Argentina's Carballo leads Moonah Classic
FINGAL, Victoria, Australia – Miguel Carballo rolled in a pair of closing birdies Saturday to separate himself from the field and grab a two-stroke lead after 54 holes at the Moonah Classic, the second stop on the 2009 Nationwide Tour schedule. Carballo canned putts of 15 and 12 feet on the final two holes for a 1-under-par 71 and a 9-under 207 total. Australian Richie Gallichan (70) holds down second place heading into Sunday’s final round of the $600,000 event.Aussie Peter O’Malley (72) and New Zealand’s David Smail (71) share third place at 6-under, three back of the 29-year old Argentinian who shared both the first- and second-round lead after posting rounds of 68-68.
Saturdays’ third round featured a steady wind of 20 mph which pushed the scoring average at the Moonah Links course to 76.623, more than two full strokes above Friday’s total.
“The course was so tough, it took all of my attention,” said Carballo through fellow competitor Daniel Summerhays (73-211), who translated for the media. “I knew the course was tough enough and nobody was going to take it too deep. I just wanted to keep it around even-par today, which I did.”
Carballo shared the 36-hole lead at 8-under with Michael Sim (76-212) but got off to a slow start and mixed bogeys with birdies for most of the day until he closed with a flourish.
“I was a little cold at the start,” said Carballo. “By the end of the first nine I started feeling better. To finish 1-under par in those conditions is great.”
In contrast, Gallichan, a 25-year old from New South Wales, had no trouble to begin the day, mixing an eagle and two birdies for a front nine 32. When he made the turn, Gallichan was 9-under and two better than Carballo.
“I felt really relaxed out there. I expected to be nervous after I got off to such a great start and saw my name up there on the leaderboard,” said Gallichan. “It’s not something I’m used to on such a big stage. I grew up on the Central Coast and we get a lot of wind up there. I have a really good game plan for here, try not to hit in any bunkers. They’re like landmines.”
Gallichan missed the bunkers but still stumbled with bogeys at Nos. 15 and 16 which dropped him into a tie for the lead and set the stage for Carballo to step forward.
“It’s all in the putter,” said the leader, who ditched his conventional putter for a longer model last November. “If you don’t putt well you can’t compete well. The new putter felt good when I first tried it. It took some time to know where your hands need to be. The longer putter just feels more comfortable. ”
It may have been comfort or just plain luck that O’Malley used to roll in a birdie putt of somewhere between 100 and 120 feet on the par-4, 16th hole. It was a putt that also included at least 15 feet of break, down over a mound, falling to the left.
“I didn’t know what to do. I almost got a sand wedge out,” laughed O’Malley afterwards. “You just get the putter out and hope you guess right. I was trying to get it anywhere in the vicinity where I could have a shot to hole the next one. I was very happy to make a three there instead of the five I thought I was going to make when I stood over it. It was just one of those flukes.”
Summerhays (73), Stephen Leaney (71), Alistair Presnell (72) and Dustin White (72) share fifth place, four strokes back of the top.
“It’s just playing very hard,” said Leaney, a native of Perth who will be playing the PGA Tour this year on a Major Medical Extension and is using this event as one of his five allowed ‘rehab’ starts. “You have to try and make pars on some holes. It’s just that sort of golf course. I didn’t watch the board all day because I knew people were going to go backwards all day. I’ve played here quite a few times and that wind (South) is the hardest wind for this course. I was trying to do my own thing and not worry about what the leaders were going to do.”
Third-Round Notes: Craig Spence turned in the low round of the day, a 4-under 68. Spence made the 36-hole cut on the number and began the day tied for 57th place. Spence was in the fourth pairing off the tee and slowly moved up the leaderboard as the day progressed. He is now tied for 9th place, just five shots back of the leader.
Spence, Paul Sheehan, Matthew Millar, Jin Park and Paul Gow all were perfect off the tee, hitting 14 of 14 fairways. Sheehan also led the field today in Greens in Regulation (16 of 18/88.8%).
Australian Ashley Hall had a hole-in-one today. Hall used a 6-iron to ace the 180-yard, 5th hole. It is the first hole-in-one on the Nationwide Tour this season.
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