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Royal Fremantle Golf Club amateur Zach Capelli leads a star-studded leaderboard by two strokes entering the final round of the South West Isuzu South West Open at Bunbury Golf Club.
The first event of the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series WA swing has drawn a quality field of Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia regulars but it is Capelli who leads allcomers after a superb round of 7-under 65.
He will start Sunday’s final round with a two-stroke buffer from the most recent winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia, Cameron John (67), while former PGA TOUR winner Andre Stolz (68) shares third with James Marchesani (68) and Englishman David Andrews (68).
Starting from the 10th tee, Capelli was level with the card when he gave back birdies at 11 and 12 with bogeys at 14 and 15 but played his next 11 holes in 7-under par to take top spot through Round 1.
“I got off to a pretty standard start really,” Capelli said.
“I parred the first and then had birdies on 11 and 12 but a couple of bogeys got me back to square.
“Played solid after that. Hit the ball in the right spot and kept myself on the right side of the hole and rattled off a few birdies, which was nice.”
Capelli had seven birdies in total along with an eagle at the par-5 second where he hit 8-iron for his second shot and proceeded to hole the putt.
John shapes as Capelli’s biggest threat, the Victorian shaking off the rust in his first start since his breakthrough Tour win at The National Tournament in March.
“I haven’t played for a while so it feels like it’s all just coming back to me,” said John, who had seven birdies and two bogeys in his round of 67.
“I just hit driver really well. It felt like a day where I had a lot of opportunities. There were probably a few missed ones but that’s just golf.”
After a short break, John said it was an easy decision to travel to Western Australia for the series of Pro-Ams.
“This Perth Pro-Am swing is one of the best,” he said.
“We always play good courses so coming over from Melbourne really is a no-brainer.
“One of my best friends, Braden Becker, he puts me up, so it’s really simple.”
Veterans Daniel Fox, Marcus Fraser and Scott Strange are in a tie for sixth with Kathryn Norris and amateur Adam Baillie at 3-under followed by Becker, Ryan Peake, Ethan Andrews and amateur Bailey Hampson at 2-under.
The final group of Capelli and John tees off at 12:09pm AWST.
