Australian pro, Anthony Quayle almost completed the mother of all comebacks at this week's Victorian PGA Championship after "a massive rookie error" which cost him seven strokes in round one.
The majority of his way around the Open Course at Moonah Links on Thursday, Quayle was asked by his American playing partner, Tyler McCumber if preferred lies were in place. The Australian mistakenly confirmed that they were and he had been operating on that assumption all day. He was wrong.
A document sent out to all players in the PGA Tour of Australasia event stated that preferred lies would be allowed on a certain part of the third fairway only. Unfortunately for Quayle (and McCumber), he had incorrectly read it as lift, clean, and place being in affect across the whole site.
Speaking to the PGA Tour of Australasia's media team - who first broke the story - after round three, Quayle explained: “The fairways were decent, but you could see how maybe we needed preferred lies because there were a lot of collection areas with divots. Our last three tournaments on tour have been preferred lie.
"The document I was handed is a little half-page document that is highlighted ‘preferred lie’ and highlighted scorecard length.
“It’s a massive rookie error on my part. I had just assumed on this tour we play preferred lie a lot. I just didn’t think too much more of it. I’m kicking myself now.
"Turns out on that document it only said it was preferred lie on the third hole in the blue painted area. I guess that sort of sat more in the fine print of the document.”
The fateful moment of realization in round one arrived on the 15th green not long after McCumber had asked for clarification. It was at that point Quayle said he felt "sick in the stomach, I thought I’d done something terribly wrong.”
The 30-year-old immediately called the tour's referee and tournament director, Heath McLeod over, and he informed Quayle that there would be a two-stroke penalty for hitting from the wrong place on three of his shots plus a separate solitary penalty for another after the Queenslander had replaced his golf ball in an almost identical spot. McCumber was also assessed a single two-stroke penalty.
McLeod said: “We’re proud of how Anthony’s handled it. As soon as he realised his mistake, he’s called me over, and went through it out at No. 15 green.
“He took responsibility for his actions straight away and we worked through the four separate occasions he had breached the rules and he accepted the penalty without any fuss."
In the end, Quayle - who was T15th at the 2022 Open Championship - saw his opening 66 turn into a 73 and put him well behind the eight ball in terms of potentially winning.
However, the Australian said he saw his accidental misdemeanour as a chance to pull off something really special. And he very nearly almost did.
Quayle recorded a 67 and a 66 across Moonah Links' Old and Legends courses through Friday and Saturday, putting himself three strokes off the lead heading into Sunday.
Anthony Quayle mustering up the biggest comeback we've ever seen in golf 🔥#VicPGA pic.twitter.com/X7MLg3qyZuDecember 8, 2024
Speaking after round three, Quayle said: “After I had a bit of time to process what happened on Thursday night, I sort of grew the opinion that ‘let’s treat this as a bit of a challenge and see what we can do. Making the cut with a seven-stroke penalty is going to be impressive.’
“After I made the cut, now it’s ‘finish as high as I possibly can because it’s going to be pretty impressive wherever I finish this week’. It could be one that I remember for a long time.”
Unfortunately for Quayle, there was no Hollywood ending as, despite a closing 69, he came up two strokes short of a potential victory.
THIS close to forcing a playoff... #VicPGA pic.twitter.com/X4s2mTTCoWDecember 8, 2024
Cory Crawford - who saw a birdie attempt brutally affected by a gust of wind in round three - took home the title on 14-under as McCumber finished solo second, a stroke further back, after missing a short putt to force a playoff on 18.
But for Quayle, who had previously missed 16 cuts in 22 starts throughout 2024, his second third-place result in three starts (following on from a T3rd at the Australian PGA Championship on the DP World Tour) represented an extremely good week either way.
He said: “I’m sure when I reflect on this in a little bit of time, I’ll be really proud of this week.”
