KEY POINTS:
England's Justin Rose was poised to end a four-year title drought on the European Tour after taking a two-shot lead after the Australian Masters third round at Huntingdale yesterday. The world No. 69 fired an eagle and four birdies in a four-under-par 68 to move to 13-under, two ahead of France's Raphael Jacquelin and Australia's Greg Chalmers and Aaron Pike. Rose, 26, hailed his majestic two-iron from 275 yards to two feet at the 555-yard par-five 14th en route to an eagle as the main reason for coming out on top. "That really was my shot of the day, shot of the week; maybe even shot of the year. I usually have a five wood but this week went for the two-iron. I hit a raking draw and it came off perfectly," he said.
"There's a lot of hungry guys behind me on 11-under and I thought at the start of this week 15-under would have a chance. There's still plenty of guys who can do that so I'll need to play well."
Rose, chasing his first win since the 2002 British Masters, was well aware of the quality in the chasing pack after a day of favourable, overcast conditions in Melbourne.
Jacquelin, who fired a 67, and Chalmers were on 11-under alongside Pike, the amateur who recovered well with a birdie-birdie finish after double-bogeying the opening hole to see his two-shot overnight lead vanish in an instant.
England's world match-play champion Paul Casey was on eight-under after a 67 which included an eagle, six birdies and three bogeys. He stood beside twice champion Peter Lonard of Australia, who fired a three-under 69, and Spain's Carl Suneson.
"The first two days were very slack," said Ryder Cup star Casey, who opened with innocuous rounds of 71 and 70 to trail by eight shots at the start of the day. "I did not have my head in gear in the first round, I trundled through the second round and made the cut. Then for some reason it caught fire in the middle of the round." He hit five birdies in six holes round the turn.
Eight players were on seven-under, including former champions Peter Senior, Craig Parry and Richard Green of Australia.
