[Photo: Chris Hyde/Getty Images]
With respect to frontrunner Brett Rankin, the star power on the BMW Australian PGA Championship leaderboard rests with two of his countrymen.
Marc Leishman [pictured] and Cam Davis turned in second rounds of 68 and 67, respectively, to reach seven-under-par for 36 holes to sit two shots behind the Brisbane local and tied for fifth place.
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Neither Leishman nor Davis has won the Australian PGA before and both are seeking to fortify their home résumés. Davis would become just the fourth golfer ever to complete the treble of winning the Australian Amateur, Open and PGA championships with a victory this week, while Leishman is seeking to claim his first significant title on home soil.
The 42-year-old plundered Royal Queensland for five birdies and an eagle in his second-round 68. A quartet of bogeys prevented him from edging closer to the lead.
Meanwhile, by raising the Joe Kirkwood Cup on Sunday, Davis would join Bruce Devlin, the late Bob Shearer and Greg Chalmers as the only golfers to do the Amateur/Open/PGA combo in Australia. (Cam Smith and Jed Morgan have an opportunity to enter the same elite club by winning next week’s Australian Open.)
Davis, who is making his first competitive start since the PGA Tour’s FedEx St Jude Championship in mid-August, birdied four of his last seven holes in his 67 after an even-par first nine in agreeable conditions on Friday morning. His lofty position on the leaderboard this week is shaping as a case of: beware of the rested golfer.
“I needed a break this year, so I was glad that I’d already locked up my [PGA Tour] status for next year early enough to be able to take that time off,” the 30-year-old Sydneysider said. “I feel like it’s pretty much seven years straight where I haven’t taken an offseason. I’ve just grinded all the way through it.
“Playing in Australia is amazing. It’s also the one little period of time the PGA Tour is not playing, so if anything I was always playing more golf than a lot of the guys were over there. So it was great to take the time off. It was great to get the love for the game back. It was a bit rough towards the end of my season, so it’s worked out really well. I’m fresh and ready to go.”
Davis, who these days works with swing coach Ralph Bauer, also used his downtime to refine and reset.
“You can get bogged down in focusing on the wrong things when you play that much golf against that good competition, and I needed to reset that mindset because I kind of gotten away from it a little bit. So I’m playing golf right now in a place that I feel like I haven’t been for quite a long time and it’s really nice to enjoy it again. So it’s exciting for next year, but it’s been exciting just to get back to it.
“Technique-wise, I had a few things I needed to clean up. The swing’s always been all right, but I just needed to tighten that up a little bit.”
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For one so talented and with such an exemplary international record, it is an anomaly that Leishman has not won anything larger than the 2008 Victorian PGA Championship at home. Unlike Davis, he is parlaying a busy playing schedule into strong form.
Since the LIV Golf circuit ended for the year, Leishman has contested the WA Open (where he shared third place), the International Series event in the Philippines (sixth) and last week in Saudi Arabia (T-11). Adding events to complement LIV’s shorter schedule is still a learning experience for many on the circuit, but Leishman seems to have found his balance.
“[I’m] feeling good,” he said. “I played the WA Open and then the International Series in the Philippines, had three weeks off and then I was in Saudi last week, so I feel fresh enough. Obviously playing last week was a good lead-up to this event.”
The two international Aussie stars have come to the Australian PGA off differing lead-ups. Which one works out best will be compelling to watch this weekend.
