Gale’s Ace Lands BMW M5 Touring Estate As Hole In One Prize

The DP World Tour’s new season burst into life at Royal Queensland Golf Club, where the BMW Australian PGA Championship delivered not one but two aces in its opening round. The standout moment came at the 154-metre 11th hole, the designated Hole-in-One prize hole, where Australian pro Daniel Gale found the bottom of the cup with an 8-iron and walked away with a brand-new BMW M5 Touring. In a field packed with top players and backed by a major manufacturer, it was the kind of shot that instantly became the story of the day.

Gale, already a three-time winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, had marked the 11th as his opportunity after the pro-am, confidently telling his group that the prize car was his target. When tournament play came around, his tee shot traced a gentle draw on the breeze, pitched precisely and rolled out at just the right pace to drop. The gallery around the green erupted as the ball disappeared, and Gale suddenly found himself the owner of one of BMW’s most potent and practical performance cars.

Few prizes fit golf quite as neatly as the M5 Touring. Under its long bonnet sits a high-output plug-in hybrid V8 powertrain, giving the estate the sort of acceleration you’d expect from a thoroughbred performance saloon, while still offering enough electric capability for quieter running around town. The long roof and generous boot mean there is ample room for multiple golf bags, trolleys and travel cases, turning what is essentially a super-saloon in wagon form into a supremely capable everyday partner. For a professional golfer who spends much of his life on the move, it is an ideal blend of pace, comfort and usable space.

Gale was not the only player dialled in with a short iron. New Zealander Kazuma Kobori produced the season’s first ace on the 17th, a shot that helped him surge into the lead heading into the weekend, even if it did not come with a car attached. Gale, meanwhile, sat in a share of 18th place alongside Major champion and former world number one Adam Scott and a clutch of others, his scorecard suddenly marked by one of the most valuable single swings of the week.

This year marks only the second time BMW has taken title rights at the Australian PGA Championship, the newest member of its global portfolio of tournaments. It joins the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the BMW International Open in Munich on the DP World Tour, the BMW Championship on the PGA TOUR in the United States, and the BMW Ladies Championship on the LPGA Tour in Korea. With ambassadors Min Woo Lee and Elvis Smylie in the field – both past winners of the event – and now a brand-new M5 Touring heading for Gale’s driveway, BMW’s presence in Brisbane has already left a strong mark on the opening chapter of the 2025 season.