Wilkinson, Ogilvy lead the way at PGA
BY Bruce Young | Australasian PGA Tour | 2008 Australian PGA Championship | Round One | 04 Dec 2008
Day one of the Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship has begun in warm and calm conditions at the Hyatt Regency Resort on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast with the leading world ranked player in the field, Geoff Ogilvy, making a hot start to the event.
Ogilvy, who started his opening round at 7.25am, was quickly out of the starting blocks with a birdie at his first (the 10th of the tournament layout) after his approach finished five feet from the hole. He then eagled the very reachable par five 12th and added another birdie at the 16th to move to four under for the round through 7 holes.
While his start was impressive it was the New Zealander Tim Wilkinson who led the way through 9 holes, opening with two birdies and then adding further birdies at his 7th, 8th and 9th holes to turn in 31. At that point he had opened up a one shot lead over Ogilvy.
Wilkinson has just completed his rookie season on the PGA Tour and has done well by retaining his playing privileges by earning more than US$1.15 million. The 30-year-old left hander from Palmerston North finished 11th last week at Huntingdale.
Victorian Von Nida Tour player Peter Nolan was also at 4 under through 12 holes and Queenslander Chris Downes, who started last week’s Australian Masters with an opening 68, is also doing well early in this week’s event.
There is a prediction of storms for later in the day but so far so good.
