Alex Maguire is in position to advance to the Final Stage at Asian Tour Q-School, but the Laytown & Bettystown man needs to produce another solid round on the final day.
An opening 67 at Phoenix Gold Golf in Bangkok left Maguire in a share of third place, but he slipped down the leaderboard with a one-over 71 in round two.
A topsy-turvy first nine holes in round three saw him bookend the side with birdies, and make two more in between but he also carded three bogeys to make the turn at one-under. It was a lot steadier on the back nine, as he made six pars before birdieing the 16th and then adding another on 18 to record his second 67 of the week and climb into a share of 18th place which is currently projected to be the cutoff point for qualification for next week’s Final Stage.
Kevin Phelan, who has primarily been competing on the Japanese Challenge Tour – the ACN Tour – this year joins Maguire in the final round, but at level-par and sharing 45th, he’ll need to produce something special in the final round with the leading 21 players and ties expected to be the qualification mark.
It’s a bunched leaderboard, however, and though American Holden Wisener at -12 and solo-second-placed Franco Scorzato of Argentina at -11 are in double-digits under-par, just four shots separate the trio tied for third and the six-strong group that includes Maguire at -5.
Niall Kearney, who made it to Final Stage last year and narrowly missed out on gaining full status, won’t be joining his fellow countrymen in the final round. The Royal Dublin man carded three successive rounds of 71 to leave him on +3, two shots outside the 54-hole cutline.
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