Jeffrey Guan’s remarkable comeback from being struck by a golf ball and losing sight in his right eye took another step on Friday at Kalgoorlie Golf Course, with the New South Welshman making it through to the weekend of the CKB WA PGA Championship.
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Guan started his second Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia event since the incident in late 2024 with an even-par 72 on Thursday before getting off to a strong start in the second round with three birdies on the back nine, his starting point for day two.
A bogey at the first hole was quickly recovered from with Guan making a hat-trick of birdies from the second and continuing his strong form of last week when he shared second at the pro-amateur Royal Sydney Cup event across the club’s renovated Bay course.
Guan would make bogeys at the sixth and eighth holes to close with a three-under 69, but the joy of another milestone in his storybook comeback was written across the former amateur standout’s face post round.
“I was very happy leading into this week. I played the Royal Sydney Cup beforehand, 36 holes, so sort of got a good idea where my game’s at,” Guan said.
“The past two days I think I drove the ball really well and hit some pretty good wedge shots. A bit sloppy on some chip shots here and there, which is understandable for me. And in the end, it was a pretty good two scores.”
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Sitting inside the top-10 as the afternoon field made their way out on course and as Jay Mackenzie was relaxing after taking the clubhouse lead of 12-under after a 64, Guan spoke of the progression that is occurring almost everyday with his game, as well as some positive words from a tour veteran.
“I did work on my game after [missing the cut] in Darwin. I saw what areas I needed to work on and over those couple weeks I worked with my coach, worked with my dad, and we sort of got those areas sorted,” Guan said.
“Then today, I guess it showed me where my practice has been going well.
“Each round that I’ve played, I’ve found little bits and pieces that I need to work on, and then slowly, hopefully over the time I can get used to it.
“I spoke with ‘Rummy’ (Brett Rumford). I think he had a little incident happen when they were doing flop shots and then the ball hit the top of his eye, like the eyebrow. And then he played – I think he said he played one of the rounds with basically one eye. So he said it could be done and I’m sure I did it today. So I was pretty happy with myself.”
Former winner Mackenzie leads the WA PGA by six strokes at the midpoint, with Rumford, Curtis Luck and Austin Bautista tied for second heading into today’s third round.
