Can Nathan Green Hold On?

Stumbling his way to a one over 73, Nathan Green holds a one shot lead from Brett Rumford and Gavin Coles.

Nathan had a horror stretch of holes from 13 to 15 (double, bogey, bogey) before salvaging a shot on the 16th. His playing partner, Richard Green, carded a 74 which has dropped him into a tie for fifth.

Greg Norman shot a scintillating 68, and by the time he reached the 18th, the crowd around him was huge. He has certainly shown his worth to organisers, and you can only imagine the reception he will get tomorrow. Rod Pampling and Brett Rumford also signed for 68′s and they were the 3 lowest scores of the day.

Having first grabbed headlines seven years ago when he won the ANZ Players Championship as an amateur, a week after Aaron Baddeley did likewise the last time the Australian Open was played at Royal Sydney, Rumford says he’s playing well enough to win.

“I’ve made a lot of birdies in the last couple of days. I played really solid golf, I holed a couple of putts which perhaps you shouldn’t have, so I took advantage of that but then again I missed a few which I possibly could have made,” Rumford said.

“It sort of evened itself out and I just played really, really solid golf out there. I hit a lot of fairways, a lot of greens, and made some really good up and downs as well when I had to just to keep me the momentum going.”

Coles, the 2002 Jacob’s Creek Open champion and 2004 NZ PGA Championship winner, collected four birdies and just one bogey in another solid round and is confident of claiming his third Australasian PGA Tour title on Sunday.

“I’ve been playing really nicely from tee to green this week but I think I need to go and spend a couple of hours on the putting green because I still don’t think I’ve got the pace of the greens,” Coles said.

“I definitely think I need a new seeing eye dog because I can’t read them either, it’s become quite difficult. I can only play as well as I can play and see what happens. I can’t control what anyone else does. Tomorrow I might make some putts and that might be the difference.”

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