Schnell Up By Two at the Q

Brady Schnell shot a two under par 70 to hold a two-stroke lead over Mike Roters after three rounds of the Canadian Tour’s Spring Qualifying School in Parksville, B.C.

Schnell, who has led each day, is at nine-under-par 207.

In third spot at 210 is Todd Killingsworth, who shot even par 72, while Dave Williamson’s 71 puts him alone in fourth at 211.

The American duo of Matt Marshall (70) and Jason D’Amore (69) are deadlocked at 212.

Greg Machtaler had the round of the day, a bogey-free 67 that included an eagle two at 16, to move into solo seventh at 215. However, he is three shots outside of exempt status.

Sharing eighth at 216 are Korey Storer (73), Jae Woo Im (75) and Jordan Irwin who fell to a 76.

Thomas Petersson and Australian Brenton Fowler are tied for 11th and hold the final non-exempt positions.

Schnell began the day with consecutive pars followed by an eagle at the par five third. Bogeys at four and seven dropped him back to even for the day, but his birdie at No. 8 enabled him to make the turn at one under.

Similar to the day before, Schnell birdied 10 and 15, but a closing bogey reduced his lead to two.

Roters, also playing in the final group, birdied the third. but then gave two back at No. 4. He closed his front nine with a solid birdie at the difficult eighth and a bogey six at the ninth.

One over on his round, he birdied 10 and followed it with two more at 15 and 16 before dropping one at 17.

“I’m in a good frame of mind and staying positive,” said Rotors. “It wasn’t quite the same today as the first two days. I was grinding it out on every hole.

“I don’t think I had a par putt over three feet on Tuesday and Wednesday, but today, it seemed like most of them were.

“Do I go chase Brady tomorrow? Well, we’re in the same group and I’ll have to see how things are going near the end, but the important thing is to get an exempt card.

“If we’re close at the end, then yeah, I want to beat him.”

Killingsworth bogeyed the first and birdied two and three before going bogey-birdie to close his outward half.

His up and down round continued on the back side where he scattered three more bogeys and two birdies.

“Oh man, what a rollercoaster round,’ said Killingsworth. “I normally hit straight, but today, I was everywhere, just spraying it all over the place. I was fortunate that my putting held things together.

“Yeah, I started to think about why we’re all here and what is at stake. Only six of us get full cards and I’m in a good position, but we still have (Friday).

“I’ll see how things are unfolding the first few holes and that will determine how I play the rest of the day.”

Dave Williamson had a rollercoaster round of his own. After a couple of routine pars, the Halifax native drove out of bounds at the par five third and made double.

“I hit a terrible drive at one of the easiest holes,” said Williamson. “Talk about an awkward start.”

Although he birdied five, he handed it right back with a bogey five at the sixth hole. After another birdie at 10, he eagled the 14th and birdied 15.

“That eagle was a real momentum shifter,” Williamson said. “I wasn’t doing much and hit four-wood off the tee and another from the fairway to 15 feet and drained it.

“I carried that momentum to 15, but maybe got too excited because I bogeyed two in a row after that. That was just sloppy golf on two of the easiest holes.”

His birdie at 17 put him in a good mood for the final round.

“I’ve got an attitude of gratitude for being here. I am so excited to be where I am and to be, in a way, representing Atlantic Canada,” said Williamson.

“We’re not done yet. There is a lot of golf left and I still have to play one shot at a time for one more round.”

Friday will see the top six on the leaderboard receive exempt cards with the next six and ties receiving non-exempt status.

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