Australian Senior Golfer

JASON DAY is just one off the pace after a fog interrupted first round of the 92nd US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits on Lake Michigan.

The young Aussie star shot a three under par 69 to trail joint leaders Bubba Watson and Francesco Molinari in the final major for 2010.

Day, who continues to battle a chronic sinus infection, had to sit around for three hours after his scheduled 7am tee time was delayed and many of the afternoon starters will have to complete their rounds tomorrow morning.
“I felt like my game’s been pretty strong,” the 22 year old said.
“It’s been moving in the right direction, but the biggest problem with me has always been my health.
“I felt awful the last two days last week in Akron and was a little light-headed today. I ate six or seven (energy) bars and drank about 10 bottles of water.
Australia’s three young guns all played well, with Michael Sim finishing with a 70 and Marc Leishman 71.

Veteran Steve Elkington also managed a 71, while Stuart Appleby looked set for another special round when he birdied his first three holes. He didn’t maintain the momentum and slipped to 72.

Geoff Ogilvy struggled to a 74 while Adam Scott was on even after 13 holes when play was suspended due to failing light.

Tiger Woods had something of resurgence after his shocker last week and ended a career-worst streak of seven consecutive rounds without breaking par by posting 71.

Woods rolled in three birdie putts in his first four holes but had to wait till the 18th for a fourth.

“To shoot something under par, that was the goal today,” Woods said.
“I got off to a quick start and all of a sudden I felt like I could shoot something in the 60s.”

2010 US PGA Championship Live Leaderboard

POPULAR Australian golfer Peter Lonard has given his hopes of retaining his US PGA Tour playing rights a boost by shooting a “course record” nine under par 63 in the final round of the Turning Stone Resort Championship.

Lonard has been struggling to find form all year and the final round performance lifted him from 49th overnight to 12th.

That handed him his biggest cheque of the year – $150,000 – and lifted him on the money list from 186 to 166.

The 42 year old needs to finish in the top 150 after the next four events to retain partial playing rights on the US Tour and in the top 125 to be fully exempt.

Throughout the week Lonard’s long game statistics had been outstanding and the fourth round was no exception as he hit all but one of the 14 fairways.

When the putting came together on the Sunday the unofficial “course record” 63 was the result. (Because the course was played under lift clean and place rules the record will not stand).

Lonard started with eight birdies on his first 12 holes and following an enforced week off because of the President’s Cup will return full of confidence for the Justin Timberlake tournament in Las Vegas next week.