Great Scott! Adam leads Aussie Open

Arizona-based Aussie Adam Scott will carry a two-stroke lead over the field into Sunday's fourth and final round of the Australian Open at New South Wales Golf Club near Sydney.

Scott shot clear with a five-under-par third round of 67 for a 15-under tally of 201.

Scott, pictured right, had trailed second-round leader Stuart Appleby by two strokes after completing his second round Saturday morning due to a wind suspension the day before. Scott took over the lead within four holes while Appleby (71) trailed for the rest of the day.

It's an Aussie 1-2-3 after 54 holes, which is not surprising given that so few "foreigners" are in the field, with Appleby second and Nick O'Hern(71) third, seven shots off the lead.

Another Australian, James Nitties, is in fourth place after a 70. He is eight strokes back.

American David Oh (69) and Australian Scott Strange (68) were tied for fifth, nine strokes behind Scott.
American John Daly shot 78, moving from a tie for 10th after the second round to a tie for 36th. His second-round 69, completed Saturday morning, enabled him to make the cut - something he hadn't achieved in all three Australian tournaments he played in last year: the Open, PGA and Masters.
Scott has never won a professional tournament in Australia.
"It's there for me with a good round tomorrow," Scott said after birdies on his final two holes.
"For an Aussie it's like the next major in a sense. It'd mean a lot to me at any point but it'd be great coming off a pretty ordinary year. If I had the chance to win I'd certainly savour it for a while."
Scott had back-to-back bogeys on the 15th and 16th holes. They were his first blemishes in a bogey-free 39-hole stretch spanning the first and third rounds.
Scott is anticipating another duel with Appleby in the final round.
"It was great to see us both go out there and play good today," he said. "We're a fair way out in front and it could be us getting the gloves off and having a bit of a ding-dong (battle) tomorrow hopefully."
While he will be anxious about what Sunday holds, it should not prevent Scott from sleeping.
He had a 4:15 a.m. wake-up call on Saturday so he could finish the final 12 holes of his second round before beginning his third.
"There aren't too many 4:15 calls, not even for a surf," he said. "That's an early one. I should've slept in the clubhouse."

THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD

Par 216 (3x72)

201 Adam Scott 68 66 67
203 Stuart Appleby 66 66 71
208 Nick O'Hern 69 68 71
209 James Nitties 67 72 70
210 David Oh (USA) 68 73 69, Scott Strange 72 70 68
211 Jarrod Lyle 69 68 74, Richard Green 73 71 67
212 Michael Sim 71 70 71, Michael Long (Nzl) 69 75 68, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 73 67 72
213 Chris Campbell 71 69 73, Peter O'Malley 69 74 70
214 Greg Chalmers 70 72 72, Bryce Molder (USA) 70 72 72
215 Rodney Pampling 74 71 70, Mathew Goggin 73 71 71, Andrew Tschudin 73 70 72, Cameron Percy 74 75 66, Brad Kennedy 75 70 70
216 Paul Gow 78 69 69, Ben Campbell (Nzl) 76 68 72, Craig Parry 80 67 69, Leigh Mckechnie 70 72 74, Stuart Bouvier 72 71 73
217 Aaron Baddeley 73 68 76, Scott Hend 66 71 80, Brendan Smith 74 67 76, Matthew Millar 71 75 71, Michael Brennan 69 73 75, Terry Pilkadaris 71 70 76, Gavin Flint 70 74 73
218 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 73 72 73, Jae-woong Eom (Kor) 71 71 76, Michael Curtain 71 69 78
219 John Daly (USA) 72 69 78, Josh Carmichael 73 69 77, Marc Leishman 71 75 73, Stephen Leaney 73 72 74, Peter Wilson 67 78 74, Heath Reed 71 71 77, Stephen Allan 68 77 74
220 Henry Epstein 76 72 72, Andrew Dodt 69 78 73, Rohan Blizard 78 71 71, Paul Sheehan 74 74 72
221 Paul Marantz 71 75 75, Scott Laycock 76 69 76, Min-chang Lee (Kor) 75 73 73, Scott Arnold 72 75 74
222 Jason Norris 79 69 74, Won-Kyung Heo (Kor) 73 74 75, Matthew Stieger 72 75 75, Chang wan Woo (Can) 73 74 75
223 Anthony Summers 79 69 75, Geoff Ogilvy 73 76 74, Michael McGrath 72 71 80, Brendan Stuart (Nzl) 72 74 77, Do eun An (Kor) 73 74 76, Andrew Mckenzie 75 74 74, Stephen Dartnell 75 72 76, Anthony Brown 77 72 74
224 Kim Felton 76 73 75
225 Peter Nolan 74 74 77, Mithun Perera 77 70 78
228 Rudi Bezuidenhout 72 72 84, Kelvin Jones (Nzl) 73 74 81, Terry Price 74 71 83