Ormsby leads the way – but pair of Brits are hot on the Aussie’s heels
Ormsby headed into today’s final round of the ISPS Handa Vic Open with a two-shot lead after testing third-day conditions at 13th Beach Golf Club.
High winds and some heavy rain made life difficult for the field, but Ormsby recovered from an early double-bogey to shoot a two-under-par 70 and move to 15-under.
Fellow Australian Matthew Stieger, who recorded the round of the day with a 65, and Callum Shinkwin are two shots back – the Englishman having signed for a 66.
“It was just tough out there. I just kept grinding, really, that’s all we can do in weather like that,” said Aussie Ormsby.
“You’re going to hit a lot of bad shots, need to recover a lot and I did that quite well so I’m happy.
“I feel good. I’m pretty relaxed this week, I’m treating it as a bit of a holiday.”
Ormsby, who claimed his maiden title at the 264th time of asking at last season’s Hong Kong Open, surrendered a doublebogey when he found a terrible lie on the par-five second.
But birdies at the fifth, ninth, 13th and 18th gave the 38-year-old from Adelaide some breathing space heading into the final round.
Scotland’s Challenge Tour graduate David Law, South African Justin Harding and Australia’s Brad Kennedy are three shots behind Ormsby.
Law, the 28-year-old protege of former Open champion Paul Lawrie, said: “It was playing really difficult – 17, for example, we had it playing a four-club wind.
“You needed to hang in there, and needed to be in control of your ball and get a bit lucky at times and hole some putts, which luckily I did.
“You certainly needed to be patient. And luckily it’s a linksstyle golf course, you can run the ball in, which I’m used to doing. “You also need to know any small mistake is going to get exaggerated in the wind. So as long as you accept that sometimes bogey is not that bad a score, you’ll be OK.”
Meanwhile, overnight leader, Jason Scrivener, struggled with a 76 to tumble down the leaderboard and into a share of 10th spot alongside Law’s fellowScots Grant Forrest and David Drysdale on 10-under-par.
In the women’s event, American leader Kim Kaufman had a late stumble to card a 75. However, Kaufman held on to take a two-shot lead into the final round, over France’s Celine Boutier, who matched the lowest round of the day with a 69, and home favourite Su Oh. Jarryd Felton (Aus) 71 68 68, Daniel Gavins 68 68 71;
Daniel Nisbet (Aus) 68 70 70, Ashley Chesters 68 67 73, Nick Cullen (Aus) 66 67 75;
Kim Kaufman (USA) 66 66 75; Su Oh (Aus) 67 68 74, Celine Boutier (Fra) 69 71 69;
Haru Nomura (Jpn) 67 67 76; Felicity Johnson 65 74 74, Jodi Ewart Shadoff 71 70 72, Mirim Lee (Kor) 70 74 69, Katherine Kirk (Aus) 72 68 73;
Xi Yu Lin (Chn) 70 74 70, Kylie Henry 73 72 69, Jane Park (USA) 68 76 70, Charlotte Thomas 68 68 78, Marissa Steen (USA) 68 70 76, Olivia Cowan (Ger) 68 70 76;
Marianne Skarpnord (Nor) 71 69 75, Alena Sharp (Can) 69 69 77, Yu Liu (Chn) 74 71 70, Isabell Gabsa (Ger) 70 73 72, Anne Catherine Tanguay (Can) 66 74 75, Ayako Uehara (Jpn) 71 72 72;
Georgia Hall 70 71 77, Catriona Matthew 72 71 75.