Playing with some inspiration from Adam Scott, and with dad Tony in the crowd proudly sporting his Bardwell Valley Golf Club shirt, Crowe fired a bogey-free 67 to reach 13-under par, with Bo Jin of China and Korea’s Minhyuk Song leading the chasing pack.
Jin and Song look as though they will need a little help from a confidence oozing Crowe on Sunday, as will the other remaining five Aussies in the field led by West Australian Josh Greer.
Feeling as though he was playing well throughout the third round, Greer, who is playing just his third event back after suffering a fractured wrist didn’t get the scoring results on his way to three-under 69 that has him at seven-under and in a share of 7th.
“I hit it pretty good all day, but I guess I was two-under on the front nine and probably could have been a bit better,” Greer told Golf Australia magazine. “Birdied two of my first three on the back nine and was looking good then I kept hitting good shots either just missing or leave it short or whatever.”
Making a bogey at the 18th after his putt lipped out, Greer plans for an all out attack on Sunday as he tries to chase down his teammate Crowe.
“Just go for everything. I am going to have to come from quite a few behind and just see how many birdies I can make,” he said.
That’s the same plan that Jeffrey Guan laid out to this publication following his four-under 68 that sees him one-shot further back in a share of 11th.
“I would think that I would definitely need a low one tomorrow. I definitely have that in me I think. Just a couple more putts dropping then hopefully six- or seven-under,” Guan said.
Sitting alongside Guan is US-based Aussie Karl Vilips who went out in the penultimate group on Saturday but failed to fire.
The 21-year-old had four bogeys and a double on his scorecard marked with a disappointing 74 following the opening two rounds where he felt putts were failing to drop and reward his good driving and ball striking.
Next best is Australian Amateur Champion Connor McKinney at five-under, who would have been alongside Vilips and Guan if not for a bogey at his final hole of the day, the uphill par-4 9th.
The same misfortune awaited Hayden Hopewell at the 464-yard two shotter, the West Australian and runner-up in this event in 2019 sliding to T36 with his two over round.
