An extraordinary seven playoff holes were required to finalise the rankings and full 24-player field for Sunday’s medal match play finals at the Gippsland Super 6 at Warragul Country Club while Dylan Gardner, Corey Lamb and Ben Henkel secured their safe passage as co-leaders.
The lead trio were safely in the clubhouse as 54-hole leaders at 17-under par but further down the field, seven players were tied in 22nd at 8-under par and needed to head back on course to see who would be included in the final round.
Tom Power Horan, a two-time Gippsland Super 6 champion, landed a massive birdie putt at the first playoff hole to secure his chance at a third title.
“Yeah, it was good, obviously 60-foot down the slope,” Power Horan said of his final putt. “Not really expecting it to go in, but yeah, the 18th has been good to me a couple of times here, which is really nice.
“It’s a bit strange. I just haven’t been playing that well. I wasn’t really thinking of, well you think of winning but you just want play, but yeah three times would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
James Conran birdied the second playoff hole to advance while Quinn Croker and Jarryd Felton duelled it out over the final spot for two holes before Felton finally prevailed with par after Croker found the left trap and failed to get up and down.
But the real tense battle happened further up the leaderboard as the battle for the top eight, which has the added bonus of automatically advancing to round two of the Sunday matches, went down to the wire.
Ryan Peake secured the crucial last spot in the top eight qualifiers after a seven-hole playoff with Brett Drewitt after Ben Eccles and Tim Hart bowed on the first couple of holes.
But it is Gardner who looms as the man to watch on Sunday. His 8-under 62 on Saturday to Henkel and Lamb atop the leaderboard has him feeling confident for the match play rounds.
“Everything about the game was good. A little bit of an extra sleep in, which will be good tomorrow and yeah, see how it goes,” he said.
“Driver is one of my strengths, I tend to hit it pretty straight. That’s probably what I’ll play a lot tomorrow.
“I probably hit my driver straighter than I’ll hit my putter sometimes.”
The full list of those playing Sunday are: Dylan Gardner, Corey Lamb, Ben Henkel, Andrew Evans, Anthony Quayle, Jack Pountney, Connor McKinney, Ryan Peake, Brett Drewitt, Ben Eccles, Tim Hart, Matthew Stenson, Siddharth Nadimpalli, Blake Proverbs, Blake Windred, Lucas Higgins, Jason Hong, Jye Halls (a), Christopher Wood, Alex Edge, Gavin Fairfax, Tom Power Horan, James Conran, Jarryd Felton
Connor McKinney became just the second player to shoot a 59 on the PGA Tour of Australasia after the most remarkable round of his young career at the Gippsland Super 6.
The Scottish-born McKinney, 22, fired a scarcely believable nine-under 26 on the front nine – his inward nine after starting on the 10th tee – during the second round at Warragul Country Club. Par for the week is 70.
McKinney holed a 12-foot eagle putt on his last hole to sign for a 59, a feat only professional golfers’ dream about, as he surged his way up the leaderboard on Friday.
“I was like, ‘Oh wait, this is for 59’,” McKinney said of his final putt. “I tried to calm myself a bit and I rolled it straight in. I have had 59 [before], but it wasn’t in a comp.”
Brad McIntosh is the only other player to shoot a sub 60 round in the modern era in an Australian tour event, posting 59 during the Queensland PGA at Emerald Lakes in 2005.
That event was run as part of the old Von Nida Tour, but previous winners have now had their accomplishments recognised as official Australasian tour victories.
McKinney’s round was shaping as being solid, if not spectacular, after six straight pars to complement birdies on his second and third holes of the day.
Ben Henkel. Picture: Golf AustraliaSource: News Corp Australia
But once he made the turn and headed for the first tee, the history-making round took off.
He had seven birdies in eight holes and then had a miracle eagle after driving the green on a 310-metre par four ninth.
He joked it was a “slight improvement” on his one-under 69 to open the tournament on Thursday.
It was all the sweeter after McKinney had a turbulent year playing predominantly on the European Challenge Tour, the feeder system for the DP World Tour.
He had missed 19 out of 25 cuts around the world in 2024 – including last week’s Victorian PGA, as well as the Australian PGA and Australian Open – and hasn’t finished inside the top 15 in any event.
“I guess it’s a mix of emotions,” McKinney said. “It hasn’t been an easy ride recently.
“It’s been tough. I’ve been juggling a lot of things and a lot of new experiences. You’d be flying from say Paris to Prague on a Sunday night and then you drive three hours to a course because nothing is really close to the airports.
“There’s all that stuff you’ve got to juggle. Different courses and there’s a lot going on. I just didn’t adjust good enough.
“[But] there were a lot of good signs [on Thursday], but to put it all together today and finish like I did, I’m pretty stoked.”
McKinney’s course record vaulted him into solo fourth at 12-under, five shots behind leader Ben Henkel (-17), who backed up his opening round 62 with a nine-under 61 in the second.
Told about McKinney’s 59, Henkel said: “That’s ridiculous. It’s a great round on any golf course, long or short. It’s playing mint and the course is in great nick. The course it set up for it.”
Henkel leads by three from Queensland’s Tim Hart and NSW’s Corey Lamb (-14), who carded a 62 and 63 respectively on Friday.
The top 24 players on the leaderboard will advance to Sunday’s medal match play, when scores are wiped and one-on-one six-hole mat
ch-ups will be played in a knockout format until the winner is crowned.
