Golf: New Zealanders climb to 21st

Josh Geary continued to excel as New Zealand climbed close to the top 20 nations in the third round of the Eisenhower Trophy amateur men's world teams golf championship in Puerto Rico yesterday.

Geary fired a four-under 68 as New Zealand turned in a team score of four-under 140 on a waterlogged River course at the Rio Mar Country Club.

Riki Kauika chimed in with 72 while Kevin Chun carded a non-counting 74, leaving New Zealand in share of 21st place, an improvement of 12 placings after the second round.

New Zealand, who entered the championship targeting a top-10 result, were a distant 28 strokes behind the leaders, the United States.

The US were streets ahead in chasing their third consecutive championship title, moving to 26-under 406 to hold a 10-shot buffer on second-placed Spain with one more shot back to Sweden.

Canada, Switzerland and Italy shared fourth place 422.

Geary yesterday signed for his second consecutive sub-par round after shooting 69 on Saturday.

He carded six birdies and only a costly double bogey denied him the chance to go lower.

"We are on track for our goal of improving on each round," coach Brian Doyle said.

"We've gone from six-over to even-par to four-under and jumped from 44th [after the first round] to 21st. The team deserve credit for that effort."

Doyle said silly mistakes prevented his team making bigger inroads on the leaderboard yesterday. "I know golf is a game of what-ifs, but they should have been two or three shots better today and at this level you can't afford to make silly mistakes.

"Josh made a silly double at his 10th hole, Riki finished with a very poor double bogey at the last and Kevin ... dropped three shots in the last three holes."

Doyle said the overnight storm made conditions difficult.

- NZPA