Coast’s Uber talent McBride in the mix
WHEN Kade McBride was picking up nightclubbers as an Uber driver in Surfers Paradise last year, it was impossible to picture his name near the top of the leaderboard at the Isuzu Queensland Open.
His fledgling career was in limbo for six months when wrist tendon surgery created the fear in all golfers that something goes missing forever at comeback time when you return from injury.
McBride, 22, should be delighted with yesterday’s excellent five-under-par 66 at Brisbane Golf Club in just his second pro tournament since leaving the amateur ranks.
Only Sydney’s Darren Beck (65), with a hot morning round of eight birdies, sits ahead of him after shrewdly revising his course strategy by hitting two irons off most tees after missing the cut at this event a year ago.
The 25 players under par will all be hungry for their own birdie runs on greens softened by overnight rain but McBride knows just how lucky he is to be in the thick of it at all.
“It’s definitely very confronting being told you might not be able to play golf the same way again,” said the Paradise Waters pro who was eighth in the Queensland Open as a teenager in 2014.
“I was lucky. It delayed me turning pro by a year but the surgery worked out really well to re-attach a tendon.
“The hard part was getting bored at home so I actually started driving Uber for a while ... you name it, I drove there and that’s interesting on the Coast.”
Never underestimate the wow factor in golf. McBride was a kid caddie at the Queensland amateur at his old Gold Coast Burleigh Golf Club in 2006 when inspired at close range watching a young Jason Day turn doglegs into straight holes with ridiculous power.
Adelaide’s Max McCardle (67) will relish his early start on Friday to maximise the best scoring conditions because he is the only player in the top 10 who assembled a low round in yesterday afternoon’s freshening breeze on the quickening greens.
Newcastle’s Callan O’Reilly (69) did a mighty job to stay composed with six birdies after running from the practice chipping green to the first tee and being penalised two shots for being a minute late to his 12.05pm tee time.
“I just had in my head that I was teeing off at 12.15. I was lucky to get a shout and only a two-shot penalty,” the inform O’Reilly said.
No issue was created out of the antique clock overlooking the practice area running two minutes slower than the slick modern timepiece on the first tee which is the only official measure.
Victorian Matias Sanchez (69) is the leading amateur but the most impressive amateur scoring of the day was at Royal Wellington where Sunshine Coast’s Shae Wools-Cobb (63) was the talk of the Asia-Pacific Amateur where he lead after seven birdies and an equal.
Gold Coast-based pro Steve Jones (67) made the most of his invite into the field and his five iron to under a metre for birdie on the 201m 11th was one of the shots of the day on a hole that will reward any hole-in-one with $250,000 on Saturday and Sunday. Michael Sim (69), Damien Jordan (70), Deyen Lawson (70) and Kiwi Michael Long (70) are among the quality players lurking.