PIKE STILL CONFIDENT OF REELING IN AUSTIN
PALMERSTON product Aaron Pike is undaunted by the six-shot deficit he will have to reel in after Austin Bautista conjured a mid-round rescue mission at the Tailor-made Building Services NT PGA Championship.
Leading by four at the start of Saturday’s third round at Palmerston Golf Course, Bautista extended his advantage to five with a birdie at the first, yet endured a roller-coaster round on his way to a three-under 68 and an 18-under par total through 54 holes.
It gives him a six-shot buffer from defending champion Pike (68) with Ben Wharton (69), David Micheluzzi (70) and Adam Blyth (71) two shots further back in a tie for third.
Coming off a course-record 10under 61 on Friday, Bautista needed only four putts in his first four holes as he made miraculous par saves at two and four, a birdie at six extending his lead to six shots.
Yet three straight bogeys from the seventh hole reduced that margin to two, a homemade turkey roll as he headed to the 10th tee providing the fuel and mindset shift to play the back-nine in four-under and reestablish a sizeable advantage.
“Usually if I have a stretch of holes like that, three bogeys in a row, it’s not my golf game that’s wrong, I’m probably hungry or I might be thirsty,” Bautista said.
“I slammed down half of my turkey sandwich and got my food back into where it should be and then I started making swings that I know I can make.
“I missed three putts in a row, so on 10 I focused on my breathing for that putt and made a great stroke.
“To bounce back is definitely key but same thing tomorrow, foot down from the get-go and get to 30-under.”
Estimating he had played the course “easily thousands of times” growing up on the golf course, Pike will have a front-row seat to how Bautista handles the Sunday pressure of trying to close out a maiden ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia title.
The defending champion claimed his third Australasian Tour win earlier this season at TPS Hunter Valley and revels in the opportunity to play in the final group.
“Winning’s tough. As far as I know he hasn’t won as a professional and winning’s tough,” said Pike, who had bogeys at 10 and 12 in his round of 68.
“I had to finally break through and do it, and there are numerous guys who have had those problems.
“I’m not saying he can’t win or can’t do anything, but I’m going to try and make it as difficult as possible because I want to win.
“I went on the record after winning at Cypress, saying that I love getting deeper into the tournaments because I was really good at match play when I played amateur golf. All my titles were match play championships and I love that facet that I’m just eliminating person after person after person.
“I do like that one-on-one, in the last group, that kind of battle. Most of the times when I’ve won I’ve either been in the last group or the secondlast group.”
The final round of the NT PGA also represents the final 18 holes of the PGA Tour of Australasia season with Order of Merit implications throughout the field.
Of greatest significance is the race for the third of the DP World Tour cards up for grabs, Andrew Dodt (68) edging three shots clear of fourthplaced Dimitrios Papadatos (73) while seventh-placed Pike is eyeing off one of the five exemptions into Korn Ferry Tour Final Qualifying School at the end of the year.
Round 4 starts at 9am on Sunday.