Australian Scott Gardiner has fired a day&aposs best round of 63 to soar into contention after the third round at the Nationwide Tour Championship at Barona Creek. Seemingly down and out at the start of the day at four-under, the 31-year-old from Liverpool carded a blistering eight-under-par total to rocket into a tie for ninth spot, four strokes behind leader Richard Johnson. And Gardiner&aposs round could have been even better had he not had two bogeys. For his part, Johnson came good with three birdies on the final three holes after a disastrous quadruple bogey on the 11th threatened to derail his campaign. Johnson will enter the final round one stroke clear of Tom Scherrer (67) and two in front of Kelly Grunewald (67), Jim McGovern (68) and halfway leader Michael Letzig, who could only manage a 73 that included a triple-bogey on the 18th hole. David McKenzie, had a solid 69 that sees him at nine-under, while Aron Price is at eight-under after a 67. Fellow Aussies Greg Chalmers (seven-under) and Matthew Jones (six-under) are also high up on the leaderboard. Nationwide Tour Championship Round 3 -16: Richard Johnson 66 64 67 -15: Tom Scherrer 66 65 67 -14: Kelly Grunewald 67 65 67, Jim McGovern 65 66 68, Michael Letzig 60 66 73 -13: Martin Laird 65 68 67, Brenden Pappas 66 66 68, B J Staten 65 66 69 -12: Scott Gardiner (Australia) 71 67 63, Ron Whittaker 69 66 66, Gary Christian 63 69 69 -11: John Kimbell 68 70 64, James Driscoll 64 71 67, Chez Reavie 67 67 68, Tjaart van der Walt 63 68 71 -10: Brad Elder 73 65 65, Kyle Thompson 68 69 66, David Hearn 70 66 67, Brock Mackenzie 67 68 68 -9: Garth Mulroy 69 70 65, Brad Adamonis 66 70 68, D A Points 71 66 67, Scott Sterling 69 67 68, David McKenzie (Australia) 67 68 69, Skip Kendall 68 67 69, Bob Burns 68 65 71, Roland Thatcher 67 64 73 Also: -8 Aron Price (Australia) 68 70 67 -7: Greg Chalmers (Australia) 69 65 72 -6: Matthew Jones (Australia) 71 69 67 +4: Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand) 70 75 72
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