Kurt Barnes fired the equal best score of the third round at the Japan Tour’s Taiheiyo Masters, a 5-under-par 67 enough to move him into the top 15 at the weather shortened event.

The tournament was reduced to 54 holes after heavy fog delayed Sunday’ final round, Barnes the man with the momentum at the time having jumped from a share of 29th to T12 on the leader board.

The result is a good one for Barnes whose form during the middle part of the season has been indifferent.

The New South Welshman has missed four cuts in his last seven starts and shot in the 60’s just four times in that period, prior to this week.

With just one top 10 for the year his play this week will give him some confidence, 28 putts in each of the second and third rounds particularly encouraging.

Barnes was the only one of the nine Australasians in the field to finish in the top 20, David Smail next best at T33 followed by Brad Kennedy (T44), Adam Bland (T48), Scott Strange (T52) and Won Joon Lee (T60).

Michael Hendry, Matt Griffin and Brendan Jones all missed the cut.