BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Australian Brett Rankin jumped from second to first midway through the second round of the Australian PGA Championship on Friday, taking a one-shot lead from second place.
Rankin, who finished the first round earlier in the day due to Thursday’s thunderstorm interruption, shot a 2-under 69 on Friday for a two-round total of 9-under 133.
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French golfer Tom Vaillon shot a 64 on Friday to take an early share of second place. Spain’s Sebastian Garcia, who led Rankin by one stroke at the end of the first round, shot a 72 on Friday to tie for fifth place.
Mark Leishman, who shot a 68, was also in the group with fellow Australian Cameron Davis (67) at 7 under, two strokes behind Rankin.
“It’s been a great few days,” Davis said. “I don’t think one side of the draw was easier than the other. So we’ll see how that affects the course today as it’s going to dry out a little bit. It was really wet this morning.”
Marco Penge, who won three times on this year’s European Tour and is the tournament’s highest-ranked 30th, shot a 70 in the opening round and started late on Friday, as did Australians Adam Scott and Minu Lee.
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The tournament is jointly sanctioned by Australia’s PGA Tour and the European Tour, which begins its 2025-26 season just two weeks after Rory McIlroy won the Race to Dubai title.
McIlroy will be in the spotlight at next week’s Australian Open, which begins December 4 at Royal Melbourne.
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AP Golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
