[Photo: Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia]
Anthony Quayle says having Tiger Woods’ former caddie Steve Williams on the bag could be the missing ingredient to turn recent form into a breakthrough DP World Tour victory, after climbing into contention during a weather-suspended first round at the Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane.
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Quayle shot a four-under-67 to sit three shots off the pace set by unheralded Spanish golfer Sebastian Garcia (15 holes).
A hailstorm lashed Royal Queensland, the course due to host the golf events at the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, as the afternoon groups were playing. After a one-hour delay, first-round play was called for the day at 4.15pm AEST. The first round will resume at 6am Friday.
Quayle was tied for the clubhouse lead alongside multiple DP World and PGA Tour winner Ryan Fox, China’s Wenyi Ding and Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen (all 67). That group trailed world No.418 Garcia, who raced to seven-under-par through 15 courtesy of six birdies and no bogeys.
Garcia, a 36-year-old journeyman who has won four times on European feeder tour, teed off from the 10th and has two par 5s at the seventh and ninth when he continues his first round Firday. He led Sydneysider Daniel Gale, who made a hole-in-one at the 154-metre par-3 11th while building a five-under score through 12 holes.
Further down the leaderboard, a large group was at three-under including Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee (68). Cameron Smith (69) was two-under and the field’s top-ranked Marco Penge was one-under (70).
Quayle, 31, enlisted the legendary New Zealander Williams, who caddied for Woods during 13 of his 15 major wins and Adam Scott’s 2013 Masters triumph, for this week’s PGA at Royal Queensland and next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.
With a 3.50am alarm to warm up for his 6.20am (local) tee time, Quayle began his round from the 10th and was steady before striking with birdies at the par-5 15th and par-3 17th. He added two more birdies at Nos.1 and 6 and narrowly missed a closing 4 at the par-5 ninth.
“I think he’s probably the most positive and clear caddie that I’ve ever worked with,” Quayle said when asked what exactly Williams brings to the bag. “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.’
“[With Williams] there was no room at all for any doubt; it just didn’t seem to creep into my mind anytime I mad a little bit of a mistake. It wasn’t like he was jumping on me, [asking] What are you doing? It was like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine mate. Everyone makes a bad swing from time to time. Let’s make a good one on the next one.'”
Quayle, 31, was one of the feel-good stories of the 2024/25 Challenger PGA Tour of Australasian season when he gave up status on the lucrative Japan Tour to chase one of three DP World Tour cards on offer for the best order of merit finishers on his home circuit. He was successful and began his DP World Tour membership at the co-sanctioned Australian PGA.
Quayle finished in the top 10 in all four Australian tour lead-in events before Royal Queensland and was in contention at the NSW Open and Queensland PGA. The 31-year-old is a past winner of the Queensland Open and PGA and is hoping to step up to an Australian major title.
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“I feel like I’ve sort of strung together a few top tens and top fives recently and the game feels really good,” Quayle said. “It feels like it’s been good without being great, and I’m hoping that Steve can just bring maybe part of that missing ingredient for me these next couple weeks.”
The 62-year-old Williams is retired from full-time looping but enjoys helping out young tour pros and Quayle was eager to pick his brains about the requirements to compete at golf’s highest level after meeting at the New Zealand Open earlier this year.
The Australian Open starting next Thursday will see the winner invited to play the 2026 Masters at Augusta National, as well as the top three (not already exempt) on the leaderboard receiving a start in the Open Championship.
“Anthony’s got the game,” Williams told Australian Golf Digest on Wednesday. “It’s the first time I’ve seen him play up close and that should he be fortunate enough to get a win at the Australian Open, he’s got the game to play at Augusta.
