Angus Porter has taken the first round lead at the Tony Hollands Funerals QLD PGA Trainee Championship at Indooroopilly Golf Club after an opening round of 4 under 68.

Porter, who is the PGA Trainee Professional at Carbrook Golf Club in Brisbane’s south, opened his championship with birdies on his first and fourth holes before a double bogey on the fifth and a bogey on the eighth had him turn in 1-over par.

Normally busy coaching students from Kimberly College, due to his playing commitments Porter couldn’t conduct his coaching this week though the school decided to send the 30 students to the tournament to watch their coach in action.

Arriving as Porter played the 10^th hole, the students must have been a good luck charm helping him reel off three straight birdies on the back-9 and when combined with birdies on the 15^th and 18^th holes, got off to the kind of start he was looking for in the championship.

“It was great to see the students out there today and they were a great support on the back-9 when I finally started to get it going,” said Porter.

“I had 24 putts today and only missed one putt inside 15 feet so I walk off the course today knowing I didn’t really leave any out there."

Porter won’t have it all his own way though with 19 players within four shots of the lead including Charles Wright who is in outright second position at 3-under par. The Arundel Hills Country Club PGA Trainee was content with his start to the tournament.

“I played pretty solid today and apart from a couple of soft bogies on par-3’s, the signs are definitely good for the rest of the week,” said Wright.

Also in the mix is last year’s runner-up Frazer Droop who carded a round of 70 along-side five others including one of the pre-tournament favourites Gavin Fairfax.

Indooroopilly Golf Club will certainly show it’s diversity this week with the state’s premier 36 hole facility configured to ensure the PGA Trainees will play four different combinations over each round of the tournament.

With $35,000 in prizemoney and an exemption into the 2019 Coca-Cola QLD PGA Championship up for grabs, there is still plenty of golf to be played by the record number of PGA Trainees competing this week.

Round two begins tomorrow morning playing with the PGA Trainees playing the West Course, Angus Porter will tee off at 10:54am.