Alistair Presnell
Alistair Presnell secured one last birdie before darkness fell on the weather-plagued Panama Claro Championship Saturday evening. Presnell canned a six-footer at the par-5, 12th hole to reach 11-under par and take temporary possession of the third round lead in the opening event on the 2011 Nationwide Tour schedule.
The tournament has been hampered by early afternoon storms that have kept each of the first three rounds from being completed on time. Only 24 of the 64 players who made the cut, which didn't come until early Saturday afternoon, managed to finish the third round. The remaining 40 will return Sunday morning to finish round three and then, hopefully, everyone will start and complete the final round. Sunday's winner will collect $99,000.
Presnell is the leader of the pack, for now. The former air conditioning mechanic from Australia was 5-under for the day before play was halted for good just before 6:30 p.m. ET.
"I've been hitting it pretty good all tournament, apart from the first five holes of it," said Presnell, who was two-over through five holes before the first weather stoppage on Thursday afternoon. "I've been hitting it good ever since. Today was no different. I've been hitting my irons in reasonably close and giving myself a number of opportunities. It's been a good two and a half days."
Presnell leads by two over Kyle Reifers and Erik Compton, who shared the 36-hole lead with former U.S. Amateur Champion Danny Lee. Reifers and Compton are even after 10 holes and 9-under for the tournament.
At eight under par and at various points around the golf course are Steve Wheatcroft, Elliot Gealy, Kyle Thompsonand Scott Sterling.
Lee is in a group of four players at 7-under and currently four back. The 20-year old from New Zealand was cruising along nicely and had it to 12-under par and held the lead through eight holes before disaster struck on the dogleg left, ninth.
Lee's tee shot hit a tree and bounced out of bounds to the left. His next one wound up in the same trees, which blocked his direct path to the green. His fourth was long and right of the putting surface where he needed a drop from the cart path. After finally getting on, he three-putted from 45 feet for a quadruple-bogey 8.
"Everything went wrong on nine and ten," said Lee, who subsequently bogeyed number 10. "I though I hit a good tee shot on nine. I got lucky that I am stopping right now instead of keep playing. If I keep going, there's no guarantee. When you're on fire and everything's going well, you don't want to stop but I was struggling the last two holes and I think it's a good thing that I got to stop."
South Carolina's Tommy Biershenk tops the list of those that have completed 54 holes. The former Clemson standout posted a 4-under 66 and is in at 6-under 204.
