MELBOURNE — Tournament favourite and headline act Brandt Snedeker endured a nightmare start to the Australian PGA Championship on Thursday after crashing to a 12-over-par 83 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.
American Snedeker has won seven times on the elite U.S. PGA Tour but looked more like a weekend hacker when he crashed to seven over after just four holes.
Starting his round at the 10th, he had back-to-back bogeys before a double on the par-five 12th followed by a triple-bogey seven on the 13th.
The world number 38 steadied his round with a couple of pars on 14 and 15 but dropped further shots on the 16th and 18th to sit last on the leaderboard at the turn, a yawning 11 strokes behind the early pacesetters.