Aussies rule the day in Nationwide event

SANDY — The Aussies ruled on the first day of the Nationwide Utah Championship at Willow Creek Country Club.

With 156 golfers in the field — featuring golfers from all over the world, including 10 countries and 32 states — the top three golfers after Thursday's first round all hail from Australia.

Alistair Presnell, a 30-year-old from Melbourne, fired an 8-under-par 63 and leads David McKenzie, another golfer from Melbourne, and Andrew Buckle of Brisbane by one shot after each shot 64s.

Another stroke back at 65 are a couple of Americans, Josh Teater of Kentucky and Craig Bowden of Indiana, while six golfers — Joe Daley, Skip Kendall, Tom Scherrer, Troy Kelly, John Kimbell and Canadian Jon Mills — all came in at 66.

Among the half-dozen Utah players in the tourney, Daniel Summerhays had the best round, a 69, which puts him in a tie for 39th place.

The two golfers from Melbourne, Presnell and McKenzie, played in the morning and finished 30 minutes apart.

"That's pretty cool, isn't it?" said the 42-year-old McKenzie of the fact that two golfers from the same town halfway around the world are atop the leaderboard in Utah.

Buckle played in the afternoon and birdied his final three holes to climb into a tie with McKenzie.

While both Presnell and McKenzie come from the same city, they didn't grow up together since they're 12 years apart in age. Still, they know each other and have a few things in common.

Presnell's coach, Darren Cole is a good friend of McKenzie's, and the two used to travel together a decade ago on the Australian Tour. In fact, Presnell gave credit to his coach for helping turn his short game around this week.

"My putting was very good today," said Presnell. "I've really been struggling with the putter, but the last couple of days I've sorted my short game out and felt a lot more comfortable on the course today."

In Thursday's round, he started with an eagle at No. 10, his first hole, rolling in a 30-footer from the fringe and followed with a two-putt birdie at No. 12 and birdies from 10 feet at No. 14 and 15 feet at No. 15. He also came up with a couple of saves late in his round, sinking 10-foot putts at No. 6 after he got in a fairway bunker and at No. 8 when his first putt rolled past the hole.