Cameron Smith and his LIV Golf teammate Marc Leishman made hay when the solar lastly shone in Brisbane to arrange one other Australian PGA Championship shootout.
However first-round chief Elvis Smylie rallied at Royal Queensland to make sure he would enter Sunday nicely within the combine.
Smylie, a 22-year-old Gold Coast expertise and the son of former tennis nice Liz, bogeyed his first gap and will solely watch as Smith and South African prodigy Aldrich Potgieter surged previous him.
However the left-hander rallied to shut with three birdies on his closing 5 holes, together with the final behind a laser-like method, to attract stage with three-time occasion winner Smith (65) at 10 underneath because of a 67 on Saturday.
Leishman (66), second on this occasion to Smith in a 2018 shootout, was a shot again as he eyed his first piece of Australian silverware after rain decreased the occasion to 54 holes.
Large-hitting 20-year-old Potgieter (67) was the early chief because of 4 birdies on his first 5 holes.
However he missed a par putt on the final to complete eight-under alongside Australia’s European Tour rookie David Micheluzzi (67).
“I did not suppose he was going to run away with it … however you do not wish to make a mistake,” Smith, who birdied three of his first 4 holes, stated of the South African’s early motion.
“That is my residence occasion. This event’s all the time been very nice to me.
“It is a actually cool surroundings which might be why I play so nicely, however you have to exit and do it.”
Jason Day was regular however lamented a poor day together with his trusty putter, the returning former world primary six-under and needing one thing particular in his first Australian look in seven years.
Defending champion Min Woo Lee couldn’t discover his groove, nicely again at two underneath.
Torrential rain meant there was no play on Friday, officers decreasing the occasion to a three-day shootout to reflect the format performed on Smith and Leishman’s LIV Tour.
Smylie stayed busy on the day without work although and he fancies his probabilities of denying Smith one other hometown title.
“Every part goes very well,” he stated.
“Each a part of my recreation is in fairly fine condition.
“As quickly as I used to be in difficult positions, I did a very good job getting out of it with out doing an excessive amount of injury.”
Leishman went the bottom in Brisbane on Sunday final 12 months and once more looms as a menace after what he has described as his most gratifying 12 months.
Each he and Smith threatened the pin on the seventeenth social gathering gap, the place a promotional $1 million prize for followers for any ace throughout the broadcast window went begging.
“We have had a couple of goes round right here,” Leishman stated of his battles with Smith.
“We nonetheless speak about when he bounced off that grate in the course of a lake [in 2018].
“However that is what occurs if you’re successful.
“Generally you get them, generally you do not [but], I am enjoying adequate to win.”
AAP
