Smith struggling to make it three in a row at Australian PGA

[December 19, 2019]    MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Cameron Smith's bid for a third successive Australian PGA Championship title got off to a rocky start on Thursday as the double-defending champion slumped to a two-over 74 at the Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast.

Australia's Cameron Smith on the 17th hole during the second round REUTERS/Paul Childs

The world No. 53 will start the second round seven strokes adrift of compatriots Lucas Herbert and Brett Rankin, who each opened with five-under-par 67s to lead the A$1.5 million ($1.02 million) event co-sanctioned by the European Tour.

Smith, who started on the 10th hole, plunged down the leaderboard in a horror run of three holes with a double-bogey on the second and back-to-back bogeys at the third and fourth.

Smith said fatigue had played a part in his poor round after a big week at the Presidents Cup where he was a member of the International team that lost to the United States at Royal Melbourne on Sunday.

"I'm just tired," he told reporters.

"Just a long couple of weeks and it was as easy as it's going to get out there this morning, so it was pretty disappointing to shoot what I shot."

($1 = 1.4736 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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