GOLD COAST, Australia, November 9 - U.S. Masters champion Adam Scott shot an even-par 71 on Saturday but extended his overnight lead to three strokes after the third round of OneAsia’s A$1.25 million Australian PGA Championship, presented by Coca-Cola.
In a dream pairing for tournament promoters, the local hero will tee off Sunday with American superstar Rickie Fowler (71) who shares second place with Australian veteran David McKenzie (72) after a day the 6,747-meter RACV Royal Pines Resort course bit back.
OneAsia regulars Michael Wright (68) and Steven Jeffress (71) are a shot further back.
Rory Hie, Indonesia's top-ranked player, had a disastrous third round and will have to give up on finishing in the top ten. After two solid rounds got him in a tie for 12th, today's 7 bogeys and just a single birdie saw him drop 39 places on the leaderboard to a tie for 51st.
“I’ve had a lot of fun playing with Rickie in the States the last few years and I think a lot of his game,” said Scott. “I think he's got a big future so it will be nice for us to play well tomorrow and kind of turn it on for everyone who comes out to watch.”
Scott is already a huge draw playing at home for the first time since winning the coveted green jacket in April, and he has made no secret of his desire to win this tournament — the only leg of the Australian “Triple Crown” to elude him.
The 33-year-old has passed up potentially millions in appearance fees and U.S. PGA Tour purses to take his Green Jacket on a month-long tour of his homeland that will also include the two other legs — the Australian Masters and OneAsia’s Emirates Australian Open — as well as the World Cup of Golf.
He won the Emirates Australian Open in 2009, the year it joined OneAsia, and claimed the Aussie Masters title last year over defending champion Ian Poulter.
Fowler, one of the game’s biggest stars despite just two wins as a professional, pulled level with Scott on Saturday courtesy of birdies on the second and seventh.
Scott looked serene and steady until the seventh when a three-putt from 12 feet — his first bogey of the tournament — led to another on the ninth, and he gave himself a talking-to.
“Obviously if you saw any of the round today you knew things weren’t going my way on the greens,” he said. ”So, I did well on the back nine to bring it back and shoot even.”
“The greens are so firm and dry at the moment — and with the wind whipping across it makes it hard to hole putts because the wind is affecting the putts. I think reading the greens is a big challenge, so I'll try to do a better job of that tomorrow. “
Fowler, whose first professional victory came at OneAsia’s Kolon Korea Open in 2011, made a mockery of the resort course in the opening round with a 63 that left analysts predicting the tournament would be won at around 20 under par.
But the subtleties of a redesign-in-process that should provide a wonderful base for the event until at least 2017 came to the fore with the weather.
“If the breeze stays up the fairways aren’t too generous, and there is a lot of cross wind out there so you need to be in control of your golf ball,” said Fowler.
He was relishing the chance to go head-to-head with Scott.
“We’ve spent some time together in the States and he is always fun to be with. He’s a great guy,” he said.
McKenzie, 46, suffered a recurrence of an allergic reaction that literally floored him ahead of the third round at OneAsia’s Thailand Open in March, where he eventually finished joint fourth.
“I’ve had it a couple of times before so I recognized the symptoms,” he said, “so at the eighth tee I had an anti-histamine and just hoped like hell that it wouldn’t worsen; that it would get better before it would get worse. But yeah, I really struggled on nine and ten.
“Standing up straight, balance, being able to see and focus … I had blind spots in my vision. It wasn’t a very happy time.”
“In Thailand … that actually floored me, where if I wasn’t lying down I felt like I was going to pass out. Racing heart, that type of stuff and I had that out there as well. I could hear my heart beat in my ears when I was hitting shots.”
With most of the field retreating from par, U.S. PGA Tour regular Marc Leishman fired a 68 and shares sixth place with five others, five adrift of Scott.
Scores after the third round of the Australian PGA Championship, presented by Coca-Cola, being played at the 6,747-m (7,378-yard) par-71 RACV Royal Pines resort course:
203 - Adam Scott (AUS) 65-67-71
206 - Rickie Fowler (USA) 63-72-71, David McKenzie (AUS) 65-69-72
207 - Michael Wright (AUS) 69-70-68, Steven Jeffress (AUS) 68-68-71
208 - Marc Leishman (AUS) 69-71-68, Jack Wilson (AUS) 68-71-69, Ashley Hall (AUS) 68-69-71, Nathan Green (AUS) 66-69-73, Gareth Paddison (NZL) 68-67-73
Selected:
216 - Rory Hie (INA) 69-70-77
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