DUBLIN, Ireland (Sept. 7, 2018) – New Zealand grew its lead Friday in the third round of the World Amateur Team Championship. This time, it was Denzel Ieremia’s turn to go low. The Iowa State junior had a 7-under 65 at the difficult Montgomerie Course to further secure his team’s spot atop the leaderboard at Carton House.
This is the second consecutive day that New Zealand has counted a round of 65. In Thursday’s second round, the round came from Daniel Hillier, who was co-medalist at the U.S. Amateur earlier this summer. Hillier also put up the second counting score for his team on Friday, a 3-under 69. It got New Zealand to 10 under for the day, and 30 under for the tournament. The team is trying to win its first medal since winning gold in 1992.
“That would be really cool,” Ieremia said of potentially emulating the 1992 team of Michael Campbell, Phillip Tataurangi and Stephan Scahill. “I played college golf and I have always said that winning a team event is way more thrilling than winning an individual one. To have an opportunity to try to convert tomorrow is pretty cool.”
The leaderboard continues to shuffle beneath that. The U.S. made more huge strides in the third round, and are now part of a three-way tie for second, just three shots off the lead. The Americans also put together a third-round score of 10-under 134 with help from Collin Morikawa’s 66 and Justin Suh’s 68.
“For us, it’s good as long as we are moving up and giving ourselves a shot," Morikawa said. "It’s going to be a shoot-out. We have to be ready. The key for today was to put ourselves in position.”
The U.S., along with Spain and Thailand, are all tied for second at 27 under, three shots behind New Zealand.
Ireland, the home team, moved the opposite direction on Friday. A 1-over 145 total was the team’s highest total of the week by eight shots. Ireland is now T-12, and 12 shots off the pace.
