David

Bransdon

The veteran Aussie owned a full European Tour card back in 2006 and 2007 but ranked 124th and 169th. In all his 110 events at this level he has just the four top tens and not one top three finish. Any reason to take note of him this week therefore? Well, maybe. His T5 in last week’s Vic Open was just his second top five on the ET, after his T4 in last season’s Australian PGA Championship. In that sense, you could say he’s on a high. He’s also vastly experienced on the course and to some extent is getting greater returns from it. He missed his first three cuts there, didn’t break the top 50 in his next two visits, and has cracked the top 30 in all three of his most recent appearances with 12th in the first World Super 6 his best (when he was T2 after 36 holes of strokeplay).

The 43-year-old owns just two top ten finishes in exactly 100 starts on the European Tour in a career that stretches back to 1996. Two full seasons on the circuit in 2006-7 failed to see him retain a card, but he confounded history Friday as he flew round the Perth course. It was perhaps even more remarkable because in 18 previous laps of Lake Karrinyup he had gone sub-70 just twice and had a best of 68. He demolished that record with a stunning run from his first hole, the 10th. He opened birdie-birdie before adding more red at 13 and 15. He then stamped four par breakers in a row at 18, 1, 2 and 3. He ended the round with six straight pars to set the target for the afternoon wave. Overnight co-leader Brett Rumford was ahead of him on the course but Bransdon took lunch alone in second on the live leaderboard.