Ames nine shots off lead at Chrysler Championship

PALM HARBOUR: Trinidad and Tobago’s Stephen Ames overcame moderate rounds on Thursday and Friday, to sink four birdies and card a two-under, 69 in the third round of the Chrysler Championship yesterday. Ames, who went one-under in the first round on Thursday before finishing even-par on Friday, started solidly by parring the first three holes before shooting consecutive birdies on the par-3, fourth and the par-5 fifth holes.

The 40-year-old Ames, currently ranked 21st in the world, slipped up however on the par-4, sixth hole with a bogey but held par on the remaining three holes to remain one-under. He had a mixed start on the back nine, bogeying the par-5, 11th which dropped him to even-par but he recovered well to land birdies on the 12th and 15th holes to finish the round with his eventual two-under. Ames’ performance was good enough to haul him from 49th to 33rd on the leaderboard in the US$5 million tournament where he finished ninth last year.

However, he is still nine shots off leader, Vijay Singh who carded a four-under, 67 to remain in contention for his ninth title of the year. The world number one recovered from two bogeys in his opening three holes to shoot six birdies en route to an overall 12-under, 201. The top four however are separated by just two shots as the second placed Tommy Armour III carded a three-under, 68 to be one shot behind Singh while Jesper Parnevik and Kirk Triplett were tied in third on 10-under, 203 overall.