The Australian Golf Club’s Grant Booth and Japan’s Suzuka Yamaguchi have maintained their leads with just one round left to play in the Avondale Amateur.
Booth carded a respectable even par 71 to finish at seven under par after three rounds to maintain a handy two-shot lead over his playing partner, Indonesia’s Naraajie Ramadhanputra and Fellow member of the Australian Golf Club, Blake Windred, who carded a third round three under par 68.
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A further shot behind sits Queensland’s Jed Morgan, who matched Windred with a three-under-par 68. While the round of the day belonged to Bonnie Doon's Jack Mc Leod, who sot a bogey-free seven under par 64 to sit just four shots back with one round to play.
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The drama unfolded on the final hole, however, with the 54 hole lead seemingly in the Indonesian’s grasp on the tee, a triple bogey handed it back to a relieved Booth.
“It was a real up and down round today,” Booth said. “I was pretty solid tee to green, especially on the front nine and it was nice to hole some long puts on 16 and 17,” he said.
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Booth, who is a Senior at The University of Nevada, is looking forward to tomorrow’s final round where he will be paired alongside the Indonesian Ramandhanputra, and his Australian Clubmate Windred.
“I have held the 36 hole lead in college tournaments over in America,
“I’m quite used to it, and it was nice to draw on that experience today,
“It would be nice to get this one done tomorrow.” Booth Smiled.
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In the Women’s Division, Japan’s Suzuka Yamaguchi holds a two-shot buffer from Avondale’s Grace Kim and The Australian’s Amy Chu.
Despite a double Bogey start, Yamaguchi, the recently Crowned Australian Women’s Amateur Champion, fought back bravely with a run of late birdies to keep her lead.
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“Opening with a double bogey was hard. I was pretty angry after that and fell back on the front nine,”
“I gained a lot of confidence from three late birdies which I think I can bring into tomorrow’s round even after the bogey on the last. The 18th hole is playing really tough this week. I’m trying to preserve my energy levels and make every swing count. It has been a very exhausting last two weeks.” Yamaguchi smiled.
Avondale’s Grace Kim, who sits only two shots behind, remains confident of a good showing in tomorrow’s final round despite struggling with a misbehaving putter.?
“I found the greens a real challenge today,” Kim said. “I Started off really strong on the front nine, with a great shot into the 2nd but unfortunately struggled early on the back nine with my putter.”
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Kim was happy with her late finish, however, and believes her key is to remained focused on her own game and not her playing partners performance.??“It was good to come back strong with a couple of late birdies,”
“I’ve been trying lately to focus more on my own game than worry about leaderboards or anything else. I’ve got focus notes scribbled throughout my yardage book this week.”
As for the misbehaving flat stick and her chances in tomorrow’s final round, Kim was already working out a fix.
“I’m going to spend some time on the putting green now working on my six-footers,” she smiled.