A disappointing third round from Garry Murphy sent him hurtling down the standings at the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, with a hefty score today of 79.
Three double bogeys across the day in Aberdeen and resulted in Murphy finishing with a score of seven-over-par for the day and dropped him to four-over-par for the tournament.
Peter Baker remains top of the leaderboard on 12-under-par after another round of 69, leaving him four shots ahead of his nearest challenger, Simon Khan, on eight-under.
Baker began his third round by making three birdies on the first, second & fourth before making six consecutive pars to complete the front nine in 33 stokes. He would make two more birdies on the 10th & 12th before cancelling those out and giving two back on the 14th and 18th.
“I played well all day, got off to a nice start which was a big bonus and I kept it going,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, there is a field of great players so anything could happen around Trump International Golf Links, my plan is to go out and play well again and see what happens.”
The tournament is in Baker’s hands, with the duo of Michael Campbell and Greg Owen three shots back from second-placed Khan on five under par heading into the final day of play.
Gary Murphy began the day six shots off the lead on three-under-par with a top-10 finish a tangible possibility for the Irishman – however, his penultimate round had finished before it had really begun.
A steady start of four pars in as many holes was the kind of start that Murphy would have been happy with as he eased his way into the round but a double bogey on the fifth wasn’t;t ideal and he followed that up with four more pars before the turn.
The back nine started poorly for Murphy and removed any possibility of the aforementioned top-10 finish as a bogey on the 10th was followed by another double bogey on the 11th and left Murphy on five-over-par for the day and two-over for the championship. Another run of pars followed the frustration of the opening two holes on the back nine but couldn’t muster a red score at all during the round.
A third triple bogey on the 17th ended a bitterly disappointing day for Murphy, who finished the day joint 32nd and out of sight in Peter Baker’s real view mirror.
The final day of action gets under at 7:50 a.m. while Gary Murphy tees off for his final round alongside José Coceres and Markus Brier at 9:20 a.m.
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