Having lost his playing privileges on both the European and Asian Tours over the last three years, a win in this week’s Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship supported by Frankston City would mean a great deal to Victorian professional David Bransdon.
And having taken a two shot lead over the field in the closing stages of day two at the Sandhurst Club in Melbourne’s South East, Bransdon is today half of the way there.
The 36-year-old from Sale currently leads the final tournament of the PGA Tour of Australasia’s summer schedule by two shots over the trio of Kurt Barnes (67, 67), Gareth Paddison (66, 68) and Anthony Brown (68, 66) all at 10 under.
A further shot back in outright fifth is the current Sandhurst North Course record holder Craig Scott (67, 68) who has played consistently well over the opening two rounds.
In yet another day of outstanding scoring and representative of the quality field on show at the Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship, a total of 52 professionals and one amateur made the 36 hole cut this afternoon- one of the lowest cuts ever made in Australasian Tour history.
For Bransdon today’s performance is timely but also well deserved.
“Tim Elliot and Marty Doyle have been helping me out with my putting because we’ve played quite a few practice rounds together over the years and they’ve said (my putting) was pretty ordinary,” said Bransdon.
“I know exactly what it feels like to keep missing putts and losing cards. I just needed to do something different, totally different, and it seems to be working.”
Tomorrow Bransdon hopes to produce much of the same.
“I missed a few short ones coming in towards the end of the round yesterday which left a sour taste in my mouth, but today was pretty good, I was pretty happy with everything today.”
“I definitely know I’ll hit it pretty good, its just whether the putter keeps being my friend this week.”
The 2010 Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship will continue tomorrow on the Sandhurst Club’s North Course (par 72).
The first group will tee off at 9.40 am, while the last group of Bransdon, Anthony Brown and Kurt Barnes will tee off at 11.40am.
With $110,000 up for grabs, entry is free for all spectators.