BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Australian Brett Rankin climbed from second to first place Friday to take a one-shot lead midway through the second round of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.
Rankin, who completed her first round earlier in the day due to a storm suspension on Thursday, had a 2-under 69 on Friday and a two-round total of 9-under 133.
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French golfer Tom Vaillant shot a 64 on Friday to allow him to quickly share second place. Sebastian Garcia from Spain, who led Rankin in one fell swoop After the first round, he scored 72 on Friday and was tied for fifth.
Marc Leishman, who shot 68, was also in the group at 7 under with fellow Australian Cameron Davis (67), two shots behind Rankin.
“It’s been a solid few days,” Davis said. “I don’t think it’s one side of the board that really looks easier than the other. So we’ll see how that plays out with the course drying out a little bit today. It was really wet this morning.”
Marco Pengéwho has won three times on the European Tour this year and is the tournament’s highest-ranked player at 30th, shot 70 in his first round and got a start later Friday, as did Australians Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee.
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The tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australia and the European Tour, which begins its 2025-26 season just two weeks later Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title.
McIlroy will be the highlight of the field at next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne, starting December 4.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
