WRAP: Mexican with all Ancers

by Martin Blake @ The Lakes

Abraham Ancer on his way to a 7-under on day three in The Lakes.

Abraham Ancer has been here before. Twice in the last PGA Tour season in the United States, he led tournaments to the final round. He faded every time. This time it is the #AusOpenGolf and he has a lead of five shots. It's all for him.

Ancer, 27, is close to an untouchable position at The Lakes after his incredible third round 65, a round that belongs to the best in the long history of the Open. At 13-undersize, he has a teenage amateur, Keita Nakajima of Japan, as his biggest challenger at eight-under, with American Keegan Bradley and Australia's veteran Marcus Fraser yet another shot back on seven-under.

The wind was screeching from the southeast and the scoring average was higher than 73. Ancer did not think of that and rolled in birdieputts on five consecutive holes from the sixth place to skip the lead. From there he kept moving forward and made birdies again on the 16th and 17th. A par on the latter gave him a seven-under-score that was two shots better than someone in the field on the day.

He said it was arguably his best ever given the circumstances. Other players – particularly David Micheluzzi, who played alongside him – agreed that it was something special.

"I mean, there are a few rounds that might have been so last year, I think I shot eight-in-shot in the Quicken Loans, one of the PGA Tour events," he said. I think that a race has stalled on a difficult golf course. But conditionally, I think it's certainly there. "

Ancer, 27, an American PGA Tour player, is the number 96 player and is on his way to play the World Cup of Golf in Melbourne next week for his country. A double Mexican-American citizen, there is some confusion about his nationality, but not in his thoughts. Born in Texas, he explained that this was only because his parents had a trusted doctor there. He spent his first 15 years in Mexico before going to university in the US.

He can certainly play, although there will be a concern that led to the last round twice last year – at the Quicken Loan National outside of Washington DC in June and at the Dell Technologies Championship in September in Boston. At the Quicken Loans, he shot 72 and finished fourth; at the Dell he shot 73 and finished as a shared seventh.

But the tiny Mexican (he is only 171 cm) believes that those experiences will help him. " I think the last few times that I'm in the lead for a final round will help me tremendously for tomorrow, it's always nice to have a pillow, but you do not want too much you just want to go ahead and keep the same plan for tomorrow that I've had every day. & # 39;

Nakajima plays in the last group of an Open at only 18, the reigning Australian Amateur champion who also has an Aussie coach, Gareth Jones. He scored 70 today and his second shot to the par-five 14th, a towering ball that stopped a few meters from the cup when his playing partners decided to lie down, revealed a serious game.

Victorian Fraser, 40, goes home to live on the European Tour after 16 years, but he is not ready as a player yet. He has a chance at the shorter lakeside if he can drop tomorrow. "He (Ancer) is clearly playing well, but everything can happen," he said

Bradley can get along too late, while Matt Kuchar (six-year-old) has to find something unbelievable. But they all need Ancer to feel the heat. Yesterday evening it did not seem likely.