[Photo: AAC Golf]

Phoenix Campbell braved rain and a split third round to leave himself even-par midway through the final round at the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship at Taiheiyo Club in Gotemba.

Campbell, who was even-par through eight holes on the final day, was well out of contention at 10 shots back of the lead. He would need to produce a Sunday miracle back nine for the ages and have leader Wenyi Ding crumble if he is to give Australia an unlikely three-peat at the event. Jasper Stubbs won last year and Harrison Crowe in 2022.

Ding was 10-under through four holes on Sunday and held a two-shot lead.

Last year, Stubbs won the event at Royal Melbourne when he started the final day six behind the lead and triumphed in a playoff over Ding. As per the winner’s prize for the event, which is jointly run by Augusta National and the R&A, Stubbs played in the Masters and Open Championship.

This edition, though, has been playing catch up from the second round in Japan, due to fog and rain. Organisers lost almost six hours of competition due to heavy fog on Friday.

Campbell started with a 71 on day one and did not hit a shot on Friday because of the delays, but made up 22 spots on the leaderboard with a second round 66.

His third round in the afternoon rain Saturday was then split into Sunday morning and he shot 73.

Next best of the Australian contingent, who all made the halfway cut which came at 7-over, was Quinnton Croker. He was two-under through 11 holes and sat one-over for the tournament. Down the leaderboard was Tony Chen, at four-over, alongside Stubbs. Queenslander Billy Dowling was five-over. Western Australian Connor Fewkes was six-over while Lukas Michel was 11-over.