Poor finishes leaves Purcell seeking Sunday comeback in Brisbane
Conor Purcell is hoping an old Walker Cup reunion will prove inspirational after he bogeyed his last three holes to slip back into the chasing pack at the Fortinet Australian PGA Championship.
Australia's Min Woo Lee increased his lead to three shots as he seeks his third DP World Tour title and a second professional victory on home soil in Brisbane.
After getting to the fringes of the top 10 by making five birdies and a bogey in his first 15 holes at Royal Queensland, Purcell finished with three straight bogeys for a one-under 70 that left him tied 27th on five-under.
"Better it happening on a Saturday than a Sunday," quipped the Dubliner (26).
The good news for Purcell is that he will be paired in the final round with his 2019 Walker Cup partner, Alex Fitzpatrick.
"Lots of good stuff in there to carry forward tomorrow and plenty of holes to make up ground. Will be a nice group out with Alex, too."
He's 12 strokes behind Lee, who carded a five-under 66 to lead by three strokes from Japan's Rikuya Hoshino, who shot 64, on 17-under-par.
"I expected myself to play pretty well," Lee said. "I've been hitting the ball so well all year and the results have been there.
"I just feel like it was just a couple of moments that I stuffed up, like on eight today, I pulled an iron where I can look back and just hit a seven-iron and draw it off the right side and not be in the trees on the left.
"Stuff like that, I think everything's been pretty up to par with how I think I'm going and how I have been going. Yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just those little moments.
"Tomorrow's just another day and hopefully I can keep going. I can just control what I can do and if someone goes out there and shoots low, hopefully I've finished the day happy with the way I played."
Curtis Luck sits in third place on 13 under and two-time Australian PGA champion Adam Scott is fourth on 11 under, one ahead of compatriot Lucas Herbert and Scotland's Connor Syme.
"Well, it wasn't really my day," Scott said after losing five strokes to Lee over the last seven holes en route to a 71.
"I couldn't really get it going and unfortunately, I missed a putt on 12 and then bogeyed 14 and 16 and had a rough run coming in there.
"So the momentum really changed and Min had a couple of birdies and we went from being quite close to I'm a long way back now.
"So, I've got a lot of work to do tomorrow but maybe all the putts will go tomorrow."
Galgorm's Tom McKibbin recovered from bogeys at the fourth and fifth with five birdies in nine holes to shoot 68 and move up to 43rd on three-under.
