Asian Players Chase Gates In Bid For Kirkwood Cup

Sunshine Coast, December 11, 2010 - American Bobby Gates will tomorrow hope to become the first international winner of the Australian PGA Championship in over ten years following a thrilling day of play at the Hyatt Regency Coolum.

Gates will start the final round at 12-under par, but will have to overcome the experience of one of Australia’s most successful professionals in Peter Senior who sits in second at 11-under alongside Newcastle’s Aaron Townsend.

Should he win tomorrow, Gates is also almost certain to take out the PGA Tour of Australasia’s Order of Merit which among other benefits will give him an instant start in the US Open and the World Golf Championship-Cadillac Championship.

The win will also give him a start in the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational- not a bad potential haul for a young man who also recently earned his US PGA Tour card for 2011.

"The first five holes were pretty tough today," said Gates. "There weren't many times that we looked up and the wind was doing the same thing as it was 30 seconds ago. But that's the fun of golf, you kind of grind through it and get to where you can make some birdies."

Gates played the round alongside Australia's John Senden and China's Liang Wenchong, who slipped from joint second to share eleventh with South Korea's Jung Ji-ho.

Liang's start to the day was tainted by a double-bogey on the first-hole, which threw him off for the day. The 32-year-old Zhongshan resident had a further three more bogeys throughout the course of the day.

"I pushed the ball to the right and it bounced off a rock into a bunker and I had to chip around a bit," Liang said of the unfortunate first hole. "The wind was also blowing quite hard as I was hitting towards the green, so it wasn't a good start to the day."

The Asian contingent is now led by Japan's Akio Sadakata, who has leapt up the leaderboard on the third day shooting a five-under 67.

"I didn't feel like I had a good round today and I'll have to go low tomorrow if I want to catch up," said the Osaka-based Sadakata. "But I'm in good spirits seeing my fellow countrymen also on the leaderboard putting up a good fight. I still have a chance but we'll see tomorrow."

Play gets underway in the third round from 6.20am on Sunday morning with the leaders teeing off at 11.00am.

For the full leaderboard, visit http://oneasia.asia.