Quayle and Williams make great start to new combination
Quayle and Williams in action this morning – image PGA of Australia
The morning field experienced perfect conditions for much of their opening rounds of the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland, a light breeze kicking in mid-morning, making the last few holes a little more difficult, but, overall, given the volatile weather in the region of late, it was a dream opening for the $A2.5 million event.
Lift clean and place rules applied as a result of the stormy weather earlier in the week, and as the morning field completed their rounds, several familiar names were amongst the early contenders.
New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, Queenslander Anthony Quayle, Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen and China’s Wenyi Ding led the way at 4 under, one ahead of a large group just one back at 3 under, including Adam Scott, who, after finding the greenside bunker with his approach to the lengthy par 5 9th (his final hole of the day), blasted over the green and took bogey.
Others at 3 under from the morning field included 2023 champion Min Woo Lee, New Zealand’s Josh Geary, Spanish golfers, David Puig and Josele Ballester, England’s Alex Fitzpatrick and James Morrison, Queenslander Quinton Croker, West Australian Curtis Luck and South Australian Wade Ormsby.
Quayle is playing his first event as a cardholder on the DP World Tour after gaining his playing rights via the PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit last season.
Quayle also had the benefit of the experienced world-class caddy, Steve Williams, on the bag, that pairing coming about following their meeting during the Steve Williams Caddy Clinic at the New Zealand Open earlier this year.
When asked his thoughts on such a good start with Steve Wiliams on the bag, Quayle responded.
“Hopefully that’s the sort of standard every time Stevie’s on the bag. That’d be nice. Next three rounds, that’d be good. And then maybe four more of them next week and we’re laughing.
“I met him (Steve) at the New Zealand Open earlier this year. We did a caddie talk at an event Steve runs with Bruce Young and Michael Glading, and yeah, we got on fairly well. And actually, I said, do you mind if we go grab a coffee afterwards, I’d love to pick your brain. He said, fuck that. I’ll give you my number, I’ll come caddie for you. And then kept messaging each other. And then yeah, a month or two later I just reached out and asked if he wanted to and he was interested.
“I think he’s probably the most positive and clear caddie that I’ve ever worked with. I think he probably has a reputation for being quite intense, but my experience today wasn’t that at all. It was just very direct; this is what we need to do here. You think you can do it? Yep, let’s do it then.
“There was no room at all for any sort of doubt at any point. It just didn’t seem to creep into my mind. Anytime I did make a little bit of a mistake, it wasn’t like he was jumping on me, What are you doing? It was like, yeah, that’s fine mate, everyone makes bad swing time to time. Let’s make a good one on the next one. So it was really good.
“I feel like I’ve sort of strung together a few top 10s and top fives recently, and the game feels really good. It feels like it’s been good without being great, and I’m hoping that Steve can kind of just bring maybe part of that missing ingredient for me these next couple of weeks.
Quayle finished third in this event last year, and, as a winner of the Queensland PGA and Queensland Open Championships in this region, he clearly enjoyed the very warm conditions despite the early morning start, with some of his early childhood spent in Gove in the Northern Territory.
Quayle and Williams during the 2025 Steve Williams caddy clinic in Queenstown
Fox, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour in the US this season, has just completed an eight-week break from the game as he took rest and recreation in addition to addressing some minor injury issues.
“I haven’t played tournament golf in two months,” said the New Zealander. “So the legs are a little tired. It was good. I actually played really nicely 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.”
“Kind of come out here, feel like I’ve kind of got nothing to lose,” added Fox, referring to the break and his new standing in the game.” “I’m here to try to win a golf tournament rather than playing for a card or anything like that. It’s a nice place to be. And yeah, just kind of felt good out there. Hit a couple of good shots early, I was like, Oh yeah, this is what it feels like again. And yeah, I’ve got a nice group with Elvis and Scotty as well. Two guys I know really well and always enjoy chatting with Scotty. So it was just nice out there.”
The afternoon field will find it more difficult as the breeze continue to build along with the heat and whether anyone can catch or pass those on top of the morning leaderboard remains to be seen, but tournament officials will be delighted to have so many of their marquee players in the mix already.
