Tony Webeck
Queenslander Andrew Dodt has emerged from a two-year bout of ‘paralysis by analysis’ to shoot a stunning 7-under par 65 in his first look at RACV Royal Pines and claim the first round lead of the Australian PGA Championship on the Gold Coast.
Teeing off in relatively benign conditions at 7.20 on Thursday morning, Dodt saw New Zealand’s Ryan Fox shoot 67 and major drawcard Adam Scott 68 before making birdie on three of his last five holes to leapfrog them both and take a two-shot lead into Friday’s second round.
The wind that began to emerge at the tail end of the morning’s round grew stronger as the afternoon wore on, making scoring difficult for most but not deterring Victorian Jarrod Lyle, who made an ace when his 7-iron rolled into the centre of the hole at the 164-metre par 3 5th.
American Harold Varner III, one of the two vanquished players in Nathan Holman’s playoff win 12 months ago, made the best of the afternoon conditions to be 5-under through 14 holes before play was suspended due to a thunderstorm that forced players from the course at 3.15pm and eventually called off at 4.45pm, the first round to resume at 5.30am AEST.
Others to fare well in the afternoon were the Aussie quartet of Lyle, Matthew Griffin, Ashley Hall and Adam Stephens at 3-under, along with Varner the only late starters to feature in the top 20.
Portugal’s Jose Filipe-Lima had an expensive start to his 2017 European Tour campaign, travelling up from the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne only to miss his 11.15am tee time and be disqualified from the tournament before he could even take a swing.
A winner on the European Tour in February 2015, Dodt endured a miserable season this year – making just seven cuts in 20 starts – before coming to the realisation that he had to stop worrying about crafting a perfect swing and instead get back to playing the game of golf.
To do that he reconnected with former Queensland Academy of Sport contact Andrea Furst who encouraged him to let go of his natural tendencies as a perfectionist and revert to the way he played the game as a youngster in Gatton.
“This year and last year I’ve been playing the swing game a bit, if you like, trying to swing it perfectly because I thought if you swing it perfectly you’re going to play well,” Dodt conceded.
“I’d rather swing average and play better. I’ve finally figured that out a bit but it’s always a work in progress.
“The turning point was getting in touch with an old sports psychologist, Andrea Furst. She’s an Adelaide girl, but grew up in Brisbane, and was at the Queensland Academy of Sport at Brookwater when I went through there and I felt like I needed to do something.
“So I got in touch with her, probably in about July/August, we’ve been sort of working away since then and I feel like over the last month or so I’ve maybe turned the corner.
“The turning point was probably around the NSW Open a couple of weeks ago.
“I played a couple of pro-ams in Newcastle. I just felt like I wanted to practice playing a bit more as opposed to hitting balls on the range.
“I played those pro-ams, NSW Open was solid and I just felt like I was in a really good spot.
“It’s always a work in progress, so it’s nice to build on that today.”
Despite honing his skills in south-east Queensland and confessing to have played every course in Brisbane and the Gold Coast except Royal Pines, Dodt took just 27 holes of practice on Monday and Tuesday to become accustomed to the revamped Graham Marsh layout.
Starting on the 10th hole he made birdies at 12, 13 and 15 slightly offset by a bogey at 14 to turn in 34 before a blistering back nine of 31 with birdies at 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9 for an opening round 65, his best round of the year.
“I knew I had to take advantage of the morning round with the way the weather was, but having said that, it was quite windy early on,” said Dodt.
“You know it’s going to be tough tomorrow afternoon, so you had to take advantage of this morning.
“Thankfully I did, but it’s going to be tough tomorrow afternoon and maybe [a winning total of] 10-under is the mark, maybe a little less. It just depends how windy it gets.”
