words, the best ball striking round of his life.

McIntosh’s morning performance saw him surge to a two shot lead over local golfer Scott Gardiner and as he and the morning field completed their rounds, the benign early morning conditions turned to strong winds and the Emerald Lakes Golf Club took on a new look. The low scoring that had become commonplace throughout day one and early day two, was not quite as automatic as the winds increased to twenty kilometres per hour. As the two early leaders on day two, McIntosh and Gardiner, relaxed over lunch and, in the case of McIntosh, completed media commitments, their scores were looking even more likely to stand up at the end of round two and the more the day wore on, the more that appeared to be the case.

Gardiner has returned from a season in the US that has seen the occasional highlight but one where he would have expected more. He is, though, building on experience and a decision to return to his previous coach, Gary Edwin, in recent weeks appears to have paid dividends.

Gardiner started by holing from off the green on each of the first three holes for birdie.

“They were not difficult shots as they were only just off the green,” said Gardiner. “The longest was from eight metres but apart from that, even though I had nine birdies, I really didn’t hole anything of note but a round where I hit a lot of shots in close.”

Gardiner’s bogey at the last, after his second found the greenside bunker and he had missed a putt of a metre, took a little gloss of the round but although he missed much of the fanfare because of the heroics of McIntosh, he was no doubt pleased with a continuation of the good form of Thursday.

“I felt I had a chance myself with three holes to play to break 60. As I was walking up the 16th fairway it crossed my mind that if I could birdie the last three it was on. Unfortunately I could not and threw in a bogey.”

Gardiner is still debating, even at this late stage, whether he wants to head for stage two of the USPGA Tour School in California next week. It might just be that his form will convince him that there is little option but to take his chance there.

The afternoon field made little impression on the leaders and at the end of the day the four shot lead that McIntosh and Gardiner had created, remained.

At 12 under were David Brockie, Ricky Schmidt, David Diaz, Gavin Flint, Justin Maker and Peter Harrington.

Missing the cut off of four under were tournament drawcards, Peter Senior, Scott Draper and defending champion Kurt Barnes although as Peter Senior walked from the scorers hut he was heard to say that he had never seen anything like it in his life. He was of course referring to the amazing round of McIntosh’s which he had just witnessed form close quarters.

McIntosh’s has created his own spotlight and as has been the case in other areas of the world when similar things have happened he will long be remembered as the man who shot 59.

The manner in which he handled his media commitments after his round suggests that will not be too much of a burden for him.

The last group tomorrow will tee off at 11.00am Eastern Standard time.