Adam Scott birdied two of his final three holes Saturday to hold the lead entering the final round of the Australian PGA Championship.
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GOLD COAST, Australia — Adam Scott birdied two of his final three holes to take a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the Australian PGA Championship on Saturday.
Scott had a 54-hole total of 10-under 206 after a 3-under 69 at Royal Pines.
“I made a good move at it (on the 18th) and it all worked out — you’d hope for that tomorrow to happen but you just never know,” Scott said. “This golf course can bite you so it’s important you execute your shots well when you’re down in the valleys of sin around these greens.”
Former U.S. Amateur champion Nick Flanagan shot 9-under 63 to equal the course record and move to within two shots of the lead.
“It got to a point today where I’ve been playing so bad and trying so hard that I thought I’d just go out there and not try at all, and all of a sudden, you loosen up over the ball,” Flanagan said. “I’ve got a baby due in five weeks, that’s what I’ll be thinking about but obviously I’d love to go out there and win so it’s finding that balance again.”
Americans Cameron Champ and Stewart Cink both shot 71s, leaving Champ at 4-under and Cink a stroke further behind.
Adam Scott is two strokes off leader Yuan Yechun and tied for third place after the second round at the Australian PGA Championship.
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GOLD COAST, Australia – Adam Scott was two strokes off the lead and tied for third place after a second-round 5-under 67 at the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Pines on Friday.
The leader was China’s Yuan Yechun, whose 65 left him at 9-under 135 after 36 holes. He bogeyed two of his final four holes.
Scott, attempting to win his first tournament since a World Golf Championship victory in March 2016, is playing his third week in a row after the Australian Open and last week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.
Australian Anthony Quayle was in second place, a stroke behind, after a 66, followed by Scott and Wade Ormsby, who shot 66.
Cameron Champ had a 71 and was at 3-under, one stroke better than fellow American Stewart Cink, who shot 70.
Scott’s round included a 40-foot eagle putt and two lengthy birdies with one bogey.
“I played safe, rolled a lot of nice putts, a lot went by the edge but I made a couple as well,” Scott said. ”I had to really dial it in to get it close. It was a patient round and eventually I kind of wore the course down.”
Scott said he knew another mediocre round like his 70 on Thursday wouldn’t put him among the leaders.
“After the bogey on four I just felt I need to get moving a bit here because 2-under’s not going to put me up there far enough,” Scott said. “It’ll be good for me to focus up for two more days. I need more of the same, but feeling like I’ve got definitely two more days in me.”
Cameron Smith, aiming to be the first player in more than 100 years to win three straight Australian PGA titles, followed up his opening 74 with a 65 to leave the Australian at 5-under and four strokes behind.
Smith said the President Cup, where his International team lost 16-14 to the United States, had drained him both physically and mentally. But he said an afternoon nap Thursday and swim at the beach had helped him bounce back.
“I knew what I had to do today to get back into it,”Smith said. “I saw Scotty and those guys posted a score early. I didn’t play aggressive or anything, just did my stuff and walked away with seven birdies.”
Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin shared the first-round lead at the Australian PGA Championship after carding 5-under 67s on Thursday at Royal Pines. The Australian pair were one clear of a group of five players including New Zealander Ryan Chisnall, …
Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin shared the first-round lead at the Australian PGA Championship after carding 5-under 67s on Thursday at Royal Pines.
The Australian pair were one clear of a group of five players including New Zealander Ryan Chisnall, while Adam Scott and Stewart Cink were three back after opening 70s. Two-time defending champion Cameron Smith was 2 over.
Herbert went birdie-birdie-eagle in still morning conditions to begin his round before a run of three bogeys. He added four birdies on the back nine to finish before the breeze picked up.
Scott and 2009 British Open winner Cink were among the later starters and had to deal with trickier conditions.
Scott, the 2013 Australian PGA champion, made long-range putts for eagle and birdie to stay in touch despite a double bogey on the par-4 13th hole, when he hit into the water off the tee.
“I’m putting good. I’m playing good. Unfortunately I really miss-hit that drive off 13 and it cost me,” said Scott, who is chasing his first title since 2016. “Other than that, it was pretty much stress free. I was very happy with it because it wasn’t very easy out there.
Smith, aiming to be the first player in more than 100 years to win three straight Australian PGA titles, said he lacked energy after an emotional Presidents Cup last week in Melbourne, where he and Scott were part of the International team that gave up an early lead before losing to Tiger Woods’ U.S. team.
He was even at the turn but had two bogeys and a double-bogey in a three-hole sequence.
“I’m just tire. Just a long couple weeks. It was as easy as it’s going to get out there this morning, so it was pretty disappointing to shoot what I shot,” he said.
The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne has come and gone, but the action in Australia isn’t over thanks to the Australian PGA Championship.
The Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne has come and gone, but the action in Australia is far from over.
On the heels of Tiger Woods and Team USA’s epic comeback to win their eighth straight Cup is the 2019 Australian PGA Championship at RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.
The tournament, which has a $1.5 million purse, will begin Thursday, Dec. 19 and end Sunday, Dec. 22, and features a field of some of golf’s best, including a handful of Presidents Cup competitors.
A pair of Australian members of Ernie Els’ International team, Adam Scott and two-time defending champion Cameron Smith, are the biggest names in the field, alongside heavy-hitting youngster Cameron Champ and his fellow Americans Stewart Cink and Smylie Kaufman.
Previewing the 2019 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, with golf betting odds and picks for outright winner and the best props.
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The 2019 Presidents Cup takes place this week at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Twelve of the top golfers from the United States tee off against 12 of the best from outside of Europe. Below, we analyze the tournament odds and prop bets, with golf betting picks and tips.
The first round will start Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 5:30 p.m. ET.
Team USA has won the past seven Presidents Cups and leads the all-time series against the International side at 10-1-1. Fortunately for the global squad, which is led by three Australians, its only Presidents Cup victory was at this venue in 1998.
The INTERNATIONALS are getting juicy +250 odds for the tournament victory. Team USA is a -250 favorite. Look for Adam Scott (No. 18), Marc Leishman (No. 28) and Cameron Smith (No. 52) to lead the Internationals to victory on home soil.
Presidents Cup Prop Bets
Internationals +3.5 Points (-125)
After losing 19-11 in 2017, look for the Internationals to keep it closer this time out. Their previous two losses in 2015 and ’13, were decided by one and three points, respectively.
Top Combined Points Scorer: Adam Scott (+1200)
Scott will have the crowd behind him as the top golfer from the host nation. He didn’t play in 1998 (when the Internationals got their lone win in the event, also in Melbourne), but he has won both the Australian Open and Australian PGA Championship and has spoken highly of wanting to win at the famed Royal Melbourne as a potential career highlight.
Who will score the most points for the USA? Patrick Reed (+900)
Expect the best from Reed, who has excelled in the Ryder Cup format against Europe, and in the 2017 Presidents Cup. He’s coming off another controversy at last week’s Hero World Challenge in which he was penalized two strokes for improving his line of play in a waste bunker.
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Australian Matt Jones birdied his final hole for a 6-under 65 and the second-round lead as the air cleared at the Australian Open.
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SYDNEY (AP) — Australian Matt Jones birdied his final hole Friday for a 6-under 65 and a one-stroke lead after two rounds on a day of low scoring at the Australian Open.
Jones had a 36-hole total of 10-under 132 at the Australian Golf Club. Paul Casey shot 65 and Dimitrios Papadatos 66 and were tied for second.
“Anytime you get to lead is fantastic,” Jones said. “It would have been better to be more in front, but I’ll take one in front. Still a long way to go. I’m sure the wind is going to pick up the next two days, which will make it a little tougher.”
American Cameron Tringale, who shot 65, and Louis Oosthuizen had a 66 to be among those two shots behind.
Casey, at No. 14 and the top-ranked player in the field, had seven birdies including four in a row to end his round.
“I’ve not been able to get it close to any flag for about a day and a half and then suddenly the back nine for me, the last half a dozen holes, I had some really good birdie opportunities,” Casey said. “I don’t know if it was fully in the zone but it was really nice stuff and it felt really good.”
Adam Scott followed up his opening 75 with a 67 Friday but still missed the cut.
Scott and Oosthuizen are both on the International team for next week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne. Their captain, Ernie Els, may have some extra time to plot his strategy against the American team — Els shot 77 on Friday and missed the cut as well .
“I just didn’t quite swing enough or good enough and so be it. But, it was always going to be tough for me to play well with next week coming up,”’ Els said. “Actually even last night, I got some pairings going for the guys and so things are really getting set up now. I’m really focused on next week now, absolutely.”
The Australian Open is the first qualifier for next year’s British Open, to be played from July 16-19 at Royal St. George’s. The leading three players who finish in the top 10 and ties at the Australian Open who are not already exempt will qualify.
Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els and other players at this week’s Australian Open have to contend with: a smoke from nearby bushfires.
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SYDNEY – Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els and other players at this week’s Australian Open could have another course hazard to contend with: Smoke from nearby bushfires.
A temperature inversion which formed over Sydney on Monday night trapped smoke in the region on Tuesday and caused considerable haze during a practice round. Golf Australia said it plans to increase on-site medical staff if the fire-driven smog disrupts the tournament.
With a wind shift on Wednesday, the situation had improved during the pro-am, but Golf Australia chief executive Stephen Pitt said he was concerned with the potential for smoke affecting the health of players.
“It was pretty bad yesterday, stinging eyes and all that,” Scott said after his pro-am round on Wednesday.
Sergio Garcia, front left, and Paul Casey, front right, walk down the 12th fairway as smoke haze engulfs the course. AP Photo: Rick Rycroft
The tournament goes on, however, and after Thursday’s opening round, two amateur players top the leaderboard. Japan’s Takumi Kanaya, the No. 1-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, and Taiwan’s Chun-An Yu, a senior at Arizona State, posted rounds of 6-under 65.
Playing the back nine at the Australian Golf Course to open his round, the Japanese player had five birdies. He bogeyed the par-4 third hole before making birdie on the eighth and ninth holes.
The leaders had a two-stroke lead over 2015 champion Matt Jones and fellow Australians Dimi Papadatos and Daniel Nisbet.
A winner last month in his homeland, 21-year-old Kanaya’s round came four years after he signed for an 85 at this course in his Australian Open debut.
“I have a little confidence, but I have three more days, so I will do my best tomorrow,” Kanaya said.
Jones complained of burning eyes from the smoke blowing in from about 25 bush and grass fires burning across New South Wales state, including a large one in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
“It’s awful,” Jones saíd. “The smoke’s not good at all. It’s tough to see your golf ball when you’re out there playing, where it finishes. Your eyes do burn up. I hope my kids are inside in the hotel room.”
Players dealt with the haze in different ways, but it posed a particular problem for New Zealander Ryan Chisnall, who suffers from asthma. According to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald, Chisnall coughed and sputtered through the start of his round on Thursday afternoon before borrowing a face mask from a spectator. Several in the galleries were seen wearing them.
Robert Allenby reportedly ran out of eye-drops mid-round because he was applying them so frequently. Scott remarked that he felt he needed to spray salt water up his nose as a post-round cleanse.
A course worker wears a face mask due to the smokey conditions at the 2019 Australian Golf. Photo: Matt King/Getty Images
While Golf Australia’s Pitt said he was confident the tournament would proceed without any smoke delays, he said officials will closely monitor the weather with children and elderly spectators most susceptible to the threatening air quality.
“Firstly, our issues with smoke at a golf tournament pale into insignificance with the things that home owners and property owners and people right around the country have dealt with,” Pitt said of the fires which have killed six people and destroyed dozens of homes.
“So we’re very aware of that fact and all our sympathies and thoughts go to them because that’s the real issue.”
Pitt said it was a new type of threat for the tournament.
“It’s something we’ve never had to give consideration to before,” he said. “We’ve had storms and rain and hail and heat and cold and all those sort of things that are your typical golf tournament issues. But this one is new and we have been in constant contact with the Bureau of Meteorology.”
Scott is among the International players for next week’s Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne playing this week in Sydney for team captain Els. Also in Sydney for the first time in his career is Louis Oosthuizen, the only South African player on the International team.
The sun is seen through smoke haze at the 2019 Australian Open in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Other International team players at the Australian Golf Club this week are Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, defending champion Abraham Ancer and Taiwan’s C.T. Pan.
The International team’s only win over the United States team was in 1998 when it was first held at Royal Melbourne. The Presidents Cup venue is roughly 550 miles southwest of Sydney and considerably south of New South Wales, where the fires are burning this week.
“I think we all sort of feel Royal Melbourne is the place we’ve got probably the best shot,” Oosthuizen said. “We’ve got a team that’s really in form. We’ve got a young side coming through. I think having an Aussie crowd behind us, playing Royal Melbourne especially, I think it will be the best home course advantage we can have.”
When the Presidents Cup goes to Australia in a week, Adam Scott hopes the home crowd doesn’t get too carried away by Tiger mania.
Tiger Woods’ fame transcends continents. He’s not an American sports hero, he’s a worldwide one. But when the Presidents Cup goes to Australia in a week, with Woods competing as the first playing captain in the event since 1994, Australian Adam Scott hopes the home crowd doesn’t get too carried away.
As in, remember who to cheer for, mates.
Scott, the world No. 15 who is about to make his ninth Presidents Cup appearance, told the Melbourne-based Herald Sun this week that he hopes fans get loud for the Internationals. After all, noise and support are major factors in a home-course advantage.
“Last time it was too friendly,” Scott told the Herald Sun. “Quite bluntly, we want the home-crowd advantage, and I’ll be disappointed if they are cheering enthusiastically for Tiger or anyone on the U.S. team.”
The matches are returning to Royal Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia for the first time since 2011. The U.S. team won the Cup that year, which was also the last time Woods played in Australia.
The Presidents Cup scoreboard has grown more and more lopsided since, with the U.S. winning all three subsequent meetings. It’s worth noting, however, that the only International victory in the event’s history was at Royal Melbourne in 1998.
Scott’s Presidents Cup record stands at 14-20-5 for a run that dates to 2003.
With Jason Day now out of the International huddle because of a lingering back injury – and Presidents Cup rookie Byeong Hun An taking his spot – Scott is the most experienced player on the team. Counting An, more than half of the International team members are Presidents Cup rookies.
It makes the right type of crowd energy that much more important.
“I’m not saying be a poor sport, but one challenge our team has always had is gaining a home-soil advantage because it’s rare that stars like Tiger and DJ (Dustin Johnson) come to Australia (2011) or Korea (2015) where we play these things and the locals are excited to see them as much as anyone on our team,” Scott said. “But while we appreciate them very much, we don’t have to cheer for them.”
The Presidents Cup will be played Dec. 13-15 at Royal Melbourne. For U.S. viewers, the first match will air the evening of Dec. 12 because of the time difference.
