Covello regains Players Cup lead

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This article was published 18/07/2010 (5862 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A late recovery helped Philadelphia’s Vince Covello regain his Players Cup lead early this morning.

After today’s third-round restart, Covello suffered two three-putt bogeys to fall back to the pack of chasers at the $300,000 Canadian Tour event at Pine Ridge.

But close approaches at Nos. 15 and 17 yielded late birdies and Covello finished at nine-under-par 204 after three rounds to carry a two-shot lead into the today’s regularly scheduled final round.

He leads Canadians Richard Lee and Danny Sahl by that margin and the trio will go off Pine Ridge’s first tee at 1250 p.m. today.

“Just glad to be done with Round 3,” Covello said after finishing his third round at 10:12 a.m. this morning. His third round began Saturday about 5:55 p.m. after a 5 hour 21 minute delay due to stormy weather. “It was a long day yesterday and an early morning today. Just trying to hang in there tough.”

He did just that. Having no birdies before Saturday’s play was suspended due to darkness when he was in the 12th fairway, he and the other 71 weekend competitors were back at Pine Ridge early this morning — only to run into another delay.

This morning’s resumption of play was delayed more than an hour by heavy fog.

Covello’s third round, topped off by an excellent par save from short of the green, wound up as a one-over 72.

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Lee posted a third-round 69, punctuated by a birdie at No. 18, to draw within two of the leader, while Sahl also shot 69 and also birdied the 18th this morning.

The pack of chasers is well-populated at six-under. That group includes the tour’s all-time money-leader Mike Grob of Montana (67 in Round 3), Ottawa’s Lee Curry (68), Jamaica’s Johnny Bloomfield (70) and San Diego’s Aaron Goldberg (72).

And among the group at five-under, just four shots away, is 2006 champ Josh Habig (66), California’s Rob Grube (66) and Canadian Tour veteran and now Champions Tour player Jim Rutledge of Victoria, B.C.

Jordan Krantz of Vermilion Bay, Ont., Manitoba Amateur champion in 2004 and 2005, is five shots off the pace after Saturday’s 66, which was the best score of the third round.

The winner after the dust settles today will take home $48,000 and an invite to the RBC Canadian Open next week at St. George’s in Toronto.
As well, the top five players on the Canadian Tour’s money list after today will be invited to the Open.