Brothers, Wests in stunning victories
JASON Day knows it will take the round of his life to chase down BMW Championship leader Justin Rose but he insists there is plenty to play for with the FedExCup title at stake.
Day’s two- under- par 68 left him at 11 under and six shots adrift of Rose after the weather- delayed third round at Aronimink Golf Club.
England’s Rose fired a 64 to take the 54- hole lead at 17 under, with American Xander Schauffele ( 67) and four- time major winner Rory McIlroy ( 63) sharing second at 16 under.
Rose can go to world No. 1 for the first time with a victory or even a runner- up finish at the second last event of the FedExCup playoffs.
Day acknowledged chasing down a six- shot deficit will be hard at an elite, 70- man field, but sits 10th on the FedExCup standings and can improve his position with a hot final day.
The leading points scorer after the Tour Championship finale in Atlanta in two weeks is crowned the FedExCup champion, pocketing a cool $ 14 million bonus prize.
“I need to shoot myself up the leaderboard tomorrow and, if I can’t catch the leader, just try and establish some confidence going into Tour Champs,” Day said. “Every shot counts … I want to have a realistic shot at winning the FedExCup in Atlanta so there is still plenty to play for.”
Meanwhile, defending champion Marc Leishman salvaged a respectable 66 improving his total to four under.
Leishman is projected to drop to 29th on the FedEx standings and needs a solid final round to remain in the top 30.
“One good final round is really important when your season is on the line, I guess,” Leishman said. IT TOOK until the last minute of the season, but Brothers finally found a way to overcome Commercials and claim the Townsville Hockey women’s premiership with a 1- 0 grand final victory on Saturday night.
Wests rewrote the history books in the men’s decider as they claimed their sixth- straight title with a 6- 4 victory over arch rivals Commercials.
Brothers and Commercials had been inseparable all season in the women’s competition, playing five times for five draws, and the decider lived up to expectations as they were deadlocked for most of the contest.
Brothers coach Barry Vohland admitted he was already planning for the grand final to go to a drop- off situ- ation before Carlie Pearce found the back of the net with just one minute and 28 seconds left. Aleisha Neumann was named player of the final and Vohland felt Brothers had done well to control the contest despite such a narrow scoreline.
“I was fairly confident if we played to our best we were a chance of winning and I think we did that,” he said.
“Even though it was tight on the scoreboard I felt we outplayed them for most of the game. It was just a matter of time to score a goal, but it was pretty close to the end before we actually got that goal.
“I was already discussing with the assistant coach around who we’d put on and who we’d leave off and then they scored so we didn’t need to think about that any longer.”
Brothers also finished the season as minor premiers and had teams in every senior women’s grand final at the weekend.
Vohland said it was a fantastic achievement for the club after having gone for more than two decades without once winning the division one title.
“It means a lot to the club. They’ve played in four grand finals now and they’ve won two so it’s been a good period,” he said.
Both sides came out firing in a fastpaced men’s decider with the score locked at 3- 3 at halftime before Wests took charge to earn their record- making victory.
Ben Rennie was named player of the final after scoring four goals as Wests were on target from their pen- alty corners while coach Cruickshank also praised Deere’s efforts in the midfield.
Wests are the powerhouse of men’s hockey in Townsville, having made 22 grand finals in a row, but Cruickshank insisted the chance to make history this season was just a bonus.
“We weren’t trying to set any history, we were just trying to get the win,” he said.
“It’s been a bit of an up and down year for us, but the last two times we played them ( Commercials) we managed to get the result on them so we were reasonably confident.
“They threw everything they had at us, but our blokes hung tough and then when we got down the other end we just managed to get results.” Mark Haig