It’s time for More

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This article was published 22/07/2010 (5874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Breezy BEND’S Peter More has never had a better opportunity to plug a major hole in his golf resumé.

More takes a five-shot lead on clubmate Jesse Skelton into today’s final round of the Nott Autocorp Men’s Amateur Championship on his home track.

It’s the trophy that’s eluded him year after year.

You’ll find More’s name on the Manitoba Junior hardware (2000) and on the Jack Blair provincial match play award (2001, 2006, 2010).

He was even the Manitoba amateur player of the year in 2001.

More has cracked the top four on five occasions in the Amateur, clearly establishing him as a contender.

But contender to winner, that’s a leap he wasn’t terribly eager to discuss after firing a one-under 71 Wednesday at Breezy Bend, a score than maintained his lead atop the board.

"I’m not going to put any added pressure on myself to win the tournament," he said. "The top four is always the goal."

Today’s sports psychologists might have a field day with such an apparent undershooting of goals, but really, the only major consideration on competition day is focus.

"I think the best way I can put it is that it (winning) would be a bonus," More said. "The reason that I play in this tournament, and I know a lot of other guys play in this tournament, is to go and represent the province in the Canadian Amateur." That’s the reward for a top-four finish.

"You get a nice trip out of it, go away with your friends and play some nice golf courses. That’s pretty much my goal coming into this tournament every year. To win would pretty much be icing on the cake, a fantastic bonus," he said.

More’s form this week has been excellent, under par each day. Wednesday, it was courtesy of 17 pars and a birdie at the par-4 third.

"I hit it pretty good today, hit it straight, keeping it out of the trees off the tee," he said. "And I’ve been putting pretty well the entire week, and that’s always a help.

"I was a little tense in some spots the first two days when I hit a couple of bad shots. I seemed to handle my bad shots better today."

Even a couple of those on the 18th Wednesday turned into a par. A drive left was heading towards the pond, but clipped a tree and fell into the grass. His long approach to the green bounded long, but a 10-footer with the putter saved the final par.

"That’s kind of how the week’s been going," he said. "I’ve been getting some breaks."

Breezy Bend has been more rewarding to the players this year than last year’s final-days setup at Elmhurst. In 2009, when More finished an ordinary tied-for-29th, the final round actually turned into a top-10 meltdown of almost every challenger and veteran Garth Collings outlasted them all.

"At Elmhurst last year, I was in so early I didn’t wake up to see how hard the course was," More laughed. "A course like Elmhurst they can trick up a little bit more than this. This one’s set up very fair."

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At 8-under 208 through three days, More has five shots on Skelton, who also shot 71 Wednesday, and seven on Southwood’s Riley Unger (71).

From there, it’s eight back to Winkler’s Matthew Loewen (70) and Breezy’s Alex Crawford (74), nine to Niakwa’s Scott Markham (74) and a full 10 to Collings (72).

The top four players at the conclusion of the 72 holes will carry Manitoba’s colours to the Canadian Amateur next month at London (Ont.) Hunt and Country Club and Redtail Golf Course.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca