Kuchar holds handy buffer in Fiji

Matt Kuchar showed why he is the World Number 16 today with his world class golf skills on display at the Fiji International.

Kuchar who will take a two shot lead into the final round,fired an impressive 3-under 69 today to now be 1-under the card and the only player under par for the tournament.

“It was nice to get to red figures, to get under par for the week is a real feat considering what we dealt with Thursday, Friday,” said Kuchar who like most players in the field enjoyed a slight reprieve from the wind.

“Today it was easier, but certainly not easy, so I was excited to get to 1-under total.”

Kuchar’s round was highlight by his second shot into the par-4 16th which has been described by many as the best shot they have seen.

“It was one of the scariest shots to try and pull off,” said Kuchar of the feat.

“Sitting in a fairway bunker and I had to get up over a lip,up over the rocks and underneath a tree limb. There was just enough of a window between the two, it looked like the perfect five iron.”

“Fortunately I pulled it off, it was the right club and it came off beautifully.”

Not to be outdone was his playing partner Aron Price, who also fired a 3-under 69 which included a hole out birdie on the par-5 17th. Price is now 1-over the card heading into the final round.

“I hit a little pull and it also checked, so it was like a pull-check.It probably looked pretty good but it wasn’t exactly what I was trying to do,”said Price of his birdie on 17.

“A lot of the time your chip shots or all your shots don’t come out exactly how you’re trying to play it, it was good to get a lucky little check bounce.”

South Australian Nick Cullen also recorded his first under par round of the tournament. His 1-under 71 placing him outright third on the leaderboard on 5-over the card and setting up a final round tee time with Kuchar and Price.

“Today was definitely a lot better than the first two days,still a fair bit of wind,” Cullen said of the conditions.

“It’s almost trickier in a way because you’re used to the shots you’ve been hitting the last two days. I was used to hitting seven irons from 110 meters and then today you’re hitting a nine iron or a wedge instead.”

Shooting 1-over 73, Ryan Fox was the only player in thetop-5 not to fired an under par third round.

Playing alongside Kuchar for the third day, Fox watched on as his playing partners recorded all the day’s highlights but couldn’t manage to get any lucky breaks of his own.

Fox is 6-over after three rounds and outright fourth while fellow New Zealander Brad Shilton rounds out the top-5 on 7-over the card after shooting 2-under 70 today. Local favourite Vijay Singh is tied 6 th after three days at the Fiji International with rounds of 78, 75, 71.