I played really well today., I played well off the tee and my approach to the green but I did leave a lot of shots out there on the greens to be honest. You can’t have all day that it goes your way. I am still in the hunt. I have myself a really good chance for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is going to be fun to be honest.

Playing with Lucas is going to be really enjoyable. Obviously he is a European Tour winner so it is going to be where ever it goes, whether I win or lose tomorrow I am going to enjoy myself and give it everything.

Q. Lucas, terrific round today. 6-under, you’re in the lead going into the final round of the New Zealand Open. Tell us about your round today.

I was pretty happy with it. I started off quite nicely and got that little three-birdie run through the middle and got myself in a nice position but then straight after that I felt like I really battled my golf swing for a few holes and hit some errant ones. To fight back like I did and make some really good swings sort of 15, 16, 17 and even 18 there to hit it in the middle of the green, I was really proud of that because I think we’ve got a bit of work to do on the range to get ready for tomorrow.

Q. You won the Dubai Desert Classic from six shots back going into the final day and you won it I a playoff. Is it a very different experience leading going into the final day and I guess the pressure of playing from the front?

For sure. Dubai, teeing off in the final round, winning wasn’t in the forefront of your mind given how far back we were and it was pretty bunched that leaderboard too. Tomorrow is going to be a different story. I’m either leading or tied for the lead so it’s going to be quite a bit different but I don’t think I’ve ever been as ready as I am right now to go and do it. I’m looking forward to it.

Q. What has that done for your confidence? You win a big tournament like that you’re clearly playing incredibly well at the moment?

It gives you as much confidence as you like. You know that you’ve got the ability when you give yourself a sniff and get in the hunt on the back-nine; you’re a big chance to win. I think that win in Dubai is really going to help me out given I hadn’t done it before. That gives me that confidence that I can get it over the line and beat everyone. I’ll just try and channel that tomorrow. Some good positive thoughts from a month ago about that and whatever happens, happens.

Q. You’ve got a European Tour win under your belt, what would it mean to win on the PGA Tour of Australasia?

It’d be great, given that family and friends are all here this week too that would be awesome because, I mean, my dad hasn’t seen me win yet so that would be pretty cool. The New Zealand Open is a great event too. I’ve always loved coming down here to Queenstown, it’s just a phenomenal place, it’s probably one of my favourites in the world. The Fergburgers are unbelievable so shoutout to them, they’ve been fuelling me all week. To get a win on the Australian Tour and as much as it’s not in Australia it would be good to prove back home that I can play as well as overseas.

Q. Your career is going places fast. You’re in the sort of top-80 in the world. You win this I think I just heard that you could be close to a WGC kind of top-50, top-60 rank. Onwards and upwards?

Hopefully tomorrow we can put the foot down and capitalise and the sky is the limit from there.

Q. Your name was thrown around at the start of the week as being a real chance here, do you feel like you’re living up to that?

I’m scoring well. I don’t feel like I’m hitting it quite as nicely as I have been recently. I’ve just been finishing off my rounds really well. I had a good finish today, a good finish yesterday and I’m eventually getting the score I kind of feel like I should be having during the round but it just seems to be coming at the end. Hopefully tomorrow I can be a bit more consistent and get rid of those bogeys.

Q. How does it feel to be up near the lead going into the final day tomorrow?

It’s been good. I’ve had a good patch here recently where I’ve been in contention. It’s been a while since I’ve had the juices flowing like that and it’s been great. It’s been full on but I’ve been enjoying it and I’m looking forward to tomorrow for sure.

Q. What will you focus on going into tomorrow game-plan wise?

I think I just need to kind of trim some of the fat with some of my wedge game which wasn’t that great today. Just one or two little mistakes every day has cost me kind of one or two shots but in saying that I don’t think I could have had any worse so far so hopefully tomorrow they all kind of line up and it ends up well.

Q. Were there any highlights for you today?

Probably just 17. I hit probably my drive of the day down there and had 4-iron and just hit one of the best 4-irons I’ve hit in a long time and hit it to a foot and tapped it in and then Wade (Ormsby) went and dunked a wedge on top of me so I squared that hole with him but it was nice to finish off with those really solid shots going into tomorrow.

Q. Is your family here with you or are you speaking with them and getting support from overseas?

Just talking to my wife and our fresh baby still at home. She’s holding the reigns with Scotty and her mum’s helping her out a little bit. We’re face timing every morning and talking with my family a little bit. It’s hard to be away at the moment but I’m kind of doing one week stretches all the way down here and then all the way back. After this week I think I’ll be back in Texas with them for a few weeks at least.

I played really well. With the tough conditions it was not easy. We had a three-four club wind swirling. It was tough but I managed myself really well and hope I can keep it up at the weekend.

I have been working really hard and it is nice the scores (lately) have matched the work. I am still not at the top and I am trying to learn every day from the guys who are way more experienced than me. I am very fortunate that the veterans have been very nice to me and tell me how to play golf, how to play best.

My ball-stroking has been good. On this course if you are not in play it is really hard to go around.  I missed in the good spots to get up-and-down really well.

Tomorrow is only the third round to be honest. Yeah I am in the lead halfway through but there are so many big names just one or two strokes away and those guys, when it comes to the intense moments, they always deliver. I just have to bring my A-game, stick to the game plan and play the best I can.

I haver accomplished some goals early and I am very fortunate to do that but I am still trying to learn and I have a long way to go. I am very fortunate to play well this past year.

If I can do what I did for the past two days, then I will be fine. Putting the ball in play, not giving myself too much nerves that will be the key. I’ve been putting well. I haven’t missed a lot of putts. Today I had a couple of putts where the wind really affected my putting but I’ve hit good strokes.

I have played in winds like this but not swirling. It’s been a bit of a headache but I’ve been putting very well.

I earned my Asian Tour card last week and we thought we’d travel anyway, but we got the call on Wednesday morning saying I was in. I think a few of the Indian players struggled to get visas, which is sort of how I got my start.

Yesterday I played awesome, in those conditions as well it just all came together. This morning I got off to a fast start – eagle, birdie, birdie. It awesome, it’s an amazing feeling and hopefully I can keep going.

I just wanted to keep enjoying it, that’s been the main thing for me this week. The last couple of years I haven’t enjoyed it a hell of a lot out in Europe, a bit of a mindset shift in the last few months has been where I think this golf has come from.

The game still feels pretty strong, particularly the last couple of months. Mentally I’m enjoying it more, I want to be out there playing.

The rough is up this year, which is going to make it interesting over the weekend. You’ve really got to take advantage of the par 5s, that’s something that I’ve done the last couple of days – a couple of eagles and a couple of birdies. They are both pretty tough courses if you get offline so I’ve managed to keep it in play and I’ve managed to do well.

We’ve got two weeks booked here so we were coming anyway. I think I was fourth reserve on the Australian Tour side as well. We were going to have a two week holiday regardless of what happened so it’s just a bonus to be playing.

Just the way I held it together throughout the round, there were a couple of dicey spots coming in on the back nine. I had a 35 footer for par on 17, so that sort of capped it off.

Just my ball striking, I think. I hit a lot of good shots and the bad shots I hit were in good places. It seems at the moment my bad shots aren’t that bad, they are either left side of the fairway, or right side of the fairway, left side of the green or right side of the green.

I think at the moment, even though I don’t think I’m hitting the ball fantastic, my bad shots are actually pretty useable.

Obviously this morning was pretty calm and we definitely have the advantage on our side of the draw. It was pretty tricky yesterday afternoon, but if you could scrape around in even par or a couple under par you were doing pretty well and you could make the most of this morning and that was what happened to me.

I feel like i putted quite poorly. There was a lot of really good opportunities today that I missed. I would have given myself a dozen really good looks at birdie, so to shoot six under, obviously I’m happy with that but I left two or three out there. There’s not too many rounds of golf you come off saying you got every single shot.

If I can continue hitting the ball the way I am, I wouldn’t say I’m hitting it spectacularly, getting away with the bad shots, not missing a lot of fairways, not missing a lot of greens, and start to see the ball roll in there’s no reason why I can’t be close come Sunday.

I’ve been working really hard with my physio, trying to keep on top of things. I’m in my 40s now so trying to keep on top of that is probably the key at the moment. The skills are there, you don’t have to practise the skills so much, it’s more about making sure that I’m physically capable of competing with the younger guys. I’m doing a lot of work with the physio and I’m feeling pretty good – wake up a little tighter than I did maybe 10 years ago but it’s a matter of doing the extra miles in warm ups and away from the course.

It’s probably a bit early at this stage and there’s plenty of guys that are playing pretty well out there. If the weather calms down, which it looks like it might do over the weekend it does become a bit of a putting contest. If my putter gets hot, maybe I’ll be a chance, but I’ll worry about that closer to the 16th hole on Sunday.