Josh finds another gear to blast into title contention
Josh Geary will go into the final day of the 100th New Zealand Open with a real sniff at bagging the Brodie Breeze Trophy.
The 34-year-old Kiwi trails Australian leader Zach Murray by a stroke, after firing a scintillating nine-under 63 at The Hills in Arrowtown yesterday.
Having shot 67 and 69 the previous two days, Geary drained eight birdies and an eagle in the equal best round of the day to improve to 16-under the card.
The Mt Maunganui pro went into the third round eight shots behind rookie pro Murray, but opened with consecutive birdies to immediately start chomping into the deficit.
‘‘Obviously with Zach five shots in front [of the next best], you had to do something pretty special if he kept going the way he was,’’ Geary said after his round.
‘‘He hasn’t done a whole lot more than what he was, so the field has caught up, which has given a few more guys a chance.’’
Outright in second place, Geary has Masterton’s Harry Bateman (14-under) on his heels, after the 28-year-old overcame a sluggish start to shoot a fiveunder 67. Bateman got hot through holes 14-17, when he went birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie.
Geary hit solid approach shots the majority of the day, but that didn’t help him when he hit his second on the par-four 18th where he wanted, only for it to ping off a sprinkler head, shoot across the green and sink into the steep front-side bunker.
The 1035th ranked golfer in the world was oblivious to it, and even walked past his ball en route to the green.
‘‘I hit it and I was aiming for the belt where the sprinkler head was to kick it short right, when I heard the ‘ohhh’ [from the crowd], I thought it flew into the [left-hand] bunker,’’ Geary said.
‘‘So I was walking towards that bunker thinking it was going to be pretty tough. I couldn’t believe it when they said it was in the other bunker. How did it get down there? Usually sprinkler heads hit it and they go further over the green. I was thrown back by that.’’
But Geary held his nerve, producing a fine sand wedge with his third, before rolling in the par-saving putt.
Geary’s round highlight was his eagle on the par-four 15th, a hole after he drained a lengthy birdie putt.
Top-ranked Kiwi (67th in world) Ryan Fox started yesterday in a share of third, six shots behind Murray but leading the Kiwi charge alongside Bateman.
However, after starting with three birdies through the first six holes, he couldn’t remain hot and has drifted back to a share of 12th at 10-under.