Hendriksen’s early morning surge sends him top of the PGA Professional Championship leaderboard

14/06/2023

An early morning surge by Paul Hendriksen (Ivybridge Golf Club) kept him atop the leaderboard all day during the second round of the PGA Professional Championship at Sherwood Forest Golf Club.

After shooting 68 (-3) in the first round, Hendriksen opened up a five shot lead at the top of the leaderboard thanks to a bogey-free second round score of 66 (-5).

Hendriksen said: “It was nice, an early start teeing off at 7:47, so we probably got the best of the weather - the wind is kicking up a bit now. I started off quite nicely and just kind of carried on the momentum really so it was a good day.

Hendriksen continued: “After I played the practice round I would have taken four rounds of level par in a heartbeat, but I’ve found a bit of a formula out there that’s working for me and I’ve stuck with it and surprised myself in the end with my scoring, so I’m quite happy!

“I love this event - usually the bigger the event, the more it raises my game - I really love this event, I’ve done well in the past in it, and I really enjoy playing in it - it’s good.”

.@paulhendriksen has opened up a 5-shot lead after a scintillating round of 66 this morning!

Live scoring 👉 https://t.co/3M9zAKxQgQ pic.twitter.com/e4wMRf5jVd
— The PGA (@ThePGA) June 14, 2023

Hendriksen hopes his current game plan will serve him well over the final two days of the tournament. He added: “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing really, stick to the same game plan, do what I’ve been doing the last two days and see where that gets me. I haven’t been playing that great this year so I’m kind of riding the wave at the moment - we’ll just see where the wave ends!”

Midland-based duo, Andrew Willey (Oakmere Park Golf Club) and defending champion, Matt Cort (Beedles Lake Golf Club) both scored under par for the day, positioning them at -3 and tied second place going into the third day of the tournament.

Willey had already scored four birdies by the time he reached the turn (on holes 3, 6, 7 and 8) and he managed to hold onto that until the end of his round for a 67 (-4), moving hime 23 places up the leaderboard. While Cort added a score of 69 (-2) to his steady first round score of 70 (-1).

They are joined on -3 by former European Tour player Robert Coles (Golf Kingdom), who has had a solid week so far with scores of 70 and 69.

The top 50 players plus ties made the cut (+6 and below), including Heather MacRae (The Gleneagles Hotel), the only female playing in this year’s event.

MacRae was thrilled to make it through, commenting: “It’s a bit different to every other event, but the two guys I was playing with were really nice and one of them had his wife caddying for him so that was really nice as well, but I just tried to treat it like any other tournament.

“Yesterday I felt like I hit the ball really nice but putted really poorly, but today I got off to a flyer - I was 3-under after the first five holes which was nice, then I knew there wer a few tough holes coming up but a few chances too - I looked at the scoreboard on the 16th tee and I was one outside the cut, so I knew I needed at least one birdie over the next three holes. I birdied 16, missed from 5 feet on 17 and missed a good chance on 18, so I’m really happy to play tomorrow.”

MacRae continued: “I really like the course - it’s difficult because it’s tight and there’s a lot of heather, but if I hit my driver straight, there’s a lot of birdie chances as well, so hopefully I can let go a little bit and make some birdies.”

Despite not making the cut this time, Lee Vannet (Newmarchar Golf Club) had an extraordinary round of even par that included an eagle, an albatross and a double bogey.

CLICK HERE to view a full list of score from day two of the 2023 PGA Professional Championship.