34 Dow Jones Open Invitational

Round 1 - The course at Ballyowen can be difficult if your putting is not up to scratch. That appears to have been the case for Barney Buss, winner of the Westchester Classic a few weeks ago, who recorded a traumatic 76 today. Bob Fletcher and Mark Lipping would have preferred lower scores than their respective rounds of 71 and 70, while Ian McKinley would have been pleased with his opening 69. Randy Grant won his first event last week in the AVCO Golf Classic, and he carried that form over to this week by shooting a superb 63 to lead the field by three strokes at close of play. The question is can he maintain the high standard of play he is currently producing?

Round 3 - Well, what an eventful round this was!! The whole complexion of the tournament changed in the space of 18 holes. Sadly, that wasn't the case for Barney Buss, who continued to grapple with Ballyowen but at least broke par today by carding a 71. Ian McKinley also produced his best round of the week so far, a fine 67, that helped him rise up to a tie for 9th spot - but still far behind the leaders. Bob Fletcher's 68 also saw him upwardly mobile, lifting him into a share of 6th place, a shot ahead of Ian, but still with no chance of winning. Guests now occupy the top three positions on the leaderboard. Olly Jose-Maria now lies in 3rd spot after a very good 66, but he only has an outside chance of the title. One stroke in front of Olly is Randy Grant whose 69 was nowhere near low enough to hang on to his overnight lead. That was because Mark Lipping, whose opening rounds of 70 and 69 had not promised anything special, produced something extraordinary today - a stellar round of 58 which included an ace, three eagles, and even two bogeys!! Mark takes a five-shot lead into the final round and is a hot favourite to win his 6th event of the season...