2005 Brunei Open - Round 3: Pilkadaris grabs third round lead

Australian Terry Pilkadaris, looking for the perfect send-off for his honeymoon, grabbed the third round lead at the inaugural Brunei Open with a battling three-under-par 68 on Saturday.

With wife Monique on caddying duties, Pilkadaris edged ahead by one stroke with his three-day total of 15-under-par 198 at the par-71 Empire Hotel and Country Club. Compatriot Jarrod Lyle carded a 69 for second place while overnight leader Danny Chia of Malaysia stumbled to a 72 for third position, three shots behind the leader.

China's Li Chao, one of Asia's rising stars, gave himself an outside chance of winning the US$300,000 Asian Tour event after an impressive 66 left him five back on 203. Matt Keegan of Australia ended the day a further stroke back after a 67 while India's Amandeep Johl, Canadian Rick Gibson, Malaysia's Rashid Ismail and Chinese Taipei trio Lin Wen-tang, Lu Wen-teh and Lin Chie-hsiang are tied sixth on 205.

The 31-year-old Pilkadaris won back to back titles on the Asian Tour last season just after his marriage last September but due to his hectic playing schedule, the couple were forced to delay their honeymoon until now.

"Monique has been pushing for the honeymoon. It's been nine months since we got married and she's told me that the longer we leave it, the longer she's extending the honeymoon. I have got to really knuckle down to win and pay for this trip," said Pilkadaris, who will take his wife on a cruise on the Alaskan coast and visit New York and Paris from next week.

With another steady display, Pilkadaris, currently seventh on the Order of Merit, cruised to four under for the round with birdies on the second, ninth, 12th and 15th before dropping his first bogey of the week at the difficult 18th by finding the fairway trap. "I played quite nicely and hit a couple of shots close on 11 and 12 and missed them both which was kind of frustrating. The last hole was frustrating too as I was pushing to go bogey free for the week," he said.

Lyle, 23, had his own battle with the intense heat, walking around with a towel over the head to keep cool. His golf was hot early on, with four birdies over five holes from the fourth hole but he dropped shots on 12th and 18th. "That was a good run but it all dried up on the back nine. I hit a real shocker of a chip on 18 but all in all, I'm still in a good position and we'll see what happens tomorrow," said Lyle.

Chia, who led for the opening two rounds, endured a turbulent day, dropping four bogeys against three birdies. He kept leaking errant drives to the right, finding only six fairways, but he was not disheartened. "I'm actually glad that I was just one over today because I was striking the ball poorly.

"Three shots back is not a bad position and it was also important that I stayed in the last group for the final round. I didn't take advantage of the par fives but I guess it was good to get one bad round out of the way," said Chia, who will become the first Malaysian to play at the British Open next month.

Li Chao, a former China amateur champion, continued to show his growing promise, shooting a 66 to move up to fourth place. Li was six under for the round, but dropped a bogey on the 17th which annoyed him. "I was disappointed as I worked hard in the round.

"It was very hot and humid and you have to concentrate hard. I converted a lot of 12 to 15 foot putts for my birdies. Tomorrow I''ll try again. I've finished in the top-10 in the Sanya Open and Vietnam last year, so hopefully, I can register a high finish tomorrow," said Li.

Meanwhile, prize money for the Brunei Open will be boosted to at least US$500,000 in 2006, organisers announced earlier on Saturday. Brunei Tourism, the main backers of the sultanate's first professional tournament, said it was confident of raising its initial prize fund of US$300,000 to make the event more lucrative on the Asian Tour.

Sheikh Jamaluddin Sheikh Mohamed, the Brunei Tourism Director, said today: "It's going very well, better than we had expected. The initial reaction from the people of Brunei is very positive and we are confident of increasing the prize money to at least US$500,000 next year. We want to make the event more exciting.

"I know that there are other national Opens in the region that offer bigger prize money. This is our inaugural event, and an historic one too for Brunei golf. We've started with US$300,000 and we will increase from here onwards."

Leading third round scores

198 - Terry Pilkadaris (AUS) 67-63-68
199 - Jarrod Lyle (AUS) 67-63-69
201 - Danny Chia (MAS) 63-66-72
203 - Li Chao (CHN) 67-70-66
204 - Matt Keegan (AUS) 71-66-67
205 - Lin Wen-tang (TPE) 71-68-66, Amandeep Johl (IND) 67-70-68, Lu Wen-teh (TPE) 68-69-68, Rick Gibson (CAN) 69-67-69, Lin Chie-hsiang (TPE) 67-68-70, Rashid Ismail (MAS) 70-65-70
206 - Gary Simpson (AUS) 70-68-68, Adam Le Vesconte (AUS) 68-68-70, Glenn Joyner (AUS) 66-69-71
207 - Scott Barr (AUS) 73-68-66, Firoz Ali (IND) 69-71-67, Jason Dawes (AUS) 66-73-68, Kao Bo-song (TPE) 70-69-68, Ahmad Bateman (CAN) 70-69-68, Robin Hodgetts (AUS) 69-69-69, Adam Fraser (AUS) 71-64-72
208 - Chris Travers (AUS) 70-70-68, Andrew Pitts (USA) 69-67-72, John Wither (SCO) 68-68-72, Somkiat Srisanga (THA) 67-69-72, Prom Meesawat (THA) 68-66-74
209 - Alistair Presnell (AUS) 68-74-67, Marcus Both (AUS) 71-70-68, Anthony Kang (USA) 69-71-69, Gaurav Ghei (IND) 67-71-71, Ashok Kumar (IND) 67-71-71, Anthony Summers (AUS) 70-68-71, Sung Mao-chang (TPE) 67-70-72, Thaworn Wiratchant (THA) 65-71-73

June 25, 2005

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