Six days ago Min Woo Lee and Rikuya Hoshino fought a beautiful battle to win the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship. They came out first and second on Sunday and the Australian ended up winning. Tomorrow Sunday the story will repeat at the ISPS Handa Australian Open. Same protagonists. Again, Hoshino and Lee will face each other head to head to take the first prize. The only difference is that Hoshino started in Brisbane on the last day with a three-stroke disadvantage and this time they are both tied. It’s the Australian-Japanese version of Groundhog Day.
A birdie from Lee on hole 18, with a powerful celebration included, has allowed him to match Hoshino at -13, after a round of 70 strokes from the Australian, bland for his standards in recent times, and 65 for the Japanese, the best result of the day tied with Sean Crocker and Adam Bland. Beyond the reissue of last week’s duel, the truth is that the classification is much tighter. Just one stroke behind are Alex Fitzpatrick and Patrick Rodgers, while two behind is Lucas Herbert. Not only are they very close, but we are talking about players perfectly capable of taking the victory this Sunday.
We also have in the Australian Open the Spanish production of Groundhog Day. A production that any golfer on the planet would like to live, not like Bill Murray in the film version. And it is that Joel Moscatel (-6) has done it again. For the seventh consecutive day in Australia, the golfer from Barcelona has not lost against the field. Moreover, he has won widely against the fierce The Australian Golf Club.
Moscatel has made 68 strokes, with four birdies and a solitary bogey, and maintains his upward line of the week. He started on Thursday with one under par, followed by a pair of them on Friday and today they have been less than three. The numerical cabal points to a four under par on Sunday… We sign it. If only golf was as simple as a concatenation of numbers.
Joel has entered the top 25 of the tournament, with the aim of victory and qualification for the Open Championship quite far away. They are seven and six strokes difference. It would not be bad to close his brilliant Australian tour as he started it, with that round of 63 strokes that allowed him to be the first leader of the course in the DP World Tour. A round of that hair would give him options to at least reach the Open goal.
Moscatel has been the ray of light on a dark day for the Spaniards. Alfredo García Heredia (-1) has signed 75 strokes, Ángel Ayora (PAR) has made 73 and Rafa Cabrera Bello (+4) has made 78. Rafa’s round blew up on holes 8 and 9, where he chained a double bogey and a triple bogey.
In the fight for the Open we have players like Sean Crocker (-9), Matt Jones (-9) or Joaco Niemann (-9). Precisely, among other things, this is why the Chilean came to Australia, to try to qualify for the Majors. He has the first one within reach this Sunday.
