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O'Hern moves
fours shots clear
Nick O’Hern has claimed the
outright lead from Steen Tinning late in the third round of the Heineken
Classic at the Vines, while defending champion Michael Campbell has
made a decisive move of his own up the board.
O’Hern heads the field on 12-under-par, two clear of Campbell (67),
and three ahead of Tinning, first round leader Dean Robertson (68)
and Ford Open champion Peter Lonard (66).
Paul Devenport (69) is outright sixth on minus eight, one ahead of
fellow Kiwi and dual recent winner David Smail (66), Craig Parry (69),
Greg Norman (70) and Roger Wessels (71), while Kenny Druce (66), Greg
Turner (69), 1999 champion Jarrod Moseley (70) and Robert Karlsson
(72) are 11th another shot adrift.
Tinning birdied the third hole to move a stroke clear on 10-under,
and his advantage became two when O’Hern bogeyed the fourth to slip
to minus eight. At the fifth the margin doubled when Tinning birdied
and O’Hern made his second bogey in a row.
Tinning then added 11 straight pars to remain minus 11, as O’Hern
steadily made up the lost strokes to join him with birdies at eight,
nine, 13 and 16. And when Tinning bogeyed the 17th, O’Hern suddenly
found himself in front.
O’Hern had a putt for an eagle at the last, but sent the ball past
the hole, making the tricky putt coming back for his 69, before Tinning
added his second bogey in a row to finish with a 72.
“I was really trying to make that putt on the last for a three shot
lead, but I got a rush of blood and hit it past,” O’Hern said. “I’m
playing with Cambo tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that, I get
on well with him and it should be a good day.”
Campbell made a poor start, bogeying the sixth hole, but recovered
to even par with a birdie at nine, and with subsequent birdies at
regular intervals coming home, has begun to circle ominously as he
tries to go back-to-back.
“The way I played today was great, I hit the ball great from tee to
green,” Campbell said. “My putting was horrendous once again, the
last three days it’s been terrible, the only way I’ve made birdies
is two-putts on par fives and tap ins.”
“The back nine was nice, the last 10 holes in six-under. My goal was
to get myself in contention for the weekend. The guys will probably
reach 12-under so I’ll probably be two shots behind with one round
to go.”
Lonard picked up consecutive birdies at two and three, and turned
two-under after cancelling a bogey at six with another birdie at nine.
Three more birdies in four holes early in his front nine took him
into the top 10 and he closed out with another at 18, just leaving
his eagle putt short of the hole.
“Coming here this morning, if you wanted to be a chance tomorrow,
you had to throw in a five or six-under and we did it,” Lonard said.
“Obviously an eight or nine-under would have been better but I’m pretty
happy.”
Smail, who had never won a professional tournament a fortnight ago,
now has the New Zealand Open and Canon Challenge titles to his name,
and has given himself a great chance of making it three wins on the
tour this season, in a row, from as many starts.
After a 71 Thursday and 72 yesterday, Smail started slowly today,
sandwiching a bogey at eight in between birdies at seven and nine
to turn one-under for the day.
Further birdies at 10 and 11 made it three on the trot, and he went
on to add more birdies at the 14th, 17th and 18th holes, as he closed
out the equal best round of the day, a six-under 66.
Norman looked to be mounting a strong challenge midway through his
round, birdieing three, nine and 10 to move to eight-under, and with
another birdie change from five feet after a fine approach into the
11th green.
But the Shark not only missed his birdie putt, but sent it past the
hole by the same margin, and subsequently also missed his par putt,
finally holing the bogey effort from virtually the same spot as he
started. From there he couldn’t recover.
Druce began the day on level par after a pair of 72’s, and went out
in 33 with birdies at the first, third and seventh holes, before claiming
a share of third place with three successive birdies to open his back
nine.
Bogeys at 13 and 17 cost him his momentum and looked set to drop him
back out of contention, but an eagle at the par five 18th hole allowed
him to finish six-under and match Englishman Howell’s round of the
day 66.
David Howell (66), Brendan Jones (69), and Thomas Bjorn (73) are joint
15th on minus five, while Ian Garbutt and Markus Brier (both 68’s),
Pierre Fulke (69) and Andrew Tschudin (71) are tied for 18th on four-under.
Plus one overnight having just made the cut, Howell birdied the first
hole and then had a purple patch of four more birdies in five holes
to the turn to reach four-under.
A former Australian PGA winner, he bogeyed the 10th, but recovered
the shot two holes later, and closed out his round on minus five with
another, his seventh, at the 15th.
Fulke’s round was a mixed bag, the Swede managing a pair of eagles,
three birdies and four bogeys, while Peter Senior (73) played the
shot of the day, scoring a hole-in-one at the par three eighth hole.
Had he done so at the 16th, the shot would have been worth $100,000.
American Gerry Norquist and Englishman Justin Rose have both completed
rounds of 68 to finish the day on minus three with Brett Rumford (71),
while Phillip Price (69), Andre Stolz (70) and Scott Gardiner (71)
are equal 31st another shot back.
And young Victorian James McLean had a day he’d do well to quickly
forget, quadruple bogeying the third and bogeying the fifth, before
turning three-over for the day and level par overall after birdies
at eight and nine.
More trouble followed on the back nine, as he followed a double at
10 with four bogeys in a row, and then added another quadruple bogey
at the 17th and bogey at 18 on the way to plus 14 with an 86.
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