The second round of the Australian PGA Championship is in the books, and the leaderboard is starting to take shape.
It’s been an impressive display for the Australians through two days, as they make up five of the top seven golfers at the tournament. Kazuma Kobori leads them all at 10-under after an eight-under second round.
Unfortunately for the host nation, Cameron Smith missed the cut despite his good form on the first day, shooting a 75 on day two to end his week early.
He wasn’t the only underperformer, as one of the tournament favourites, Joaquin Niemann, and a player who just earned his place on the PGA Tour both endured disappointing weeks.
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It was a nightmarish week for Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson, who earned his PGA Tour card by finishing in the top 10 on the DP World Tour in 2025. He couldn’t recover from an opening day 74, following it up with a 73 to leave him five-over for the tournament and in 140th place.
He had five bogeys and two double bogeys in two rounds in a week to forget for the Norwegian, but he wasn’t the only big name to fall short at Royal Queensland Golf Club.
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Along with Smith and Neergaard-Peterson, Niemann is likely to miss the cut in Australia at level par. He shot two rounds of 71, leaving him two strokes below the projected cut line. Niemann won five times on the LIV Golf tour this season, but his inconsistency lost him the title to Jon Rahm.
Results like this have been a trend for the Chilean.
Australian stars in contention in Brisbane
Looking further up the leaderboard, there are some Australian stars in contention! Min Woo Lee, who won his first PGA Tour event at the 2025 Houston Open, is eight under and two shots off the lead. Meanwhile, Australia’s first Masters winner, Adam Scott, is six under after shooting two 68s.
Tiger Woods’ former caddie, Steve Williams, made a shock return for the Australian PGA Championship, and he’s using all the experience gained during his 14 major wins to help Anthony Quale to a T2 after two rounds.
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And LIV Golf’s Josele Ballester, who just won the Saudi International, is continuing his form, lurking behind the lead at seven-under.
Perhaps the most impressive display of the tournament so far has come from hard-hitting Marco Penge, another recent graduate from the DP World Tour to the PGA Tour this season. Penge, the Spanish Open winner, has been dealing with an illness all week, but kept himself in the mix with a second-round 65. He’s three shots off the lead.
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