Jiwon Park (UC Berkeley) is tied for seventh place after the third round of the 14th Asia Pacific Amateur Golf Championship.
Park shot a 3-over-par 74 with three birdies, four bogeys and a double-bogey on the third day of the tournament at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club (Par 71, 7,555 yards) in Melbourne, Australia on Monday.
With a three-day total of 4-over par 217, Park is tied for seventh place with Lin Chuan-dai (Chinese Taipei) and will begin the final round on Monday.
They are seven strokes off the pace of leader Sampson Chung (CHN), who is the only other player at 3-under-par 210.
After graduating from middle school in Busan, South Korea, Park Ji-won came to the United States to study golf and is currently majoring in sociology at UC Berkeley in California, USA.
“I played well in the beginning, but it ended badly in the second half,” Park said in a post-match interview, adding, “The course was very difficult, so I played under a lot of stress.”
In a field of 120 players from 37 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, almost everyone is struggling, with Chung the only player under par through three rounds and Billy Dowling (Australia – 1-over par 214) four shots back in second place.
“It was difficult to choose my clubs because the wind kept shifting,” said Park, who was one stroke off the pace early in the day but lost a lot of ground in the second half, “to the point where I couldn’t even calculate the wind on the 11th and 12th holes.”
“Coming to this tournament without a set goal actually helped me to finish in the top 10 by the third round,” he said, adding, “I will continue to look for opportunities and play hard tomorrow.”
Besides Park Ji-won, Kim Hyun-wook (Korea Gymnastics University) is tied for 34th place at 13-over par 226.
The tournament qualifies the winner for the Masters and The Open in 2024.
Leader Chung fired a 6-under 65 on the day, the lowest score by an amateur on the course. Chung, like Park, is a UC Berkeley alum.
Dowling is in sole possession of second place by four strokes, while Kobori Kazuma (New Zealand) and Ding Yuan (China) are tied for third place at 2-over par 215. 슬롯