Snedeker sags Down Under after horror start

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – 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 84 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.

His misery continued on his second nine with dropped shots on the second, third, seventh and ninth holes, with the only bright spot of the day coming with a birdie on the sixth.

He ended the day tied 150th in the 156-man field.

South African Zander Lombard took advantage of more favourable afternoon conditions to shoot a five-under 67 to take a two-shot first round lead ahead of England’s Mark Foster (69).

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)