ENCOURAGED by a solid performance at the Japan PGA, Aaron Townsend hopes to regain his card on the main tour through the second-tier AbemaTV tour.
Townsend fired rounds of 70, 74, 76, 73 to finish at five over and a tie for 40th, 11 shots behind winner Toru Taniguchi in the PGA.
A late call up for the $1.8million event, Townsend was equal ninth after the opening round.
“It was nice to play four rounds,” Townsend said. “The wind switched and the course set up became much more difficult as the week progressed. I was much more consistent this week, which I was happy about. I still made some errors but it was much better.”
Townsend will tee up in the Heiwa Challenge event at Kashimanomori Country Club, starting Thursday. The top 20 money winners from the second tier earn a card on the main tour.
Townsend is ranked 45th after three events.
“I will play four more events and then reassess where things are at,” he said.
* Charelstown’s Jake Higginbottom finished fifth at the West Australian PGA, his best result on the Australasian tour in more than a year.
* Nathan Green pocketed $500,000 for his hole in one at the 2001 Australian Masters and earned world-wide acclaim for his ace at the US Masters in 2010.
His dad, Barry joined the hole-in-one club last Thursday at Toronto where Nathan and brother Darren are the club professionals. Needless to say, the prize was not as lucrative.
“Someone had an eagle the week before so there was only one ball in the eagle’s nest,” Darren said. “We give away a $50 voucher at the club for an ace so he at least got a feed.”
The ace was at the 132m par-3 third.
“He put the four iron back in the bag, grabbed a five iron and it went in. That is all he said about it,” Darren said.
* Blake Windred helped steer NSW to third place at the Interstate Series in Adelaide. Windred, playing No.1, won three of his five matches. Dylan Perry, who has moved from Aberdeen to the Gold Coast, played No.3 for Queensland, which were runners-up.
* Terry Blomfield and Michael Campbell are joint leaders with Peter Hansen and Paul Foulcher after both pairs shot 68 in the opening round of the Toronto 2BBB championships.
* Corey Lamb continued his outstanding year with second place at the NSW All Schools Championships at Forster last week.
Lamb, from St Joseph’s Lochinvar, had rounds of 73,72 to finish a shot behind Jonathan Boediman (Kogarah) in the open boys stroke event and then lost the final of the match play to Cardiff High’s Caleb Bromley.
Makensie Toole (Belmont Christian College) was sixth in the open girls stroke.
Lachlan McDonald (Mount View Highschool) was fifth in the junior boys stroke event.
Jasmine Vesper (Singleton High) won the junior girls stroke.
* Josh Greenwood coped best in wild conditions to shoot 77 and win a four-way playoff for the Charlestown Cup on Sunday.
