Three way tie atop the QLD PGA leaderboard
Nick Voke – photo PGA of Australia
Three players have a share of the halfway lead at the Queensland PGA Championship at the Nudgee Golf Club in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane, South Australian Jak Carter, Queensland’s Kade McBride and New Zealander Nick Voke all tied at 6 under and one ahead of New South Welshmen, Josh Armstrong and John Lyras and Voke’s fellow countryman Denzel Ieremia.
The layout is staging this event for the second occasion, the Jim Wilcher designed redevelopment of the historic Nudgee Golf Club into a 36 hole facility completed in 2021. The course still has a lot of maturing to do and players found the windswept course more than a handful but with 36 holes so close to the CBD of Brisbane the Nudgee Golf Club is making its mark.
Carter is playing just his fourth event as a professional but having missed the cut in his last two at the WA Open and the Vic PGA, this has been an encouraging turnaround.
Carter is currently completing a Membership Pathway Programme for the PGA of Australia at the Stirling Golf Club in South Australia and has already won PGA State Associate Championships in NSW and South Australia although this is of course another level again.
“It’s through the Membership Pathway Program that I had the opportunity to play some events,” explained Carter, who is already exempt into next week’s Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.
“That really helped me leading into Qualifying School. I felt relaxed to head to an event and play something like that, that really helped.
“I’ve certainly learnt that this is where I belong. Which is something that I had felt in the past but to be actually out here and doing it and feeling reasonably comfortable is something that does feel nice.”
Voke is a fine young New Zealand golfer who starred during his time at Iowa State University and, although he has struggled in his two seasons to date on the Korn Ferry Tour, he has at times shown glimpses of his capabilities.
As a result of winning three times on the China Tour in 2018 he played his way to the Korn Ferry Tour where he has recorded the occasional top ten but the past twelve months have been tough for the 28 year old.
Voke is considering tackling the Asian Tour qualifying rather than another year in the US in 2023, the opportunities in Asia now more lucrative then has the case in the past courtesy of that tour’s stronger association with Liv Golf but he knows that a good summer in Australia and New Zealand might change all that.
“If you’re high enough on this Order of Merit some really good doors will open,” Voke acknowledged.
“That’s the beauty of coming back to Australia. I was really looking forward to this. I had probably two events the last two or three months in the States and I knew there was a long stretch of events over here for the summer.
“I was excited because it’s so much more casual, so much more chill, lot more familiar faces, lot more laughs and a bit of banter.”
Kade McBride has also experienced good fortune in China in the past and although yet to record a win on a recognised tour as such, there have been numerous top tens. The Sanctuary Cove based player is an elegant player with a lot more game than his results to date have shown.
