Kiwi Geary outside chance in Porter Cup
IN: News | US Mens Amateur | Porter Cup (2006) | Round Three | by Anthony Powter | 29 Jul 2006
Moving into the final round, New Zealand golfer Josh Geary remains the only Australasian in serious contention in the Porter Cup. Geary sits four off the pace, after an impressive eight under 64 to move into equal 4th position at -4. Americans Skip Berkmeyer and Steve Seung share a two shot lead moving into the final day.
The majority of the Australasian contingent playing this week at Niagara Falls Country Club have had a tournament they would probably rather forget.
Whilst West Australian Steve Dartnall started with an opening 68 that placed him in equal 5th after the opening day, a second round 73 hurt the Western Australian's chances of serious contention this week. Dartnall sits T10th and with a seven shot deficit, is more likely to be realistically aiming for a top five finish.
The remaining Australian's simply have not played well enough to be in with any real chance of a top five finish for the Tournament. Ashley Hall (T16th), Andrew Tampion (T22nd), Rick Kulacz (T22nd) and Kiwi Mark Purser (T40th) have struggled to put together three solid rounds.
Tim Stewart, who showed such promise in his opening two American tournaments with back to back runner up finishes, has not fired this week. Stewart sits with fellow National Squad Member Won Joon Lee at T43rd and 5 for the tournament. Tristan Lambert (T52nd), Andrew Dolt (T56th) and Jamie Arnold (T60th) will be looking for improvement to prevent them finishing well back in the field.
Whilst the performances by the Australians are disappointing, you need to also keep in perspective where the Porter Cup sits on the major American amateur circuit.
Applying Golfweek's points system, one barometer used by the Americans to rank their amateurs, the winner of the Porter Cup stands to collect 75 points. In comparison, the US Amateur Champion will win 100 points, whilst Jonathan Moore who recently won The Players Amateur collected only 50 points. This is compared to the 25 points Mark Ogren collected when he pipped Tim Stewart in the Eastern Amateur.
PGA Tour players such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Davis Love III, Tom Lehman, Hal Sutton and Justin Leonard have all played this tournament. Spencer Levin, who impressed galleries in Australia last summer, won the event in 2004. The Porter Cup is one of the real "major" American amateur events, used by many of the top line amateur as a warm up event leading into the US Amateur next month.
Both Berkmeyer, who at 32 has to be one of the more senior players in the tournament and Han, the number 8 ranked US amateur, have form going into the Porter Cup.
Han was runner up in the Sunnehanna Amateur recently and finished top 32's in last year's US Amateur. Berkmeyer won the Missouri St Mid Amateur Championship three times and will be looking to improve on his last years T22 finish in the Porter Cup.
At the same time, Kiwi Josh Geary should not be discounted and given his recent form in America, he has the potential to be a real threat on the back nine on the final day. Having already secured the North Island Amateur as well as a professional event in the Carrus Tauranga Open, Geary is sure to be looking to add a major American tournament to his list.
