AMERICAN GATES LEADS AUSSIE PGA BY ONE STROKE

FROM THE PGA OF AUSTRALIA WEBSITE
By Luke Buttigieg at Coolum, Sportal
A roller-coaster third round of the Australian PGA Championship at Hyatt Regency Coolum has finished with American Bobby Gates atop the leaderboard for the third day in a row but he'll take just a one-shot lead into Sunday.
With the weather threatening to have a big say on Saturday on the Sunshine Coast it was only the wind that played any significant part but it didn't stop more hot scoring as Gates overcame an early stumble to card a one-under 71 and move to 12 under.
New South Welshman Aaron Townsend opened up a two-stroke lead on the midway through the back nine thanks to five birdies in his first 14 holes but he collapsed coming home with three bogeys in his final four holes to eventually shoot 70 and surrender his advantage.
Townsend now shares second place with two-time champion Peter Senior, who bounced back from an opening-hole bogey turned back the clock with a brilliant 68 that included a run of four birdies in six holes.
Equal fourth at minus 10 are Akio Sadakata from Japan following a superb 67, Andre Stolz (70) and Peter Fowler (70), who shared the lead only to leak three shots on the back nine before arresting the slump to remain in contention.
Steven Bowditch's roller-coaster tournament continued with his second 66 of the event, a day after he shot 76 tying him for seventh place on minus eight with dual Coolum winner Nick O'Hern (68), Gary Simpson (68) and John Senden (74) who endured a tough day after starting with double bogey.
South Korean Ji-ho Jung (71) and Liang Wenchong (75) of China are tied for 11th on seven under while two of the favourites, defending champion Robert Allenby (72) and last-start Australian Open winner Geoff Ogilvy (71), are six back along with Richard Green (70) and Matthew Griffin (72).
While Gates began his day with five successive pars to retain the lead his nearest challengers and playing partners Senden and Liang Wenchong both double-bogeyed the opening hole, leaving it to Townsend and then Fowler to take up the challenge.
And when Gates made his only bogey of the day at the 6th, in between Townsend grabbing his second and third birdies of the day at the 6th and 7th holes, Townsend found himself out in front.
But with his playing partner Fowler getting hot with four birdies in a row, rolling in a monster at the 7th, it wasn't long before the 51-year-old had joined Townsend at the top with Ji-ho Jung collecting five birdies in six holes to close within a shot.
While Gates began his recovery with his first birdie at the 9th, his second one on another steady day at 12 only kept him in touch as Townsend hit a brilliant long-iron approach shot to the par-five 12th but had to settle for a birdie after missing his eagle putt from inside two metres.
Fowler, having already bogeyed 10, could only manage par after failing to get up and down from short of the green and he fell a further shot back at the next when he tugged his approach well left.
The 1983 Australian Open champion continued his slide with another dropped shot at the difficult par-three 14th but Townsend produced another sparkling approach and calmly converted from two metres to extend his lead.
Townsend produced his first false shot of the back nine when he blocked his tee shot into the hazard and was forced to take a penalty drop before compounding the error by finding the fairway bunker with his third shot, resulting in a disappointing bogey.
Fowler pulled a shot back soon after at the same hole and at 16 Townsend missed a short putt after another fine approach that could have steadied him before a wayward second shot into the 17th green and subsequent chip well past the pin left him with a testing par putt that he slid by the hole.
Having dropped back into a share of the lead with Gates, Townsend then blocked his tee shot into the bunker and left his approach 15m short of the green before missing a three metre putt for par while New Zealand Open champion gates closed with his sixth-successive par.
Gates acknowledged that this has been the toughest day so far and he was happy to remain on top while Townsend is confident he can win even though he finished his day putting so poorly.
"I ground it out again today and never really got anything going but it's the nature of the beast out here with this course, you're going to hit some bad shots and saving par sometimes is pretty good," Gates said.
"The first five holes were pretty tough today and there weren't many times that we looked up and the wind was doing the same thing as it was 30 seconds ago."
"From our perspective that makes it pretty tough, we're trying to hit a certain shot and when you're committed to the shot and you get over it and you realise it's not even close to what you thought it was, it's tough but that's the fun of golf."
"A lot of good things came out of today so I'm still with every chance," said a disappointed Townsend who played poorly last week at the Japanese Tour Q-School when a back injury he's since had treated troubled him.
"I really enjoyed the way I've played the golf course over the last three days, I've been really confident with how I've picked my lines and hit my shots so I'm just going to keep doing that."
"I still feel like I'm putting well despite how I finished the last few holes ... (but) I've got heaps of confidence going into tomorrow."

TO READ ALL THE SCORES ON THE PGA OF AUSTRALIA WEBSITE

CLICK HERE