Young amateur Kobori flies Kiwi flag
It might be up to a Kiwi amateur to deny a bunch of Australians poised to keep their country’s dominance of the New Zealand Open rolling.
A double-bogey on the penultimate hole of his third round means Rangiora 21-year-old Kazuma Kobori more than has his work cut out, but he’ll head into the final round of the $1.7 million tournament in a share of seventh, five shots behind Aussie leader Shae Wools-Cobb.
Kobori, who hadn’t dropped a shot until his double-bogey, shot a three-under 68 at Arrowtown’s Millbrook Resort yesterday and is one of three players 12-under the card with a round to play.
Michael Hendry, the last Kiwi to win the tournament (2017), is a further shot back in a share of 10th.
But Kobori is the best placed New Zealander to deny a ninth Australian winner in the past 10 editions of the tournament – not that the Cantabrian would pocket the $297,000 prize a professional winner would pocket.
Australians occupy five of the top 10 spots, with Wools-Cobb holding a two-stroke lead over Chris Wood, who led after 36 holes. Japan’s Terumichi Kakazu is third at 14-under.
‘‘You know, that sucks, it sucks making double, man. I’d just been bogey free for f . . . ing 52 holes, to make a double, not even a bogey,’’ Kobori lamented after his round.
He was still optimistic of his chances heading into the final day after holing a two-metre birdie putt on 18. ‘‘That birdie on the last helps, six [shot deficit] is probably too much. Four, five, we can make that work, hopefully.’’
Like Kobori, Wools-Cobb felt the ‘‘swirling’’ winds made life difficult down the stretch.
He made five consecutive birdies to go out in a sizzling 30, before mixing two more with a bogey on the way in after facing an almost 30-minute wait at the 10th tee due to a congested course.
‘‘I don’t even know how long the wait was, but it felt like an hour. I had a pretty easy par-five straight up and not birdieing that was a little bit of a dampener, but I’m pretty proud how I made a few birdies coming in,’’ he said, adding he believed it would take another round of four or five-under to win today.