BANGKOK, March 16 - Brazilian Lucas Lee drained an eight-foot birdie putt on the last on Saturday to snatch a one-stroke lead over defending champion Chris Wood of England and China's Hu Mu after three rounds of the U.S. $1 million Thailand Open at Thana City Golf & Sports Club.
Lee's rounds of 65, 67 and 65 leave him 19 under for the tournament, which is jointly sanctioned by OneAsia and the Japan Golf Tour Organisation with earnings to count for both Orders of Merit.
Thai-based Scot Simon Yates celebrated his 43rd birthday with a 64, to share fourth place at 17 under with overnight leader Scott Strange of Australia who carded a 68.
Born in Brazil to émigré Korean parents, Lee finished seventh at Q-School in 2012 and parlayed that into a top 50 finish on the OneAsia Order of Merit last year.
Although he has won a couple of one-day professional tournaments and finished second four times on the Canadian Tour, the 25-year-old is still seeking his breakthrough victory on a major circuit.
He refused to be intimidated on Saturday despite playing with defending champion Wood (65) and three-time Major winner Padraig Harrington -- who slipped out of contention with a 75.
"After the first hole you try to forget who they are and try to beat them like any other of the guys, but they do hit the ball very well," said Lee, who is fluent in English, Korean and Portuguese.
"It was a good learning experience. Tomorrow I'm just going to try and be as positive as possible, while also keeping it simple."
Wood, who made his breakthrough professional victory at this tournament last year and followed it up with victory at the European Tour's Qatar Masters in January, said he was delighted so far with his defense of the title.
"I'm really pleased with my efforts so far. I came here to put in a good defense," he said.
"It will take something in the mid 60s to win."
Hu, another OneAsia regular but with victory under his belt from China's domestic tour, credited an improved tournament strategy for his performance.
"I have been playing quite awful on the last days of tournaments, so what I have been doing recently is try to make a game plan for the entire week and then stick to it," he said.
"I've been doing quite well on that, and so hopefully I can do the same tomorrow."
Best of the local challengers was Prayad Marksaeng, who started with five birdies in-a-row for his 65 and shares sixth place at 16 under.
Indonesia's Rory Hie lost more ground with a round of 73, leaving him in a tie for 53rd place with a 3-round total of 210.
The round of the day belonged to Japan's Katsumasa Miyamoto, who equaled the course record with a 63 after making the turn in 29.
Scores after the third round of the Thailand Open being played at the par 72, 6,336-metre (6,930-yard) Thana City Golf & Sports Club course.
197 - Lucas LEE (BRA) 65-67-65.
198 - HU Mu (CHN) 67-67-64, Chris WOOD (ENG) 67-66-65.
199 - Simon YATES (SCO) 66-69-64, Scott STRANGE (AUS) 66-65-68.
200 - Prayad MARKSAENG (THA) 68-67-65, Terry PILKADARIS (AUS) 68-64-68.
201 - David SMAIL (NZL) 69-66-66, Yoshinori FUJIMOTO (JPN) 67-67-67, David McKENZIE (AUS) 65-68-68.
202 - Nick CULLEN (AUS) 69-67-66, Kazuhiro YAMASHITA (JPN) 70-66-66, Juvic PAGUNSAN (PHI) 67-69-66, Katsumasa MIYAMOTO (JPN) 73-66-63, CHO Min-gyu (KOR) 65-68-69, LEE Kyoung-hoon (KOR) 67-66-69.
Selected:
210 - Rory HIE (INA) 67-70-73.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment