{"id":923849,"date":"2026-10-11T04:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923849\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T04:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T04:42:10","slug":"record-round-has-aussie-on-cusp-of-breakthrough-win-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923849\/","title":{"rendered":"Record round has Aussie on cusp of breakthrough win \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian qualifier Mat Goggin is \u201cliving the dream\u201d as he eyes a breakthrough PGA Tour Champions victory after shooting a tournament-record 10-under 62 to claim a one-shot lead in Palm Coast, Florida.<\/p>\n

But the 52-year-old Tasmanian has a bunch of fellow Australians snapping at his heels going into the final round of the Constellation Furyk & Friends tournament, including Queensland\u2019s Rod Pampling (65) who is outright second.<\/p>\n

Goggin posted 10 birdies in his blistering second round on the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach on Saturday, five on each nine, as he reached 16-under 128.<\/p>\n

The lowest round in @FurykandFriends history \ud83d\ude33 Open qualifier Mathew Goggin\u2019s 10-under 62 has him in the lead at the Ocean Course at Hammock Beach. https:\/\/t.co\/tLA2QpJ7az<\/p>\n

\u2014 PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

He was one of three players who managed to qualify for \u200cthe event, posting a five-under 67 at TPC Sawgrass on Tuesday. His latest round bettered the tournament record \u200cof 63, which was set by Ryan Armour in Friday\u2019s first round.<\/p>\n

Goggin is making his 14th appearance on the 50-and-over tour \u2013 having had to qualify for all except the Senior PGA Championship \u2013 and is seeking his first win. His best finish is a tie for 11th at the 2026 Dick\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n

Pampling followed up his 64 \u200con Friday with a \u200c65 on Saturday \u2060and trails by one at 15 under.<\/p>\n

Aussie Michael Wright and American Vaughn Taylor shot matching \u200btwo-day scores of 65-66 to be tied for third place at 13 under. Armour (69), fellow American Paul Goydos (68) and Australia\u2019s Richard Green (64) were knotted at 12 under. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a one-day qualifier tomorrow for next year.\u201d Mathew Goggin has made six starts on PGA Tour Champions this season, with five coming as an Open Qualifier. He\u2019s looking to lock up his first PGA Tour Champions victory tomorrow @FurykandFriends. https:\/\/t.co\/fUPDG2UlYg<\/p>\n

\u2014 PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

A frequent PGA Tour player from 2000-2012, and the winner of five US secondary tour wins between 1999 and 2015, Goggin is aiming to continue what he started on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the first tournament where I played sort of how I played in all the qualifiers,\u201d \u2060he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShot a lot of good numbers in qualifiers, a lot \u200cof low numbers, \u200band sort of the feel like I can finally relax a little bit instead of just putting so much pressure on \u200bmyself.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayed nicely \u200cand made some key putts and made a nice sand save on 17, which kept my momentum going. Yeah, it\u2019s \u200bjust the sort of day you have when you shoot 10 under. Everything kind of goes your way.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hard-earned birdie on the toughest hole on the course for Rod Pampling! He\u2019ll be just one-shot back of Mathew Goggin heading into Sunday @FurykandFriends. https:\/\/t.co\/w517H4QKt6<\/p>\n

\u2014 PGA Tour Champions (@ChampionsTour) October 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Pampling birdied five of his last seven holes and is second in putting (1.54) for the weekend.<\/p>\n

It has been nearly three years since \u200bhe \u200bwon on the tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good out there. I\u2019m not \u200cstressed,\u201d Pampling said.<\/p>\n

with Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian qualifier Mat Goggin is \u201cliving the dream\u201d as he eyes a breakthrough PGA Tour Champions victory after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,405163,85,2614],"class_list":["post-923849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-overseas-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-states-of-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923849","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=923849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}