BMW Australian PGA Championship R1

Spain’s Sebastían García is currently bogey-free and in the lead at 7-under with three holes left to play at the BMW Australian PGA Championship where play was suspended overnight following an earlier suspension due to lightning.

García is playing in his first start on the DP World Tour since regaining his card through the Road to Mallorca Rankings on the Hotel Planner Tour.

Australian Daniel Gale lies in second place at 5-under through twelve holes having made an ace at the par-3 11th, four birdies and one bogey.

Gale lost his status on the DP World Tour last year after finishing 171st in the rankings and failed to regain his playing privileges at second stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School.

“The biggest thing for me straight after the hole-in-one is reset and onto the next and made a nice birdie on 12,” said Gale.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet in all honesty. The hole-in-one’s great – I guess it helps relax me a lot because it’s quite a nice prize – but I’ve got a job to do this week and my focus doesn’t change.”

Six players are tied in third place at 4-under including Finn Tapio Pulkkanen and Australian Anthony Quayle who closed with bogey-free rounds as well as China’s Wenyi Ding an New Zealand’s Ryan Fox who both made one bogey in theirs.

“I haven’t played tournament golf in two months, so the legs are a little tired. It was good,” said Fox.

“I actually played really nice today, to be honest. Probably left a little bit out there on the greens, but holed a couple of nice ones as well and drove it good. Hit my irons pretty good. A couple of scruffy chips here and there. But yeah, all in all really happy.”

Also tied in fourth place are Spain’s Sebastían Muñoz, bogey-free through 14, and Australian Nathan Barbieri who made one bogey in eight holes.

Round 1 of the BMW Australian PGA Championship will resume at 6am AEST on Friday, with second round tee times pushed back by 90 minutes.

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