Lunde’s birdie, par, eagle, birdie stretch leaves him one shot clear
COLUMBUS, OH – Gas in Columbus is a bargain at $3.63 a gallon. Plenty of players filled their tanks and put the pedal to the metal on moving day at the Ohio State University Golf Club, where low scores were the order of the day. The Scarlet Course gave up 39 rounds of par or below.Bill Lunde (67), the first round co-leader, now leads alone at 7-under 206 after the third round of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational.
Josh Broadaway (67) and Scott Gardiner (68) are tied for second at 6-under 207.
Zimbabwe’s Brendon De Jonge (69) is fourth at 5-under while Bob May (67) and overnight leader, Peter Tomasulo (72), are tied for fifth at 4-under. Five players are tied for seventh a further shot back.
Lunde’s birdie, par, eagle, birdie stretch on holes 10-13 propelled him into the lead at 7-under-par where he remained after closing with five pars. His eagle on the 12th hole was one of five there all day.
Lunde, who was paired with Broadaway, saw the pairing as an advantage. “Josh got off to a great start and was dragging me along. I met him years ago playing the Hooters Tour. He’s not very serious and pretty laid back and he plays fast.”
When asked about his plan of attack for tomorrow, Lunde replied “I’ll play the same way I’ve been playing all week. You can’t force things out there. You’ve got to be patient. Par is a good score on any hole really. Par is not going to hurt you.”
Broadaway started the tournament on the heels of his best Nationwide Tour career finish (T4) at last weeks Price Cutter Charity Championship where he shot 64 in the final round. “I’ve been playing well. I’ve made nine cuts in a row and had some good finishes. I’m not going to go out and try to win the golf tournament tomorrow. It’ll be fun to play with a friend (Lunde) again and have a good time. Just go do what I’ve been doing and if something happens, it happens.”
Gardiner, an Australian who now resides in Rogers, AR is 158th on the money list. After a bogey at the second hole he rallied with birdies at holes 4, 7, 12 and 14 before missing a 7-footer on the 18th hole which would have tied him for the lead. Gardiner’s wife, Kristin, gave birth to their son, Kai, two weeks ago.
De Jonge got to 6-under after 15 holes but a bogey at the par-3 17th hole dropped him back to 5-under, two strokes off the lead.
May, the Las Vegas based 39-year-old famous for challenging Tiger Woods in the playoff at the 2000 PGA Championship, shot 32 on the back nine to move into contention, three strokes back. He has his business manager, Tom Bertsch, on the bag this week. “Tom’s been wanting to do this for a while. He keeps chickening out and we finally got it nailed down this week.” At 26th on the money list a win here would secure May a spot in The25 and a return trip back to the PGA TOUR.
Of the seven invited All-Americans, all but Michael Thompson advanced to the weekend. Thompson, Jonas Blixt (T12) and Kevin Chappell (T54) played as professionals while Sihwan Kim (T29), Rory Hie (T40), Rickie Fowler (T49) and Jamie Lovemark (T54) remain amateurs.
Skip Kendall (66), who shared the low round of the day with Blake Adams, hit 13 of 14 fairways, 14 of 18 greens, and had 28 putts to be bogey-free, his 13th round in the 60s this year.
Adams, a 32-year-old Georgian who tied for sixth at the South Georgia Classic, is playing his fourth tournament this season. “I was injured last year and tried to play through it,” said Adams. It’s good to at least have a chance now. Hopefully, I’ll have a top-25 and play in Omaha next week. That’s my goal.”
Third Round News & Notes: Rickie Fowler (70), a freshman at Oklahoma State, played alone in the first group in 2 hours, 43 minutes…South African Garth Mulroy (67) made 4 consecutive birdies on hole Nos. 9-12…Brendon Steele (68) made his 7th consecutive cut after missing five cuts in a row to start the season...The scoring average for the third round was 71.416…The most difficult hole was the par-4, 14th hole with a scoring average of 4.286 while the easiest hole was the par-5, 12th which averaged 4.468 ...Nationwide Tour money leader Jarrod Lyle (69) is tied for 40th.
Return to Other Tours archives