Min Woo Lee has declared he’s ready to regain the Joe Kirkwood Cup as he stalks a trio of leaders heading into Sunday’s final round of the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.
Lee, who won the event in 2023, shot a 67 on Saturday to move to 12-under and a shot adrift of the three leaders – fellow Australian Anthony Quayle, Spain’s David Puig and Portugal’s Ricardo Gouveia.
Joining Lee at 12-under is New Zealand’s Kazuma Kobori, who shot at third-round 69 after leading the tournament at the start of play on Saturday.
Four players – Australian pair Adam Scott and Marc Leishman, China’s Wenyi Ding and New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier – are a shot further back at 11-under.
“It’s exciting, and it’s going to be challenging, so it’ll be fun,” Lee said in reflecting on his task of taking down a host of top players on Sunday to claim his second PGA title.
“It’s just one of those courses where you can go low. You have your full A game, but if you’re just a little off it can bite you in the butt, or you just can’t make birdies.
“No-one’s broken in the pack, but hopefully (Sunday is) the day for it,
“I’m going to be confident. I feel like I haven’t had my best stuff yet, so hopefully (Sunday) can be that day.
“It’s been good fun. The support’s been awesome.”
On a day that was halted for two hours due to inclement weather, rising LIV Golf star Puig was superb in shooting a bogey-free six-under 65.
“I just played steady,” Puig said.
“You can’t miss second shots here to the wrong side, The pins are really tucked in, and you’ve got to play to the fat part of the green, and I think I did that pretty good.
“That made me have a bogey-free round, first of all, and not have much stress besides two or three holes in the middle.
“It the course is a little probably softer than what it usually is, which probably makes it a little easier for the non-Australians.
“I assume it’s going to play probably a little faster (on Sunday), a little firmer, and have pretty tough pins, so probably 17-18 under (will be needed to win).”
Gouveia, who shot a third-round 66, said winning on Sunday would “mean the world” to him.
“(Winning a DP World Tour tournament) was one of my goals for the season, so if I can do it in the first event of the (new season), that would be pretty special, but there’s a lot of golf to go,” the 34-year-old world No.459 said.
“A lot can happen and I’m just going to focus shot-by-shot, hole-by-hole … stick to my game plan and focus on what I can control, which is myself.”
Last year’s winner of the event, Queensland left-hander Elvis Smylie, also shot 66 on Saturday to move to seven-under for the tournament.
Brisbane’s Brett Rankin dropped back to six-under after a third-round 74.
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