Declan O\u2019Donovan heeded the lessons of last week\u2019s final day crash to swoop on the early lead at the Heritage Classic as Travis Smyth took a stranglehold on top spot in the order of merit race.<\/p>\n
Sydneysider O\u2019Donovan, who played last year\u2019s event at Heritage Golf and Country Club as an amateur, continued his fine transition into the professional ranks with an opening round six-under 66 on Thursday, bouncing back from a final day fadeout at the Japan-Australasia Championship in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donovan could have had a real run at No.1 on the season-long race with a strong finish in Auckland, but Smyth \u2013 who prevailed in a marathon six-hole play-off against Jack Thompson \u2013 solidified his grip on a DP World Tour card with a steady three-under 69.<\/p>\n
A good finish this weekend on the outskirts of Melbourne will all but sew up Smyth\u2019s position as the order of merit winner and a berth in The Open Championship.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donovan looms as the man to catch this weekend though as he poured in six birdies in his first nine holes before riding the increasing wind to finish with nine consecutive pars.<\/p>\n
Asked about a frustrating 77 to close out last week\u2019s $1.2 million event, O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cI probably just wanted it a little bit too much, to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI play my best golf when I\u2019m not looking at the leaderboard and I\u2019m just focusing on the shot in front of me. And I knew I needed to play well on Sunday and didn\u2019t really start how I wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I was kind of just forcing good shots and not giving myself any room for error. I was kind of just like, \u2018if I didn\u2019t hit a perfect shot now, then the round was over\u2019. That was the feeling. But no, I definitely learned from it well and excited for this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Florimo has ridden the rollercoaster of professional golf in recent months, earning an Asian Tour card, making a hit-and-run mission to try to qualify for LIV Golf through its promotions event and then battled lacklustre form upon his return to Australia.<\/p>\n
He also fired a 66 to share the lead with O\u2019Donovan at Heritage.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was my first year playing this event and I had a 36-hole lead,\u201d Florimo said. \u201cI seem to like the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if I learned one thing last year, I took the lead into the weekend, I think I had one bogey for the weekend and got lapped. You\u2019ve just got to keep the pedal down out here and especially if it keeps sort of dribbling rain, it\u2019s not going to firm up too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cameron John, projected to finish the tournament at No.2 on the order of merit standings, heads a group of six players one stroke off the leaders with a five-under 67.<\/p>\n
Tournament drawcard David Micheluzzi, making a rare appearance on the PGA Tour of Australasia, made a pleasing start with a two-under 70.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Declan O\u2019Donovan heeded the lessons of last week\u2019s final day crash to swoop on the early lead at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[33224,64,145610,63,689,172572,71300,265664,16271,265660,755,265667,265659,34579,265661,647,265665,265662,265658,1736,677,164197,265663,85,16690,265657,265666,660],"class_list":["post-535185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-adam-pengilly","tag-au","tag-aussie-stars","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-cameron-john","tag-debate","tag-decade-long-title-drought","tag-final-day","tag-final-day-fadeout","tag-golf","tag-heritage-classic","tag-heritage-golf-and-country-club","tag-jack-thompson","tag-marathon-six-hole-play-off","tag-melbourne","tag-merit-race","tag-merit-standings","tag-merit-winner","tag-new-zealand","tag-oceania","tag-professional-ranks","tag-promotions-event","tag-sports","tag-top-spot","tag-tournament-drawcard","tag-travis-smyth","tag-victoria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}