Day of Drama sees Masterton's Campbell in Tauranga Lead

New Zealand amateur Ben Campbell will take a three shot lead into the final round of the Carrus Tauranga Open tomorrow.

Campbell, runner-up in the recent Australian Amateur, fired a six-under par 64 to move to 15-under par in the opening Charles Tour event at Tauranga Golf Club.

Overnight leader Andrew Green was cruising with a five shot lead before a disastrous five-over par eight at the ninth hole derailed his day, finally finishing with a three-over 73 to drop to second place.

Defending champion Michael Hendry shot a four-under par 66 to move to third place on 10-under along with fellow Auckland professional Richard Lee, who could not match his heroics from yesterday, firing a two-over 72 today.

Andy Gang (Auckland) scored his thrid successive 67 to be on nine under, tied with fellow professional Grant Moorhead (Taranaki) and Auckland amateur Ryan Fox.

The previous perfect sunny conditions were replaced with a cooling breeze and occasional rain today which also put a dampener on much of the scoring.

Green, the Wellington professional, appeared to have things under control as he picked up three early birdies before the wheels fell off at the par-3 ninth hole. He hit his tee shot out of bounds and his second ball into the bunker, where his caddy (and father) had inadvertently raked the bunker before Green had played his shot. This incurred an additional two shot penalty and he could not get up and down, finishing with an eight. To his credit Green fought back with birdies at the 10th and 11th holes but he air-mailed his approach into the 15th and went out of bounds and dropped one further shot to slip out of the lead.

Campbell (Masterton) meanwhile made a fast start to turn five-under par and mixed two further birdies with a solitary dropped shot coming home for his 64, although he was unaware that he had made the lead.

"I made a fast start and overall it was okay although there were a few shots I was not happy about," Campbell said. "I didn't know what was happening with the leaders. I was not taking any notice of the leaderboard, just concentrating on my game. I didn't find the conditions tougher - just normal Wellington conditions really. I was trying to get it to nine-under, that was goal but there's always tomorrow. I am just going to treat it like going out for another round tomorrow. I played in the final at the Australian Amateur so I am used to that pressure a bit and it should not faze me."

The hot round came from Tauranga professional Jared Pender, who made the last spot in the cut on one-over but changed his putter today as he raced to a seven under 63.

Nick Gillespie, playing out of the Royal Wellington club and tied second at the start of the day, hit three consecutive tee shots out of bounds on the par four eighth hole, finally signing for a 10 and slipping back through the field. To his credit he parred the rest of the round for a 76.

The women's honours proved a total one horse race with Northland's Caroline Bon firing her third straight sub-par round to claim her first Charles Tour title in the 54 hole contest.

Bon mixed four birdies with two bogies in another solid round to continue a run of consistent form, winning by 15 shots.

"I have worked hard on my game for the last year. I've done huge changes. It has taken that year to click into gear," Bon said."This week I played pretty solid. I was in good head-space and just let myself play good shots. I won the strokeplay but this was better because I played consistently better in all departments of my game."

Men's scores, round 3, Tauranga GC, par 70, (a) denotes amateur:
195 Ben Campbell (a, Masterton) 66 65 64
198 Andrew Green (Wellington) 62 63 73
200 Michael Hendry (North Harbour) 69 65 66, Richard Lee (Auckland) 69 59 72
201 Ryan Fox (a, Auckland) 67 67 67, Andy Gang (Auckland) 67 67 67, Grant Moorhead (New Plymouth) 68 65 68
202 Daniel Pearce (a, Hastings) 67 68 67
203 Brad Kendall (a, Mt Maunganui) 71 65 67, Mathew Holten (Christchurch) 66 66 71, Cody Harper (a, Invercargill) 63 68 72
204 Matt Perry (Hamilton) 70 66 68, James Hamilton (a, Omanu) 68 69 67, Peter Lee (a, Springfield) 65 72 67, Jared Pender (Tauranga) 69 72 63, Nick Gillespie (a, Royal Wellington) 65 63 76
205 Troy Ropiha (Taupo) 67 71 67, Pieter Zwart (a, Waipukurau) 67 69 69
206 Leonard Morgan (a, Tokoroa) 69 67 70, Kieran Muir (a, Omokoroa) 70 67 69, Scott Johnson (a, Muriwai) 67 70 69, Peter Fowler (Auckland) 71 66 69, Tane Robson (a, Cambridge) 68 69 69, Ben Wallace (a, Auckland) 67 68 71, Nick Meyer (a, Mt Maunganui) 69 71 66
207 Kevin Budden (a, Waitemata) 67 70 70, Brenden Stuart (Wellington) 64 74 69, Mahal Pearce (Dunedin) 69 70 68, Dean Sipson (North Harbour) 69 70 68, Sam Davis (a, Otumoetai) 73 66 68, Peter Spearman-Burn (a, Miramar) 68 66 73
208 David Klein (Te Anau) 67 70 71, Cameron Jones (a, North Shore) 70 67 71, Sam An (a, Titirangi) 67 71 70, Mark Purser (Hamilton) 67 72 69, Glenn Millin (Cambridge) 67 72 69, Ben Taylor (a, Omokoroa) 71 69 68
209 Steven Han (North Harbour) 68 70 71, Blair Riordan (a, Takaka) 70 69 70, Jordan Dasler (Nelson) 72 68 69, Dominic Barson (Auckland) 70 66 73, Marcus Wheelhouse (Auckland) 70 70 68,
210 Aaron Leech (a, Royal Wellington) 72 68 70, Ben Gallie (Queenstown) 67 71 72,
211 Blair Murdock (a, Tauranga) 68 69 74, Tyler Lock (a, Castlecliff) 70 68 73, Alex Tait (Northland) 72 67 72, Brad Hayward (a, New Plymouth) 74 66 71, Ilsuk Jung (Auckland) 69 71 71, Josef Edge (a, Hamilton) 74 67 70
212 Leighton James (Hawkes Bay) 66 73 73, Tom Cardno (a, Waitemata) 69 70 73, Campbell Irvine (a, Mt Maunganui) 70 68 74, Shaun Richards (Wellington) 70 68 74, Tom Brockelsby (a, Royal Wellington) 65 75 72, Gary-John Hill (a, Titirangi) 69 71 72
213 Joon-Ho Choi (New Plymouth) 70 68 75
214 Andrew Stewart (a, Omokoroa) 70 70 74, Scott Hill (Australia) 65 75 74
216 Jonty Philipson (Masterton) 70 71 75
218 Andrew Searle (Cambridge) 70 71 77
220 Mark Boe (Australia) 69 71 80

Women, par 71:
206 Caroline Bon (Northland) 67 70 69
221 Emily Perry (Lochiel) 74 76 71
228 Faye-Amy Nickson (Peninsula) 76 74 78
229 Rebekah Brownlee (Gulf Harbour) 74 84 71
244 Jess Guenzerodt (Christchurch) 78 81 85