Jason Day returns from long PGA Tour break with Bryson DeChambeau 3D printed irons<\/a><\/p>\nThe event for amateur golfers from the Asia-Pacific region is\u00a0jointly by Augusta National and the R&A, which will award the winner an invitation to the 2026 Masters and spot in the field at the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n
Takis salvaged a one-over 73, impressive considering a quadruple-bogey 8 was on the card, to join Dowling (68) at 10-under and seven shots back of 54-hole leader Taisei Nagasaki (65). At 17-under, Nagasaki led by five shots over countryman Rintaro Nakano (71), while Thailand\u2019s Fifa Laopakdee (70) was third at 11-under.<\/p>\n
Takis, a Queenslander who plays US college golf, teed off sharing the 36-hole lead and was only one-shot back after four holes when a truly unfathomable scenario unfolded at the par-4 fifth. He pulled his tee shot only a few metres left of the fairway into the rough, but the ball could not be found. He was taken back to the tee, where his second attempt (third shot) hit a palm tree and stayed in. Although he could see what was almost certainly his golf ball, Takis couldn\u2019t properly identify his marking. He returned to the tee again for a third tee ball (and fifth shot). He found the rough, hit an approach (his sixth shot) to six feet and two-putted for a cruel 8.<\/p>\n
The 20-year-old made another bogey at the eighth but knuckled down and played the back nine in bogey-free three-under. He was laughing in disbelief talking after the round about the fifth hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think to be honest first ball plugged on the ground,\u201d Takis said. \u201cI\u2019d been getting mud-balls all week. [That] was really unfortunate. The second ball [sticking in a palm tree], what are the chances of that? That sucked, but you have to laugh it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what he\u2019d do to forget, Takis said: \u201cTalk to someone, I don\u2019t know [laughs]. I find the funny thing about that is, there are no pictures on the scorecard. Everyone\u2019s just going to [assume], \u2018Oh, he hit seven bad shots and tapped in for eight.\u2019 I think it\u2019s more infuriating when you\u2019re in contention to go to Augusta [National with an Asia-Pacific win] I think that makes it a little more [frustrating]. The margins in this game are so slim; the difference between winning and losing is a golf shot and you lose four [shots] in one hole after two drives which I thought weren\u2019t really that bad as golf shots. Kind of sucks, but that\u2019s golf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowling had his own frustrations \u2013 19 straight pars between the last 10 holes of the second round and the first nine of day three. \u201cIt was a little frustrating at times; you hit so many greens and have a lot of chances and the putts don\u2019t drop and when putting is probably the strength of your game, it\u2019s like, wow, this feels like a long time without some entertainment,\u201d Dowling said. The Queenslander finally made some entertainment with a birdie on 10 and a bogey on 12, before reeling off four straight birdies from 14 through 17 for a 68 and a 10-under total. At seven shots back starting the final day in Dubai, Dowling and Takis would need to equal countryman Curtis Luck\u2019s record comeback of seven shots in the final round of the 2016 Asia-Pacific Amateur.<\/p>\n
Asked if seven shots was possible, Dowling said, \u201cI mean, it\u2019s golf.\u00a0I think anything can happen.\u00a0If I go out and play my game as well as I know I can, then I think I can really get myself up that leaderboard.\u00a0When [someone] holds the lead, [they] still have to go out and play well.\u201d<\/p>\n
OTHER NEWS: Why the Masters gave spots to Australian Open and five other national opens, according to the club chairman<\/a><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Declan O\u2019Donovan sat 25th at one-under (73-72-70), while Kayun Mudadana was T-30 at one-over (70-73-74). Jye Halls was T-45 at five-over (72-76-73), and Chase Oberle rounded out the Australians in 62nd at 12-over (75-75-78).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Photo: Asia-Pacific Amateur] Australian Harry Takis responded admirably from a nightmarish quadruple-bogey that featured two lost balls, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-239894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}