BRISBANE, Australia — New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori shot an eight-under-par 63 in the second round of the Australian PGA Championship to take sole lead of the DP World Tour’s season opener at Royal Queensland, while local favourite Cameron Smith missed the cut.
Kobori, who had a hole-in-one on the rain-hit opening day, produced a round of nine birdies, including four on the trot, with a single bogey to go 10-under overall, leading a trio of challengers by a stroke.
The chasing pack included China’s Ding Wenyi (66) and Australians Anthony Quayle (66) and Brett Rankin (69), who were all on nine-under for the tournament in a share of second place.
Three-time champion Smith had a shocking day with the putter and carded a four-over 75 to miss his seventh straight cut.
The 2022 British Open winner said he never saw his woeful round coming.
“If you told me that was going to happen this morning, when I was warming up, I’d have told you otherwise,” a dejected Smith said according to Reuters.
“I don’t know, I just don’t know. I’m so confused. I was feeling good, really confident and just couldn’t get anything going. It was weird. I was in between clubs a lot today.
