Date: February 17, 2007
Author: Marcus Wilson

Triple-tie at top

By Marcus Wilson at Kooyonga, Sportal Local hope David Lutterus, Peter Senior and American Scott Sterling head the leaderboard at 11-under after day three of the Jacob&aposs Creek Open at Kooyonga in Adelaide. Lutterus and Sterling shot rounds of 66 while Senior has continued his consistent tournament with his 69 backing up his opening rounds of 68. An eagle-two on the par-four sixth was the highlight of Lutterus&apos day which also featured five birdies and two bogeys. The 21-year-old Kooyonga member said self belief was a key to his spectacular comeback – he looked like a player on the slide when he shot a disappointing 75 on the Friday after leading the pack with a day-one 64. “Mentally I still believed I could play well today and I knew how I played on the Thursday and thought I was capable of that again and today I went out there with the same mindset,” Lutterus said. Sterling said his &aposhot putter&apos played a part in his success – his 10-metre birdie putt on the second was one of the highlights. He finished the round with seven birdies and a bogey on the third. “I pretty much made everything I was supposed to, plus three or four long ones just luck I guess because you can&apost expect to make those and it was nice to top it off on the last,” Sterling said. Senior said he played better than he did in his two rounds despite scoring one shot higher on Saturday. A deliberate bank-shot on the par-five ninth – which saw the ball curl from off the green to within centimetres of the pin – earned him an eagle and saw him claim the outright lead for a couple of holes. “I had a lot of chances a lot of opportunities and with a few putts it could have been quite a few less,” Senior said. “I was happy with the way I struck the ball so I&aposm looking forward to going out for tomorrow&aposs round.” American Brad Ott is a stroke behind the leaders after recording his second 70 of the tournament. Ott put in a consistent round that featured three birdies. He had a share of the lead at one point but an unfortunate lie and then a poor second shot on the par-three 14th saw him bogey the hole and slip back to minus-10. American Chris Nallen, Swede Gabriel Hjertstedt and Australians Brendan Jones and Greg Chalmers are at nine-under. Nallen had a share of the lead after picking up five strokes on his front-nine, but consecutive bogeys on the 14th and 15th thwarted his charge. Overnight leaders Brett Rumford and Craig Parry found the going tough on day three – their rounds of 73 saw them fall off the pace somewhat at minus-eight. Parry was outright leader when he started his round with back-to-back birdies but he double-bogeyed the fourth and then went through a horror patch with four bogeys in the space of six holes. Rumford had an early share of the lead when an accurate tee shot off the seventh and equally impressive approach shot on the eighth saw him collect two strokes in as many holes. But a bogey on the 10th and double bogey on the 12th ruined his round. Australians Peter Wilson, Anthony Brown and Andrew Pitt are also at minus-eight after playing some solid golf.