Paul Casey takes over lead

A 21 point round made up of nine birdies, an eagle and two dropped shots has catapulted England’s Paul Casey to the top of the leaderboard after three rounds of the ANZ Championship at the spectacular NSW Golf Club.

A fabulous 63 in standard scoring, Casey’s round sees him six ahead of his nearest rival and playing partner for the day, Stuart Appleby.

There are several groups still on the course but none has a realistic chance of catching the Englishman by day’s end.

Several good scores were posted early under the modified Stableford scoring system but blustery winds in the middle of the day made scoring difficult for the later groups.

Casey’s playing partner Stuart Appleby looked to be in trouble after a disastrous double bogey at the 7th (minus three points) but played his way back into contention with seven birdies on the run home to card 15 points for the round and be at 33 for the tournament.

Also playing his way back into the tournament is Western Australia’s Nick O’Hern who has quietly amassed nine points for the day courtesy of five birdies against a lone bogey to be at 31 points through 16 holes.

Sweden’s Robert Karlsson has joined O’Hern at that score after a spectacular eagle at the final hole. Karlsson finished with 11 points for the day.

Good scoring was the order of the day early with both Scott Hend and Englishman Nick Dougherty carding rounds of 17 points in benign conditions. They are at 29 and 30 points for the tournament respectively.

The modified scoring system requires players to be aggressive. With two points on offer for birdies, no points for pars and a penalty of only one for making bogey it’s better to post a birdie and a bogey than consecutive pars. Eagles earn five points, an albatross eight and double bogies or worse minus three.

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