Who lifts the Joe Kirkwood Cup

It’s Tight at the Top – BMW Australian PGA Final Round

A Spaniard, a Portuguese and an Ozzie lead the field at -13 heading into tomorrow’s final round of the BMW Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland GC. David Puig, Ricardo Gouveia and Anthony Quayle go into tomorrow’s final round with a one shot advantage and in prime position to claim victory. Hot on their heels one shot back at -12 are a couple of Australasians - Min Woo Lee and Kazuma Kobori (NZ) and then one further back at -11 are Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Danielle Hillier (NZ), and Wenyi Yang from China.

The winner probably comes from this group but those at -10 include Alex Fitzpatrick and Cam Davis who are both capable of going low and perhaps coming over the top of the leaders. Perhaps the surprise of the group at -10 is former US Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy who at 48 years young is still matching it with the young guns.

In a tournament notable for weather delays it looks like we finally get a clear day of competition to finish off this great tournament with sunshine forecast for Sunday.

With DP World Tour exemption up for the winner tomorrow it would be great to see an Ozzie without full DP World status get up for the win. The only one who fits that description (sort of) is Anthony Quayle who whilst he has DP World Tour status for this season would vastly improve his playing opportunities for not only this season but next if he gets to hold aloft the Joe Kirkwood Cup. Beyond Quayle it would take a lot of things going right for Daniel Gale (-9) or Ryan Peake (-8) to get the job done. Defending Champion Elvis Smylie is probably too far back at -7 to defend his crown.

All in all an intriguing day awaits. From an Ozzie perspective it would be amazing to see Quayle, Scott or Min Woo Lee take out the title. I suspect that Lee, Hillier, and Puig are the ones going to battle it out down the back nine.