Min Woo Lee is within the field seat to clinch his maiden Australian PGA Championship as Adam Scott’s bid to win for the primary time in virtually 4 years fell by the wayside at Royal Queensland on Saturday.
Perth product Lee heads into Sunday’s ultimate spherical with a three-shot lead after a third-round 66 lifted him to 17-under.
His nearest rival is Japan’s Rijkuta Hoshino, who moved to 14-unnder following a superb 64 on Saturday.
Western Australia’s Curtis Luck is in third spot on 13-under following his 66 within the third spherical.
Scott, who began the day only one shot behind world No.45 Lee, didn’t ship on Saturday, along with his even-par 71 leaving him six strokes adrift of the chief and going through an uphill battle to finish a successful drought that stretches again to February 2020.
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“It wasn’t actually my day,” the 2013 Masters champion mentioned.
“I couldn’t actually get it going and sadly I missed a putt on 12 after which bogeyed 14 and 16 and had a tough run coming in there, so the momentum actually modified.
“I’m a good distance again now, so, I’ve acquired plenty of work to do (on Sunday)
“I’m simply going to should be a bit aggressive on the pins actually. You possibly can’t actually change your technique off the tee right here however you’ll be able to actually fireplace at just a few extra, seeing the place the pins are.
“Somebody’s going to run scorching early, so hopefully it’s me.”
Lee, who will be part of Scott on the PGA Tour subsequent yr, mentioned he was “fairly completely satisfied” along with his third spherical – which included a memorable birdie on the par-four twelfth gap after an errant tee shot – regardless of a “couple of errors”.
“I anticipated myself to play fairly nicely,” mentioned 25-year-old Lee, who gained the current Macau Open.
“I’ve been hitting the ball so nicely all yr and the outcomes have been there. Every thing’s been fairly as much as par with how I believe I’m going and the way I’ve been going.
“(Sunday’s) simply one other day and hopefully I can preserve going. I can simply management what I can do and if somebody goes on the market and shoots low, hopefully I’ve completed the day proud of the best way I performed.
“It’s a course the place you’ll be able to shoot low, so that you’re going to be aggressive it doesn’t matter what. There are in all probability a few holes the place you don’t have to hit driver the place I did the final three days.
“It simply all relies upon. It’s rating dependent however I’m right here as a result of I performed aggressive and I performed the best way that the sport plan has been so hopefully I can simply do the identical.”
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Luck was assured he “had a shot’’ of topping his good good friend Lee on Sunday.
“We fully grew up collectively and performed all the identical occasions rising up, so it’s going to be wonderful (being within the ultimate group with Lee),” Luck mentioned.
“I’ve positively performed occasions the place every little thing’s regarded nice, so I’m simply going to clearly again myself off that have and … hopefully get it performed.”
Australian PGA leaderboard after Spherical 3 (Australian until acknowledged):
17-under: Min Woo Lee
14-under: Rikuya Hoshino (JPN)
13-under: Curtis Luck
11-under: Adam Scott
10-under: Connor Syme (SCO), Lucas Herbert
9-under: Joaquin Niemann (CHI), Marc Leishman, Cameron Davis