Daniel Gale takes halfway lead in South Australia
Daniel Gale in action this week – image courtesy of PGA of Australia
NSW golfer Daniel Gale has the halfway lead at the Players Series South Australia event at the Willunga Golf Course south of Adelaide, the 30-year-old following up some recent good form, when runner-up in Kalgoorlie and 8th at Secret Harbour in the WA Open, with rounds of 64 and 65 on the low-scoring layout to be two ahead of Victorian Kyle Michel.
Michel’s second-round 63 is the best of the week so far, and the former good amateur, who has struggled at the professional level for much of his career, appears to have found some form after a horror year in 2025, when he missed twelve of fourteen cuts.
Gale, who has won three events on the PGA Tour of Australasia, found himself on the DP World Tour for a couple of seasons courtesy of his form in Australia. Still, he struggled there, but he has now recorded two runner-up finishes at home in 2026 and appears close to the sort of form which saw such a promising future three years ago.
“The ultimate goal is, I think, for anyone to win the order of merit,” said Gale. “To do that, you’ve got to play well in pretty much all of these and play well in the big ones when it counts because a lot of points are up for grabs there. So I feel like I’ve been off to a good start so far and just try to keep the same things rolling. I definitely want to get back out in Europe.
“I love my time over there and the golf over there. I reckon probably throughout the years, American golf I thought was obviously PGA Tour, everyone strives for that. But I mean if I could play Europe for the rest of my life, it’d be amazing. Just the countries over there and the culture, it’s so nice. Yeah, nice.”
“I want to say the form coming into this week, it’s been pretty steady and pretty solid. And to have obviously, the good results the last couple of weeks, anytime you have good results, it sparks the confidence. So feel like everything’s sort of close to clicking. I’ve had just rounds where it’s like three out of four things are clicking, but yeah, it feels like piecing the puzzle together nicely.”
South Australian veteran Adam Bland is alone in third place and three shots from the lead while a large group at 7 under and tie for 4th includes the leading female in this mixed gender event, Rachel Lee.
The cut fell at 2 under, with 53 players making it to the weekend.
