Dunne in topsy turvy day Down Under
Sweden's David Lingmerth. Picture: Getty Images
Paul Dunne endured a rollercoaster final 10 holes to slip to 33rd ahead of his final round of a monumental season in the Australian PGA Championship.
The 23-year old Greystones native signed for a second successive three over 75 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort on the Gold Coast, falling five places to six over par, nine strokes behind South Africa pair Dylan Frittelli (71) and Zander Lombard (71), and American Harold Varner III
Playing alongside Italian Nino Bertasio, Dunne opened made seven pars and a bogey at the sixth in his first eight holes before things got interesting.
While he birdied the ninth, 10th and the par five 12th and 14th, he bogeyed the 11th and the 14th and doubled the 13th and the 18th.
The 18th has cost Dunne two of his four double bogeys this week but he will be pleased, despite the errors, that he is eighth for putting.
As for overnight leader David Lingmerth, his bid to make the perfect start to his 2016 Ryder Cup qualifying campaign suffered a blow.
The Swede began the third round with a one shot lead over the chasing pack, but a disappointing three over 75 saw him fall back into the chasing pack, three shots behind joint leaders Frittelli, Lombard and Varner III.
Varner produced a best of the day 66 to surge through the field to the top of the leaderboard, while the South African duo bot posted rounds of one under 71 to move into a share of the lead.
Nathan Holman’s 70 saw the Australian lead the home challenge into the final round, while his compatriot Matt Millar joined Lingmerth on level par with 18 holes to play at the AUS$1.75 million co-sanctioned event between the Australian PGA and The European Tour.
Lingmerth joined The European Tour at the start of this week in a bid to make a first appearance at the 2016 Ryder Cup in America next year, and is still in with a chance of making a victorious start to his bid to join Darren Clarke’s European team next year.
Harold Varner III
“I need to play well tomorrow. I have another opportunity. I was playing pretty well the first two days, just a few mistakes and didn’t hole many putts, but I am just looking forward to the opportunity tomorrow. I can’t get too wild tonight, so I’m going to calm down. The game plan will be to do what I did today because obviously that was pretty good. Nothing crazy, just do the same thing I’ve been doing the last year I guess, just trying to get better. Tomorrow I’m going to get better.”
Dylan Frittelli
“It was a good round and I was happy with the way I finished. One under par’s always good in tough conditions like this. The front nine was consistent golf, hit a lot of greens, left myself a lot of putts and back nine was slightly different, had a bit of a speed wobble there coming in with a bogey on 16 and then birdie on 17, but I was really happy with the way I played.”
Zander Lombard
”I played really well today, kept it in the right spots again and just stuck it out, had a few good up and downs and chipping in on 16 was just the highlight of the day. There’s definitely some nerves on the first tee but as soon as I get into the game and start to go through my processes, just get back into the zone and play my golf I am ok. Tomorrow is going to be tough but it would be a dream come true to win and I’m going to play my best tomorrow for it.”
Round Three Scores
213 Z Lombard (RSA) 67 75 71, H Varner Iii (USA) 74 73 66, D Frittelli (RSA) 70 72 71,
215 N Holman (Aus) 77 68 70,
216 M Millar (Aus) 72 70 74, D Lingmerth (Swe) 73 68 75,
217 M Wright (Aus) 76 70 71, J Wilson (Aus) 73 73 71, R Green (Aus) 73 74 70, D Nisbet (Aus) 75 75 67, D Papadatos (Aus) 75 71 71, C Smith (Aus) 78 69 70,
218 T Sinnott (Aus) 71 72 75, R Bourke (Aus) 74 76 68,
219 M Foster (Eng) 69 73 77, N Cullen (Aus) 72 74 73, M Griffin (Aus) 76 72 71, A Brown (Aus) 73 71 75, P Martin Benavides (Esp) 75 67 77, N Bertasio (Ita) 75 72 72,
220 A Hall (Aus) 70 73 77, J Zunic (Aus) 73 72 75, J Geary (Nzl) 77 73 70, M McCardle (Aus) 74 74 72, T Lewis (Eng) 72 71 77,
221 P Lonard (Aus) 76 72 73, P Uihlein (USA) 75 67 79, B Rumford (Aus) 74 72 75, M Goggin (Aus) 76 73 72, A Price (Aus) 75 74 72, A Pike (Aus) 72 73 76, B Virto Astudillo (Esp) 72 77 72,
222 L Canter (Eng) 79 70 73, J Younger (Aus) 75 73 74, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 76 71 75, A Stephens (Aus) 71 76 75, R Fox (Nzl) 74 70 78, Paul Dunne (Irl) 72 75 75, S Manley (Wal) 77 69 76, R Gibson (Aus) 79 64 79, J Scrivener (Aus) 72 71 79, J Lyle (Aus) 77 73 72,
223 B Åkesson (Swe) 74 74 75, N Green (Aus) 76 74 73, M Fraser (Aus) 76 73 74, A Summers (Aus) 80 70 73,
224 D Klein (Ger) 77 71 76, N Basic (Aus) 74 73 77, B Wharton (Aus) 76 70 78, D Lawson (Aus) 75 70 79, B Eccles (Aus) 74 72 78, R Van Der Spuy (RSA) 76 73 75, C Nel (RSA) 78 71 75, C Parry (Aus) 77 71 76,
225 A Curlewis (RSA) 76 72 77, S Fernandez (Esp) 74 72 79, D Fox (Aus) 75 74 76, P Cooke (Aus) 79 71 75, H Bateman (Nzl) 76 74 75, D Lloyd (RSA) 78 72 75,
226 B Rankin (Aus) 76 73 77, J Senden (Aus) 73 77 76, H Park (Kor) 80 67 79, T Mordt (RSA) 79 71 76, J Nitties (Aus) 76 72 78,
227 D McKenzie (Aus) 74 76 77, J Hook (Aus) 76 74 77,
228 J Ritchie (RSA) 76 72 80,
230 D Van Den Heever (RSA) 76 74 80,
231 N Ravano (Ita) 73 76 82,
232 C Hale (Aus) 78 72 82.
