A front nine of six-under-par 30 on Saturday put Aldrich Potgieter in with a chance to pull off a victory in the weather-shortened DP World Tour’s BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane.
A second successive four-under-par 67 saw him move to eight-under-par for the tournament which will now be contested over 54 holes after the whole day was lost to bad weather on Friday. He was in a share of fourth place, two shots behind the lead which was shared by Australian Cam Smith and his countryman who led the first round, Elvis Smylie. Marc Leishman was third on nine-under-par.
Ryan van Velzen had a second three-under 68 in a row, and, at six-under, was in a share of ninth.
Potgieter remained positive despite letting a ‘crazy’ three-shot lead slip during the second round. The 20-year-old got off to a stunning start to his second round, birdieing his first three holes to take the outright lead.
He dialled in his tee-shot at the par-three fourth to six feet, but could only par the hole which left the door open for three-time winner Smith to move alongside him at seven-under.
The young South African, who moved to Perth as a young child, was unfazed though as he picked up further shots at the fifth, seventh and ninth to reach the turn in a blemish-free 30 and sit three clear at 10-under.
However, Smith’s brilliant 65 coupled with bogeys at the 10th and 18th for Potgieter saw him slip two shots off the pace as the 2022 Open Championship winner and Smylie climbed to the summit at ten under with one round to play in the opening DP World Tour event of the 2025 season.
“I mean this morning I just tried to go at everything and try and put a really high number up,” Potgieter said. ”I know it’s three rounds, we’re pushed for time, so you don’t have that.
“It’s not a long-run race anymore. Now it’s a sprint. Unfortunately didn’t have the back nine that I wanted, but we still got another day and we’re up there. So I’m pretty happy.
“It was crazy seeing the leaderboard after five or six holes where I was sitting at, but we just try to do the same thing, keep it out in front of us.
“Obviously the wind switches on this back nine is playing into the wind on every hole, so it’s a different golf course. So we just try to take advantage and be careful still at the same time.
“We’ve done what we wanted to do this year. Obviously there’s a lot of world ranking points if you win here and there’s a lot of good things that can come from this win.
“But yeah, we’re just trying to play the same, try and play golf tournament that we always try and do so, but definitely no pressure to do anything.”
Robin Williams, Louis Albertse and Justin Harding all missed the cut.
