Senior, Hills share early lead at QLD PGA

BY Bruce Young | Von Nida Tour | 2006 Queensland PGA | Round One | 02 Nov 2006

29-year-old local golfer Gavin Hills and another local Peter Senior are the early leaders at the Greater Building Society’s Queensland PGA Championship following an opening round of seven under par 64 at the Emerald Lakes Golf Club.

Peter Senior Interview

Hills, who has struggled in his professional career to date, gave credit to improved putting on which he has been working of late. “I can honestly say for the first time that it was a round that could have been three shots better,” said Hills immediately after his round. It’s been a struggle for the last three and a half years after finishing second in my first event as a professional at Bonville so this is a nice turnaround."

“I have switched to the Two Ball putter in recent times and it seems to have made a difference, but I also played well generally,” added Hills.

The Helensvale based Hills is playing the Queensland PGA Championship for the first time.

“I am normally at one of the latter stages of the Japan Tour School when this has been on so it is nice to be able to play well on what is essentially home ground.”

Hills is married to his Japanese wife Reiko and the couple have a three year old daughter, Celina. It was another family connection involved in his first round today however when Hill’s father, David, carried the bag for his son. “Dad kept me positive out there this morning,” added Hills.

As the morning field completed their rounds it was a more familiar name that was edging his way towards the lead. Peter Senior finished one shot out of a playoff here the first time the event was played at Emerald Lakes three years ago but has not gone close since. Last year Senior missed the cut and caddied for his good mate Ricky Schmidt over the weekend. Today Senior recorded seven birdies and was happy with the way he played and then converted.

“I drove the ball really well today and really only hit the one bad shot and that was on the par five my fourth last hole so it was good. The course is set up for low scoring so if you can make some putts the n you can score.”

“If you jumped away to a good start, especially early today, when the conditions were so good you could really build on something and I was able to do just that.”

Twenty minutes after Hills had completed his round, Jason Dawes from Adelaide finished at six under. Dawes was a very late invite into the tournament and has, at this stage at least, repaid the faith the tournament organizers have shown in him.

Another at six under is the Brisbane based golfer Adam Blyth who as an amateur in this event three years ago played well enough to finish fourth in one of his last events as an amateur. Blyth has played the last two seasons on the Asian Tour and is making very steady progress in his professional career.

Both Hills and Senior have the lead and with the early breezes turning to winds as early afternoon approaches, it might just be that their early efforts will stand up for most of the day.