If you live anywhere near Canberra and love high-octane sport, make a beeline for the Queanbeyan Golf Club on Wednesday.
Today’s opening round of the final New South Wales Open regional qualifier produced blistering golf and left 17 players within three shots of the lead at six-under-par 64.
That cohort alone produced a staggering 95 birdies and nine eagles – including a hole-in-one – to set a fierce pace on the path to play with Cameron Smith at Murray Downs in November.
Related links: Leaderboard
Lefties Will Florimo and Ryan Peake were white hot early in their respective rounds, then cooled slightly to post the clubhouse mark.
But the fireworks were only just beginning late for Victorian veteran Andrew Kelly who canned a 9-iron from 148m on the par-3 12th hole for his eighth career ace.
Even more amazingly, Kelly immediately backed up with another eagle on the par-5 13th hole to leap into the leading trio.
Chris Fan and Cameron Kelly were next best with a pair of 65s, the former building his round steadily, while Kelly took a completely different route.
The Melbourne-based West Australian eagled the third hole en route to a scintillating outward nine of just 28 shots.
Kelly admitted that he took a peak at a leaderboard at that point and almost instantly cooled for an inward 37.
There are 12 players on four under, including tournament fancies Blake Windred and James Conran, along with the increasingly consistent Amelia Mehmet-Grohn.
The last tee time in tomorrow’s second is 11.50am, with a livestream of all the final-round action from 11.45am.