Trio of Kiwis in contention
Matt Brown
Three Kiwis are in contention heading into the final round of the New Zealand Golf Open at Millbrook, near Queenstown.
The 2017 champion Michael Hendry and Wairarapa’s Harry Bateman are in a tie for sixth on 11-under par, four shots off the lead held by Australian Lucas Herbert and South Korean Joohyung Kim on 15-under. Another Kiwi, Kieran Muir, is at 10-under, five shots off the pace.
Herbert and Kim lead by a shot from Australian Brad Kennedy on 13-under after he birdied the last two holes to rocket into contention. American Chan Kim and Aussie Nick Flanagan are three shots off the pace on 12-under.
In stark contrast to the first two rounds, conditions were benign yesterday and the scoring reflected that.
Herbert may be the favourite to win his second title of the year after already capturing one of the biggest tournaments on the European Tour this season.
The 24-year-old won the Dubai Desert Classic in a playoff in January for his first win as a professional.
The world No 82 carded a 6-under 65 and will be in a marquee final round pairing with 17-year-old rising star Kim, who carded a 4-under 67.
Kim led the first two rounds outright and missed an easy birdie putt on the par-5 17th that could have seen him retain the outright lead.
Herbert, buoyed by his stunning
success in Dubai, is confident.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been as ready as I am right now to go and do it. The win in Dubai will really help me out, given I haven’t done it before,” he said.
“The New Zealand Open is a great event, too. I have always enjoyed coming down here to Queenstown, it’s just a phenomenal place, probably one of my favourites in the world, and the Ferg burgers are unbelievable, they’ve been fuelling me all week,” Herbert quipped. Hendry is in the reckoning after an up-and-down round that leaves him in a tie for sixth with Bateman and Japan’s Ryosuke Kinoshita. Hendry carded a 4-under 67, a round that included an eagle and five birdies, as well as a double bogey and a bogey. Hendry said if you had told him at the start of the week, he would be four back heading into the final round, he would have taken it.
“I think I probably would have. The beauty of being three or four back, you don’t feel as much pressure as the other guys. I don’t care how experienced you are, you are going to feel pressure or nerves when you go into the final round with the lead or one behind,” he said.
“So it gives me the opportunity to go out there and play my game and hopefully I can hit the ball like I did on the back nine rather than the front nine and put some pressure on the leaders.”
Hendry is also counting on his experience of winning the title in 2017 making a difference today.
“When you come to the pressure moments, when you have been in pressure moments before, you handle them better than the next guy,” Hendry said.
“But I’m not saying these guys haven’t been in that scenario, there’s a pretty good leaderboard there. But it’s just a matter of going about my business and hitting good shots and we’ll see how we end up at the end of the week.”
Bateman is also in the reckoning but felt he barely stayed in contention yesterday.
“It was pretty scrappy and didn’t feel like I had my best stuff. But I had about six or seven sort of six or seven-foot par putts and I made them all, which kept me going, and then had a miracle putt [for eagle] on 17, like the impossible putt, but it went in, so that was great,” the New Zealander said.