December 05, 2008

AMERICAN John Daly experienced another painful exit from Coolum with the resort's 18th hole again his undoing as he crashed out of the Australian PGA Championship.

Daly, who disgraced himself when he chucked his putter in the lake beside the 18th green in 2002, again came to grief on the resort's testing 390m finishing hole.

Needing at least par or possibly a birdie to make the cut, Daly pulled out his driver and went for broke only to drown his ball.

He put his approach shot in the water beside the green and then took two putts to end his round with a triple-bogey seven and a score of 77.

This time though he put his putter in his golf bag and walked off.

The gallery around the 18th green gave him a generous round of applause before his playing partner Geoff Ogilvy holed a six-metre birdie putt for a 71 to be three shots behind co-leaders Jarrod Lyle and Mathew Goggin.

Lyle posted the lowest round of his budding career, blazing nine birdies in a record equalling 63 on Friday.

NSW professional Paul Sheehan (66-70) was a shot back on eight under with six players, including last weekend's Masters champion Rod Pampling (70-67) bunched on seven under.

Apart from Daly, the other major casualty was defending champion Peter Lonard who will miss the cut at Coolum for the first time in his career.

Lonard hasn't missed a cut at home since the 2006 Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth.

APGA: Australian PGA Championship
Pos Name NAT Hole To Par 1 2 3 4 Total
T1 Mathew Goggin AUS F -9 67 68 135
T1 Jarrod Lyle AUS F -9 72 63 135
3 Paul Sheehan AUS F -8 66 70 136
T4 Peter Senior AUS F -7 70 67 137
T4 Michael Curtain AUS F -7 70 67 137
T4 Peter Wilson AUS F -7 68 69 137
T4 Wayne Perske AUS F -7 71 66 137
T4 David Lutterus AUS F -7 70 67 137
T4 Rod Pampling AUS F -7 70 67 137
T10 Richard Lee NZL F -6 67 71 138
T10 Matthew Ballard AUS F -6 70 68 138
T10 Nathan Green AUS F -6 70 68 138
T10 Scott Strange AUS 16 -6 70 70
T10 Geoff Ogilvy AUS F -6 67 71 138
T10 Tim Wilkinson NZL F -6 66 72 138