17 Jul 2022 | Professional golf |
Davis looms in California
by PGA of Australia
By Tony Webeck
Sydney’s Cam Davis is within reach of his second PGA TOUR title but he will need to unleash a point-scoring spree in the final round of the Barracuda Championship in California.
The PGA TOUR's lone modified Stableford scoring event awards five points for an eagle, two for a birdie, subtracts one for a bogey and takes three for a double or worse.
After scoring eight points in each of the opening two rounds David pushed up into a share of third with a 12-point round on Saturday that consisted of an eagle, five birdies and three bogeys at Tahoe Mountain Club's Old Greenwood layout.
His total of 28 points puts him nine back of American Chez Reavie (nine points) and three from Scotsman Martin Laird who had 13 points on Saturday to move into outright second.
Winner of the Rocket Mortgage Classic just over a year ago, Davis has three top-10 finishes in his past seven starts and used a nine-point front nine to once again move into the top 10 names on the leaderboard.
After a bogey at one Davis made eagle at the par-5 second – his second five-pointer for the week – and added further birdies at four, five and eight along with a bogey at seven.
Six straight pars meant that he didn’t add any further points until he holed a putt from 15 feet at the par-4 16th.
He made par at 17 and then stiffed his approach at the home hole to just five feet, duly converting for a late two-point boost.
The only other Aussie to make the cut, Cameron Percy had two birdies and two bogeys in his two-point round to fall 17 places and a tie for 52nd with one round to play.
On the Ladies European Tour 36-hole leader Whitney Hillier will start the final round three strokes off the lead after a round of four-over 76 in the Big Green Open in The Netherlands.
Two bogeys and a double after the turn saw the West Australian drop down to a share of fifth as Swede Anna Nordqvist (67) moved one shot clear at the top of the leaderboard.
Hillier is tied with New Zealand’s Momoka Kobori (69), England’s Liz Young (71), German amateur Alexandra Försterling (72) and Diksha Dagar (73) of India at four-under through 54 holes.
Beaten in a playoff by Aaron Pike at the TPS Hunter Valley event at Oakes Cypress Lakes Resort in March, Kobori has won twice on the LET Access Series and is making a big impression in her first LET event in Europe.
“I had no idea what to expect at the start of the week,” said Kobori.
“I’ve played a couple of LET events in Australia so I kind of knew what it was going to be like but for me it was a bonus that I managed to get in here so I just wanted to see how things went.
“It’s working out for me so far.”
The LPGA Tour’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational teams event wrapped up on Sunday morning with Karis Davidson earning the first top-10 finish of her rookie season.
Paired with Daniela Darquea of Ecuador, Davidson finished tied for eighth at 17-under, nine shots back of the winning duo of Lizette Salas and Chevron Championship winner Jennifer Kupcho.
Fellow Australian Sarah Kemp was tied for 10th alongside Canadian Alena Sharp with Karrie Webb a shot back in a share of 15th playing with American Marina Alex.