MELBOURNE, Australia — Lucas Herbert surrendered his outright lead of the Australian Open and will go into the final round tied with American Ryggs Johnston while South Korea´s Jiyai Shin took the outright lead in the Women´s Australian Open being played concurrently at two courses on the famed Melbourne sand belt.
Johnston shot a 4-under 68 to pull level with Herbert, who could only manage an even par 72, to share the lead at 14-under at Kingston Heath, which is hosting the final two rounds after rotating with the Victoria Golf Club for the opening two rounds.
“A little bit frustrating but sort of no ground lost really. I´m still in the lead,” said Herbert, who has had the lead since the opening round.
“I might have just let a few more people back into the tournament but still leading, still where I want to be so, yeah, good result from a frustrating day,” Herbert added according to AP.
Johnston fired six birdies in 12 holes Saturday before a seven at the par-5 14th stalled his momentum at Kingston Heath, which will host the 2028 Presidents Cup.
The 24-year-old Montana native, currently ranked 953rd, recently graduated from the DP World Tour Qualifying School which Johnston said was helping him deal with the nerves of having a first professional victory in sight.
“For a while now I´ve been in pretty high-pressure situations, trying to get my card through Q-school – that final round is one of the most pressured and I did pretty well,” he said.
“I just try to take that with me and use it as something to look back on and kind of tell myself that, hey, there´s a lot of people watching, a lot of pressure, but you can still do this.
Defending men´s champion Joaquin Niemann had the round of the day, shooting a 64 to storm into contention at two shots back, having started his round 10 strokes behind.
The Chilean was in a five-way tied for third at 12-under with last week’s Australian PGA champion Elvis Smylie (69), Finland´s Oliver Lindell (69), Australia’s Jasper Stubbs (68) and Wenyi Ding (68) of China.
The 2022 British Open champion Cameron Smith shot 76 to continue his bad run from the back nine on Friday and was 12 strokes behind the leaders.
The Australian had bogeys at the first, third and eighth holes and a further two bogeys at 10 and 17, for only one birdie, and will end his four-tournament stint back home winless after slumping to a tie for 49th.
In the Women´s Australian Open, Shin took the outright lead with a three-round total of 14-under 204 after shooting a 67 on Saturday, while overnight leader 17-year-old South Korean amateur Hyojin Yang shot a 3-over 76 to fall down the leaderboard to sixth and eight shots back.
Shin leads by two shots from Australia’s Hannah Green, who carded a 68 after a wild round with eight birdies, a bogey and a double bogey.
Defending women´s champion Ashleigh Buhai shot 67 and was at 10-under, four strokes behind in third.
LPGA Tour regular Minjee Lee shot 69 and was at 1-under while her brother, PGA Tour player Min Woo Lee, had a 72 to stay at 3-under.
British Open winner Smith’s long win drought is almost certain to continue after he stumbled through a horror 76 laden with five bogeys, leaving him 12 strokes adrift of the leaders.
The former world number two came home to Australia looking for a first win in nearly 16 months but has missed out in four tournaments.
Bulky Australian Marc Leishman, a six-time winner on the U.S. PGA Tour who now plays on the LIV Golf circuit, moved into contention with a four-under 68 to be three shots off the pace.
No Australian woman has won their national Open since Karrie Webb in 2014, and Shin is well-placed to prolong the drought.
She shot a six-under 67 to be 14-under (204) for the tournament, making birdies on four of the last six holes.
Major winner Green had held the lead coming into the last stretch but crashed with a double-bogey on the 17th in her round of 68, allowing Shin to pick up three strokes with a birdie on the same hole.
South Africa’s double defending champion Ashleigh Buhai remains in contention, four off the pace, after firing a 67.
