Golf: In-form Geary dealt a cruel card

Josh Geary is six shots off the pace after three rounds at the Servientrega Championship. Photo/File

Wind makes putting a tricky proposition for touring Bay pro

Tauranga's Josh Geary played better than he scored during the third round of the Servientrega Championship in Cartagena, Colombia.

With three birdies and a bogey on his scorecard, Geary, playing his second Web.com Tour tournament of the season, fired a 2-under 70 and is at 5-under 211 overall. Yet despite sitting in a tie for 17th through 54 holes, he only trails leader Kevin Tway by six shots.

"I played real solid. It was just one of those days where nothing wanted to go in," said Geary, noting numerous missed putts. "I had lots of great putts getting blown offline and just missing. So it was a frustrating day, but I'm happy with how I played."

Geary began his third round in calm conditions but by his seventh hole, the wind picked up and continued to do so, reaching its full strength of the day-40km/h -when Geary was turning to the back nine.

"Yeah, I missed two fairly short putts on the par-5s, which would have been easy in calm conditions. But there are no gimmies out here when it's this windy," Geary added.

Of Geary's three birdies, he made a 4.5m putt on No5, chipped in from 6m on the 13th and rolled in a 3.5m effort on the 15th.

Unfortunately for Geary, he gave back a stroke on No16 for his only bogey of the afternoon. His tee shot went into the first cut of rough. His sand-wedge approach shot straight downwind still ended 3m short and settled into the front rough. Geary couldn't get up and down from there.

"I hit a good putt, and the wind broke the ball uphill and it lipped out. I thought I'd made it," he said.

Geary finished his round with a significant par save on the par-5 closing hole. Off the tee, he put his ball in a deep fairway bunker. That forced him to lay up short of the water. A gust of wind knocked down his third shot, forcing a fourth-shot chip that he put on the green within 2m of the cup.

"I had a tricky putt with a crosswind, which I made thankfully," he added.

Said Tway, who is hoping to pick up his second Web.com Tour title said: "It was definitely playing tough out there. The wind probably kicked up around hole seven. So from then on, you just got to try and survive and give yourself as many opportunities as possible.

"Putting is very difficult." Sometimes you don't even look at the break, you just kind of play what the wind is doing."