Jason Day – encouraging signs for the former world number one – file photo PGA of America
In a wide-ranging virtual interview with Australia’s golfing media today, Jason Day provided further evidence that the form he has shown in returning to the top 50 in the world on Monday was the start of a possible return to the elite of the game.
“It’s been a good start to the season,” said Day. “That West Coast Swing was great for me, getting out to Palm Springs early, getting the work in at the Vintage Club was great and then the last three starts have been awesome. Especially playing great in those elevated events really helped my world ranking, back inside the top-50 now, which is great. I’ve just got to keep pushing that world ranking up.
“The goal is to try and get back to No. 1 and whatever wins come in that, they’re like little steps along the way to get back to No. 1. If it happens sooner, great. If it doesn’t, I’m just going to keep working hard and hopefully it happens somewhere down the road.”
Interestingly, when Day suggested to the world in his very first year on the PGA Tour as an 18 year old that he would like to be the game’s number one, his perceived cockiness at the time, especially in an era when Tiger Woods reigned supreme, was seen by many including an American media, as the cockiness of a green-horn 18 year old from the other side of the world and ‘how dare’ he suggest such a far-fetched goal.
Well things have changed for the then young man who dreamed big at the time and backed his belief in getting to the top of the game. It was achieved nine years later in September of 2015 when just a few weeks after winning his first major title at the PGA Championship he was on the top looking back at those chasing.
Now he can articulate his desire to be the world number one again without any fear of retribution by those who might have thought it brash 17 years ago.
But he knows this will not be an easy task although he has shown previously and now that he is prepared to put in the hard yards to get there.
“You look at Rahm and McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, add Cantlay into the mix and there’s like a number of other guys like a Morikawa, and I can’t remember who else is inside the top-10 but there’s a number of guys that are very talented out here.
“The fields are so deep these days. Not saying they weren’t deep back when I was No. 1 or before me, but it just feels like these guys are really, really prepared to win and play well.
“And we’ve seen it, like over the last three weeks, three guys have regained No. 1 in the world, so there’s three guys right now that are playing really, really good golf. I’m just trying to keep my head down, stay focused and work on my game and hopefully at some point things will start to really turn and I’ll start to gain a lot more confidence.
“And not so much like can I win again, it’s more confidence in the ability of actually producing shots under the pump. I think that’s more of a thing that I’m trying to work towards because I know that I’ve won and I can win, it’s just something that I’m working towards.”
It might be hard to explain in regards like being there (world Number 1), knowing what I had to do to get there and achieving that was — I don’t know, it’s so addicting to go through that journey and that process. Me being a competitor and knowing that like I definitely have the game to get back there, it’s just a matter of like staying healthy and trying to make these correct changes.”
Day was clear in the fact that he has missed being able to play all the majors as has been the case, other than when injury or recent poor form prevented such, for the last twelve or so years
“I definitely want to get back to Augusta. Obviously missing the majors actually has been really tough for me to kind of sit back and — obviously I get to play the PGA, but missing the other majors, it’s really hard for me to sit back and kind of watch it.
“I feel like, you know, working my way back inside the top-50, I know that like it’s obviously a really great thing. I’ve enjoyed the journey thus far, but like I was saying before, like trying to get back to No. 1, there’s a number of things that need to happen. With the recent form I feel encouraged with the things that I’m working on knowing that like they’re showing a lot of good signs
The incredible amount of work Day has put in over the last few years (since slipping down the rankings to as low as 164th last year) in order to overcome the injury issues that have plagued much of his career, is again starting to yield results.
Now, after three consecutive top tens in in his last three starts he has clawed his way back inside the top 50 and all of a sudden he is a genuine chance of playing the Masters for the first time in two years.
With the Arnold Palmer Championship, the Players Championship and the Dell Technologies Match Play all on his immediate schedule ahead of Augusta National on April 6th and all of which he has won previously, then there is every reason to believe he will at least retain his standing in the rankings and more than likely improve but if he struggles in that regard he will keep his options open.
“Plan A is to play Bay Hill, PLAYERS, take a week off and then play the Match Play, take a week off going into Augusta. But if I’m slipping outside of that, then I’ll most likely play Valspar. So, even if I’m outside and I need to play Valero, I’ll most likely try to play Valero and see if I can win that one and get in. Right now, the plan is to play Bay Hill, THE PLAYERS and Match Play.”
The inevitable question about those who have gone to LIV and how he would react to them now being able to play all majors was asked and Day was pragmatic in his answer.
“Yeah, I think for some of the guys that voiced their opinions about LIV, it will probably be a little bit more awkward in regards to that.
“Actually, I miss the guys, I miss the guys that left. In regard to some of those guys, like Phil and Dustin, Cammy and all those guys, it’s kind of sad that they left. But I’m OK with them coming back.
“I think the majors should have the best players in the world and I think those guys deserve the right to go in and play the major championships. Will it be awkward for some? Yes. For me it won’t be because I’ll be catching up with some mates, which is going to be great and I’m hoping that I get to see them.”
Dobbelaar and Yeo lead NZPGA Championship
Louis Dobbelaar – file photo
With just three more events on the 2022/2023 PGA Tour of Australasia schedule to be completed before the all-important Order of Merit is decided, every dollar or point counts in the race for the significant pathways and exemptions on offer for various milestones.
This week’s New Zealand PGA Championship at Gulf Harbour on the Whangaparoa Peninsula just north of Auckland, might carry one of the smallest purses of the season but it might yet have an influence on just where the careers of several might head at the completion of the season in early April.
At the halfway stage of the 72 hole event, Queensland’s Louis Dobbelaar shares the lead with local golfer, Sun Jin Yeo, the pair three ahead of the field as the weekend looms.
Dobbelaar who last season starred in his rookie season on the PGA Tour of Australasia including a 3rd place finish at the Australian PGA Championship, has struggled this season to the point where he has yet to record a finish inside the top 30, his 30th place finish at last week’s New Zealand Open his best to date.
Dobbelaaar is currently 100th on the Order of Merit and will need a big finish to the season if he is to regain playing privileges for next season.
No-one is more aware of his predicament than Dobbelaar himself.
“When you’re in a bit of a situation, you have more reason to focus,” Dobbelaar said of his position on the leaderboard.
“That definitely engages me a bit more but I’ve been trying to be like that from the start of events lately and been playing a bit more solid.
“Just keep that engagement from the start and hit as many good shots as possible.
“The last few weeks I’ve definitely found a bit of momentum, not so much in my game, more so mindset-wise.
“It’s been an interesting start to my career but I’m just playing the way I’ve always felt I can play.”
Yeo is a former New Zealand Junior Champion who plays at nearby North Shore Golf Club and used his local knowledge of the Robert Trent Jones designed layout which was used for the 1998 World Cup and two previous New Zealand Opens to assist his cause.
There are Order of Merit implications further down the leaderboard with Vic Open winner Michael Hendry (currently 6th on the OOM) in a tie for 14th at five-under and Vic PGA champion Andrew Martin (currently 4th) in a tie for 22nd one stroke further back.
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Brett Coletta survives 4 hole playoff for first professional victory
Brett Coletta – image Australian Golf Media
Victorian 26 year old, Brett Coletta, survived a four hole playoff against NSW golfer, Lincoln Tighe, to win his second PGA Tour of Australasia event but his first as a professional at the TPS Hunter Valley event at Cypress Lakes in Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley region.
Coletta set out on his final round more than 3 hours ahead of the final group but reeled off a round of 61 to set the clubhouse mark at 11 under and waited as both Tighe and Jack Munro fought out what would ultimately be the right to join Coletta in the playoff.
With a par at his final hole Tighe had outlasted the luckless Munro and so it was to what would ultimately be a four hole playoff.
Coletta turned professional soon after winning the Queensland Open as an amateur in October of 2016, a week after he had suffered a dramatic loss to Curtis Luck at the Asia Pacific Amateur Championship in Korea.
Coletta was gutted by that loss as he had led Luck by seven shots heading into the final round, a win that week providing the victor a ticket to the 2017 Masters. It was not to be and that he bounced back so quickly at the Brisbane Golf Club so soon after told the story of a young man with not only a fine game, but a great constitution.
He managed to get a few starts by invite on the PGA Tour but he was unable to gain full status there and has spent the last few years plying his trade on the Korn Ferry Tour where in 2019 he went so close to gaining his PGA Tour rights. He finished just outside the crucial top 25 and he has been resigned to playing the Korn Ferry Tour and wherever else he could gain starts since.
His form in the current PGA Tour of Australasia season to date has been mixed missing the cut in the bigger events but putting together several top tens in lesser events but now with this victory he has moved to 8th on the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Order of Merit and the door has opened for Coletta to move further up the Order of Merit and gain access to international exemptions especially given that his victory earns him a start at next week’s New Zealand Open in Queenstown.
It was an agonising loss for Tighe who, like Coletta, was chasing an important win in his career. At this stage he does not have a start in New Zealand which may or may not change by Thursday next but there is clear evidence this powerful golfer’s game is on a huge upward curve having finished runner-up along with Coletta at the Victorian PGA Championship last year.
Tighe’s last and only win came at the 2014 NSW PGA Championship but he has suffered with injuries for much of his career. At his best he is an exciting player to watch and it is hoped he can build on what has been an encouraging start to 2023.
Munro finished alone in third positions and pocketed A$17,500 followed by Queenslander Douglas Klein in 4th place with Nick Flanagan and last week’s Korn Ferry Tour winner, Rhein Gibson sharing 5th place, just three shots from the playoff.
The leading female in the mixed gender event was Japan’s Yuna Takagi who tied for 12th.
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Brendan Smith turns back the clock at TPS Hunter Valley
33 year old NSW golfer, Brendan Smith, one of Australia’s best amateurs before turning professional a decade ago, turned back the clock to lead the TPS Hunter Valley at the halfway stage of the event at Cypress Lakes in the Hunter Valley.
Smith, who these days works in a coalmine in Central Queensland, took time away from that role to tee it up once again in a PGA Tour of Australasia event and for the man who grew up in Belmont south of Newcastle and not too far from this week’s venue, his efforts to date might yet spark a return to playing the game full time.
Smith knows the Cypress Lakes layout well having earned a scholarship here in his younger days and won the iconic Jack Newton Celebrity Classic on two occasions over the Hunter Valley layout.
Smith knows it is early days yet but with less pressure on him to perform, given his well paid job in the mines, he is taking a different attitude to this rather limited opportunity.
“I can come and play golf and shoot eight-over tomorrow and it’s not going to change my attitude now,” Smith told the PGA Tour of Australasia. “It’s either eight-over or eight-under, it doesn’t bother me no more.
“I know my best is still good enough and it’s just a matter of doing it,” added Smith, who has aspirations to return to the Asian Tour.
“I could come out the next couple of days and play like a busted arse but I’ve got that desire to play back again.
“I’m only 33. I’m as fit as I’ve ever been… I don’t know what the next two or three years hold for me, I’ve got no idea.”
Smith’s second round of 67 to go with his opening 66 has given him a one shot lead through 36 holes over the Gold Coast based Jack Murdoch, Victorian Peter Wilson and New Zealand’s Hanee Song, who leads the ladies side of the mixed gender event.
Smith’s previous best finish on the PGA Tour of Australasia was when 4th at the WAPGA Championship 11 years ago but his renewed appetite for the game has opened the chance for something better this weekend.
Pre-tournament favourites, Rhein Gibson who last week won a Korn Ferry Tour event, and Order of Merit leader, David Micheluzzi, are tied for 27th at 2 under and five from the lead.
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Hanee Song – image Australian Golf Media
Jason Day eyes world number one again
Jason Day – encouraging signs for the former world number one – file photo PGA of America
In a wide-ranging virtual interview with Australia’s golfing media today, Jason Day provided further evidence that the form he has shown in returning to the top 50 in the world on Monday was the start of a possible return to the elite of the game.
“It’s been a good start to the season,” said Day. “That West Coast Swing was great for me, getting out to Palm Springs early, getting the work in at the Vintage Club was great and then the last three starts have been awesome. Especially playing great in those elevated events really helped my world ranking, back inside the top-50 now, which is great. I’ve just got to keep pushing that world ranking up.
“The goal is to try and get back to No. 1 and whatever wins come in that, they’re like little steps along the way to get back to No. 1. If it happens sooner, great. If it doesn’t, I’m just going to keep working hard and hopefully it happens somewhere down the road.”
Interestingly, when Day suggested to the world in his very first year on the PGA Tour as an 18 year old that he would like to be the game’s number one, his perceived cockiness at the time, especially in an era when Tiger Woods reigned supreme, was seen by many including an American media, as the cockiness of a green-horn 18 year old from the other side of the world and ‘how dare’ he suggest such a far-fetched goal.
Well things have changed for the then young man who dreamed big at the time and backed his belief in getting to the top of the game. It was achieved nine years later in September of 2015 when just a few weeks after winning his first major title at the PGA Championship he was on the top looking back at those chasing.
Now he can articulate his desire to be the world number one again without any fear of retribution by those who might have thought it brash 17 years ago.
But he knows this will not be an easy task although he has shown previously and now that he is prepared to put in the hard yards to get there.
“You look at Rahm and McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, add Cantlay into the mix and there’s like a number of other guys like a Morikawa, and I can’t remember who else is inside the top-10 but there’s a number of guys that are very talented out here.
“The fields are so deep these days. Not saying they weren’t deep back when I was No. 1 or before me, but it just feels like these guys are really, really prepared to win and play well.
“And we’ve seen it, like over the last three weeks, three guys have regained No. 1 in the world, so there’s three guys right now that are playing really, really good golf. I’m just trying to keep my head down, stay focused and work on my game and hopefully at some point things will start to really turn and I’ll start to gain a lot more confidence.
“And not so much like can I win again, it’s more confidence in the ability of actually producing shots under the pump. I think that’s more of a thing that I’m trying to work towards because I know that I’ve won and I can win, it’s just something that I’m working towards.”
It might be hard to explain in regards like being there (world Number 1), knowing what I had to do to get there and achieving that was — I don’t know, it’s so addicting to go through that journey and that process. Me being a competitor and knowing that like I definitely have the game to get back there, it’s just a matter of like staying healthy and trying to make these correct changes.”
Day was clear in the fact that he has missed being able to play all the majors as has been the case, other than when injury or recent poor form prevented such, for the last twelve or so years
“I definitely want to get back to Augusta. Obviously missing the majors actually has been really tough for me to kind of sit back and — obviously I get to play the PGA, but missing the other majors, it’s really hard for me to sit back and kind of watch it.
“I feel like, you know, working my way back inside the top-50, I know that like it’s obviously a really great thing. I’ve enjoyed the journey thus far, but like I was saying before, like trying to get back to No. 1, there’s a number of things that need to happen. With the recent form I feel encouraged with the things that I’m working on knowing that like they’re showing a lot of good signs
The incredible amount of work Day has put in over the last few years (since slipping down the rankings to as low as 164th last year) in order to overcome the injury issues that have plagued much of his career, is again starting to yield results.
Now, after three consecutive top tens in in his last three starts he has clawed his way back inside the top 50 and all of a sudden he is a genuine chance of playing the Masters for the first time in two years.
With the Arnold Palmer Championship, the Players Championship and the Dell Technologies Match Play all on his immediate schedule ahead of Augusta National on April 6th and all of which he has won previously, then there is every reason to believe he will at least retain his standing in the rankings and more than likely improve but if he struggles in that regard he will keep his options open.
“Plan A is to play Bay Hill, PLAYERS, take a week off and then play the Match Play, take a week off going into Augusta. But if I’m slipping outside of that, then I’ll most likely play Valspar. So, even if I’m outside and I need to play Valero, I’ll most likely try to play Valero and see if I can win that one and get in. Right now, the plan is to play Bay Hill, THE PLAYERS and Match Play.”
The inevitable question about those who have gone to LIV and how he would react to them now being able to play all majors was asked and Day was pragmatic in his answer.
“Yeah, I think for some of the guys that voiced their opinions about LIV, it will probably be a little bit more awkward in regards to that.
“Actually, I miss the guys, I miss the guys that left. In regard to some of those guys, like Phil and Dustin, Cammy and all those guys, it’s kind of sad that they left. But I’m OK with them coming back.
“I think the majors should have the best players in the world and I think those guys deserve the right to go in and play the major championships. Will it be awkward for some? Yes. For me it won’t be because I’ll be catching up with some mates, which is going to be great and I’m hoping that I get to see them.”
LIV Golf begins second season in Mexico
New Zealander Danny Lee – latest LIV Golf signing – file photo
The second season of LIV Golf begins this week in Mexico when the LIV Golf Mayakoba event gets underway at the El Camaleón Golf Course in Riviera Maya near Cancun.
The El Camaleon was designed by Greg Norman so no real surprise the former PGA Tour event venue is now being used for a tour in which Norman has played such a part in establishing.
Several new signings are included in the revised 48 player line-up including Mito Pereira, Brendan Steele, Thomas Pieters, Dean Burmester and New Zealand’s Danny Lee who has only just signed in the last few days.
The Australians in the field are Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, and Jed Morgan with Wade Ormsby having lost his place in the line-up.
The event is the first of 14 scheduled for this season at this stage, this event followed in three weeks by an event in Tucson, then two weeks the Tour heads to Orlando before it arrives in Adelaide for an event starting on April 22nd.
In addition to the US$20 million individual purse a further US$5 million is allotted for the incorporated 12 x 4 man team contest.
Field
Jason Day returns to world’s top 50
Jason Day’s share of 9th place at this morning’s Genesis Invitational, his third top ten in his last three PGA Tour starts, has the former world number one now back inside the top 50 in the world ranking and on track for a start at the Masters should he remain inside the top 50 by the week preceding the event in early April.
Day’s position in today’s revised rankings is now 46th after beginning the year just outside the top 100, a reflection on the tremendous strides his game has made since adopting swing changes to accommodate his ongoing back issues.
Day improved 17 places from his overnight share of 26th with a final round of 65 at the Riviera Country Club, the second best of the day, and continues an impressive run which has moved him inside the top 50 for the first time since missing the cut at the Masters two years ago.
“I feel like some weeks the body is reacting perfectly to what I’m trying to do in regards to changing certain patterns in the golf swing,” said Day at last week’s event in Phoenix.
“Then there’s just been pretty much like a learning curve with regard to changing. It’s been really difficult to change the swing and compete out here. I would love to have a swing like a Rahm or Rory that is tested over time and it’s been successful.
“But for me I’ve had to make those changes because of my body. Unfortunately, I’m just through that, I’m going through the testing phase right now of trying to change that as I compete. That can be difficult.
“Because you wake up some days it’s like absolutely good and perfect and some days it’s just, you know — like, I mean, first round to second round here, it’s just totally different. It’s amazing. But I’m just grinding away trying to do the best job I can.”
Clearly, for Day, it is very much a work in progress but that he is putting himself in the contest on a more regular basis can only do wonders for his confidence and the 35 year old, who was so regularly contending in major championships earlier in his career, is regaining some of that same consistency.
Ten top 5 finishes in major championships including his PGA title in 2015, highlights a man with the capacity to, when fit, compete at the very pointy end of the toughest tournaments in the world and against the game’s best players.
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Lydia Ko wins big in second Saudi Ladies International victory
Lydia Ko – photo Ladies European Tour
World number one Lydia Ko has consolidated and extended her lead in the Rolex World Ranking with a narrow one shot victory at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International in Saudi Arabia and in doing so secured her second largest cheque in the game (US$702,000).
The figure is second to only the US$2,000,000 she won when winning the Tour Championship late last year.
The event, funded by the Saudi Arabian Investment Fund, carried a total purse of US$5 million and while not an LPGA Tour event (it was part of the Ladies European Tour’s schedule) it provided a huge boost in earnings for many in the field including Ko and the runner-up Aditi Ashok of India who secured US$420,000 for her runner-up finish.
Ashok has recorded a win, a 3rd place and now a runner-up finish in three Ladies European Tour events this year.
The victory, in her first outing of 2023 after being recently married, was Ko’s second in the event having also won in 2021.
“When I came in 2021 I thought the course conditions were really good, but I came here again two years later and it’s even better,” said Ko. “The rough was a little bit more up so it felt a little different in ways.
“But, yeah, when you’re playing in really good conditions, you just know that you got to hit good, committed shots, and then you’re able to get good feedback off that. The course has been great to me.
“Hopefully I’m going to get some good momentum. I’m playing the next couple weeks, so the next week will be my first LPGA event of the season in Thailand. Not so long flight over to Thailand and start my season on that tour.
“Every day is different, so I don’t think you can take anything for granted. I’m just going to stick to my process and keep working on the things I’ve been working on and enjoy it. Hopefully this is a light to a good start of the 2023 season.”
Ko has been working with a new caddie this week although David Jones has worked for her once previously when successful at the 2021 Lotte Championship and she mentioned how that familiarity has helped in the transition.
Ko ended what had been a particularly successful relationship with her previous caddie Derek Kistler despite a win in her last event, the Tour Championship.
“Yeah, this is our second win together. Our first win was my first win in three years, which was at LOTTE Championship in 2021. I had worked three events prior to that with him. I worked the Scottish Open and the British Open and then the BMW Championship as well.
“So he is a new face, but like someone similar that I know that we have good chemistry. Dave, because he used to play, I feel like he has the mindset of a player and he’s very positive. Even when I don’t hit a good shot, he’s out there thinking, what can we do to recover from here.
“So I try and be more positive when I’m on the golf course, and he definitely helps me with that. I think his knowledge with that playing background I think helps.
“So just having somebody that I can rely on and believe and trust, I think is very important, whether it’s (indiscernible) or not, that’s a secondary thing, but I trust him. So even though this was our first official week together, it didn’t feel like it.”
Stephanie Kyriacou was the only other Australasian to make the weekend and finished 50th.
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David Micheluzzi wins TPS Sydney to consolidate OOM lead
David Micheluzzi – image Australian Golf Media
The young man who was already the Order of Merit leader on the PGA Tour of Australasia, David Micheluzzi, played his final ten holes of the TPS Sydney Presented by Webex event at Bonnie Doon in a massive nine under par to win his second PGA Tour of Australasia event.
Beginning at the 9th, which he eagled to turn in 3 under, Micheluzzi added a further seven birdies over the closing nine holes for a homeward nine of an incredible 27 to win by four over Deyen Lawson and Daniel Gale with another two shots back to the Sydney amateur Jeffrey Guan, who had the outright lead early in the round after sharing the lead with Gale into the final day.
Micheluzzi won his first event at the WA PGA Championship in October of last year and with two other runner-up finishes this season along with top ten finishes at the Australian PGA and Open Championships, the 26 year old has further consolidated his place at the top of the rankings this season and assured himself a place on the DP World Tour next season.
The leading three players on the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Order of Merit at the completion of the final event in early April will earn a much sought after card for Europe in 2024 and open the door for a career which looks destined to provide big things for the Victorian.
One of this country’s more gifted amateurs before turning professional, Micheluzzi turned professional late in 2019 and like so many of his era, his progress was curtailed by Covid and the inability to gain access to a tour other than the PGA Tour of Australasia.
There is little doubting his significant talent, however, most obvious when 5th at the Australian Open as an amateur behind Abraham Ancer in 2017 and his immediate future now looks assured with access to Europe.
Another win at the New Zealand Open in two weeks’ time, and who is to say his current form won’t offer that opportunity, will also open the door to the growing riches of the Asian Tour, given that tour’s joint sanctioning with the NZ Open, providing him an embarrassment of playing options.
Micheluzzi’s win this week comes on top of a runner-up finish behind New Zealander Mike Hendry at last week’s Vic Open leaving him now well clear of Cameron Smith on the Australasian Tour’s Order of Merit and all but assured of the top spot when finalised in April and more importantly one of those three precious exemptions in Europe.
Sarah Kemp led the women’s challenge when she tied for 5th with Lawry Finn and last year’s runner-up Brendan Jones.
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Newly married Lydia Ko contending in Saudi Arabia
Lydia Ko – photo Ladies European Tour
Perhaps ironically, the ladies don’t appear to be copping as much flack as the men by playing in Saudi Arabia this week, the US$5 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International Presented by Public Investment Fund, at the Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in the KAEC in Saudi now at the halfway stage.
Despite the fact the Ladies European Tour event is playing for their biggest purse and for similar funding to that on offer by LIV Golf, there appears no protesting by those who have found the involvement by Saudi money in the men’s game so distasteful.
India’s Aditi Ashok has the lead by two over New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and American Lilia Vu. Ashok’s final nine of 29 included a final hole eagle to complete a stunning finish to her round.
Recently married, Ko was asked about her mindset now that she is no longer a single woman.
“I think for me, especially at the end of last year as I was getting closer to the D-Day of getting married,” said Ko.
“I was like, man, I literally have found my best friend. I’m going to get married to the person I love the most and everything else was going to be a bonus.
“So I think that mindset really helped when I was playing, because no matter if I shot 85, 75, 65, or 55, I knew that the man of my dreams was going to be there and support me. I think that was such a like easier mindset to go out there and play and just focus on my game and just have fun and not let golf dictate who I am and how I perceive myself.
“So it’s kind of the mindset right now. I think I’m very grateful about the things that have happened in the last few months on and off the golf course, so I’m trying to ride the good rhythm. It’s been so long since CME. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be. Playing really solid yesterday helped with the nerves, and I’m excited for a fun maybe just as breezy weekend.”
Ko won this event or its equivalent in 2021.
Sydney’s Stephanie Kyriacou, the only other Australasian to make the weekend is tied for 29th at 3 under and 10 from the lead.
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Travis Smyth in line for another big cheque
Travis Smyth – file photo Asian Tour
Wollongong’s Travis Smyth sits in a share of 3rd place and just three from the 36 hole leader at the halfway mark of the Asian Tour’s US$2.5 million International Series event at the Doha Golf Club in Qatar.
The leader Suradit Yongcharoenchai is at 5 under in the windy conditions that have prevailed over the opening two days with only seven players under par heading into the weekend.
Smyth, a winner of events on both the Asian and Australasian Tours, finished runner-up in an International Series event in England early last year securing him starts in several LIV Golf events, during a period where he earned over A$1 million in a very short space of time.
Just three weeks ago Smyth finished 6th in an International event in Saudi Arabia where he earned another US$140,000 so his involvement with these type of events is proving to be very lucrative.
“It’s like the best feeling ever, finishing Friday midday, just sitting back relaxing, watching the carnage unfold,” said Smyth referring to the strong winds sweeping the Peter Harrradine layout. “Yeah, brutal conditions, I’m super stoked to be under par.
“I mean, it’s so strange, I’ve never seen anywhere like it where it’s windy all the way through the night, all the way through the morning. It’s like it’s the exact same basically the last two days,” he added.
Sydney’s John Lyras, who recently secured his Asian Tour playing card by finishing runner-up at the Asian Tour School, is in share of 8th place this week and five shots from the leader.
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