Scrivener takes Australian PGA lead as Smith closes gap

BRISBANE: British Open champion Cameron Smith birdied his final hole on Friday to move to within one shot of the lead ater two rounds of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.

The two-time Australian PGA winner and world No. 3 shot a six-under 65 despite a three-put on the par-3 17th hole. That meant fellow Australian Jason Scrivener kept the lead at 10-under 132 ater his 67 Friday. “Some mates I went to school with . . . were yelling at me and I was having a litle bit of a chat to myself,” said the Brisbane-born Smith of his three-put. “I knew that put (on the 18th) would get me into the final group, so that was a good one. I love being in the final group.”

Smith’s playing partner Adam Scot made his only birdie of the day on the 17th to finish with a 72 and was at 4-under, six behind Scrivener.

The third member of the group, Ryan Fox of New Zealand, who had two wins and four runnerup finishes on the European tour this season, shot 74 and missed the cut by two strokes.

Cameron John (65) and Masahiro Kawamura (66) were tied for third, two strokes behind Scrivener.

Scot’s birdie on 17 came at the tournament’s “party hole,” which included a beer garden and pumping music from a DJ. Scot’s celebration ater his 45-foot birdie put rivaled similar efforts when he won the 2013 Masters at Augusta in a playoff.

“It sums up Golf, I think. I didn’t sniff anything all day, nothing was good and I find my element in (front of) a bunch of drunk Queenslanders,” Scot said, smiling. “It’s all good fun. . . they were all fist pumping and flinging things around their head, so I thought I’d entertain them a bit more.”

Scrivener’s last tournament win was the New South Wales Open in 2017.

“The two days have been quite different,” said Scrivener. “Yesterday was stress free and I hit the ball tee to green very well. Today was a litle scrappier but got away with a few things and scrambled well so all in all prety happy with it.

Scrivener is a European tour member, born in South Africa and raised in Perth, Western Australia. The Australian PGA is co-sanctioned by the European tour. Back pain forced Lucas Herbert to withdraw midway through his second round. A winner on the PGA and European tours, Herbert had hoped to use the Australian PGA to improve his ranking by five places to get inside the top 50 to secure a spot at next year’s Masters.