Nathan

Holman

The young Aussie has rattled off top 40s in six of his 10 starts in 2016, internationally. That is fresh after his first career victory which occurred at the Australian PGA Championship in December. In his first PGA TOUR start, the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Holman opened with a 10-over 82 before settling down with rounds of 70-73-73. It’s easy to dismiss that opening round since it was his first PGA TOUR event, and also first WGC event. His consistency overseas is promising, making him a nice sleeper in deep fantasy formats.

The 25-year-old Aussie has missed the cut in three of his last four starts, worldwide. Earlier in the season he made his Wold Golf Championships debut with a 56th-place finish at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. His claim to fame at the moment is his victory at the Australian PGA Championship, last December. Holman has flashed potential at times, but his current form and lack of results in the U.S. make him easy to overlook this week when setting rosters.

Twelve months ago Holman had conditional status on the European Tour, thanks to some decent results in co-sanctioned events he had played as a member of the Asian Tour, but he had failed to upgrade his card at Q School. Whereupon, in an event of high wind and high drama, he won this title despite an opening 77 and closing 73 – so full playing rights were secured after all. He followed the win with a stretch of 8-for-11, without ever again genuinely threatening to win, but since the BMW PGA Championship in May he has gone 4-for-14 and was last seen withdrawing from the Nedbank Golf Challenge after rounds of 77-79. A solid defense would give the Melbourne-born player a fillip ahead of the Christmas break.

The Australian made his debut on this course 12 months ago and it showed a little promise. His opening round of 69 left him T9 and a 72 and 68 to follow had him T11 heading into the final round, but a last lap 76 saw him tumble to T35. That result slots into a record in China that is consistent: four cuts made, never better than T28. If that’s the good news, here’s the bad: he’s 1-for-7 in the season and also missed the cut in the New Zealand Open on his last outing. In fact, since he was T8 in last year’s Maybank Championship he is just 9-for-28 with a best of T28 in the China Open – and he hasn’t broken 70 in his last 20 rounds.

The Australian golfer was 8-over-par through those holes including a double bogey-7 at the par-5 fourth hole. A European Tour email cited a wrist injury, but added no detail.

Despite a double bogey-6 at the opening hole, Holman circled birdies on the par 5s at 9, 12 and 15 to go from two behind at start of play to two in front before bogeying 17 and 18 to post even-par 288. But in strong winds at RACV Royal Pines Resort in Queensland, no one could get past the young Aussie. Two of the three overnight leaders, Varner III and Frittelli, matched him after closing 75s but a par at the first extra hole was enough to seal victory for Holman. And all this after shooting a 5-over 77 in round one. With the win, Holman becomes a full member of the European Tour, secures the 2015 Australian Order of Merit and gains entry to the 2016 Open Championship as well as the WGC events in the USA and China. “I didn’t realise what was on the line really, which is probably a good thing to be honest,” said Holman, who split 9 (of 14) fairways and hit 12 greens in regulation on Sunday. “To be a full member of The European Tour is huge.”

The rookie Australian was voted European Tour Player of the Month for November and December off the back of his victory in the Australian PGA Championship and he made the most of his leap into the big time - he earned a European Tour card in the process of winning - by going 2-for-3 through the Desert Swing where he improved with every outing, going: MC-T35-T26. In the latter, in Dubai, he was T8 with 18 holes to play. Like most in the field he has no course experience but he was T11 in the European Tour’s Malaysian Open this time last year, closing with a fine 66.

An opening bogey set the tone for a difficult day and, despite balancing the books with a birdie at 6, the young Aussie dropped shots at 7, 9 and 10 to see his two-shot overnight lead evaporate. To his credit, he fought back in style and birdies at 13, 15, 16 and 17 got him back under par for the day. There was to be one final twist, however, as Holman tripled the last after finding sand and then water. Despite that calamitous ending, at 11-under 202 his hopes of a second European Tour win of the season are far from over and he’ll start the final round in solo third place and just four shots behind a player, Soomin Lee, who is playing in only his second European Tour event.

Three weeks after failing to secure his card at Q-School, Holman won his maiden European Tour title the first week of Dec. in a three-man playoff at the Australian PGA Championship. He’s since posted T30-CUT-T35-T26 and solo eighth two weeks ago at the Maybank Championship, where he led by two at the midpoint (64-65) but closed in 73-72. When asked about competing in his first WGC event the 24-year-old stated, “I’ve taken a lot of confidence from what I’ve done over the last few months. The game is obviously in pretty good shape, so I feel good knowing that and the results have shown I can compete with the top guys.” Holman is averaging 296.6 off the tee and is the 149th-ranked player in the Official World Golf Ranking.

All that stood between the Australian and a repeat of his first round 64 was the one bogey he has made all week - at No. 14 on Friday. Otherwise it was another whirlwind of birdies. Three on four holes from the 3rd on the front nine, another on 13 and then three in a row from the 15th. He’s missed 9 greens all week and only failed the once to save par. But the real electricity has been on the greens. He needed just 27 putts on Thursday and a mere 25 on Friday. He has a two shot lead over Richard Bland going into the weekend and Bland is himself three clear of four players tied on 8-under.