FREEPORT ? Matt Schmidt had golfed in the Freeport City Tournament ?15-plus times? and never even made it into the championship flight.
?I?ve got friends that have been up there, but I?ve never been up there,? Schmidt said today after shooting a 76 at Park Hills West to tie for fourth going into Sunday?s final round on the East Course. ?It?s going to be nerve-wracking. It will be exciting. It will be cool.?
It could be even more exciting if Brian Anderson hadn?t made four birdies on the back nine to shoot a 1-under 71. That gave Anderson a four-stroke lead over defending champion Kurt Bardell and Taylor Graff.
Without Anderson, there would be eight golfers bunched within two shots of the lead.
Instead, Anderson is the clear favorite to win his first city title.
Anderson said he finished second one year and third another, but this is his first time ever holding the lead by himself. He was just happy to make it into the final group for the third time.
?That is a fun feeling, to get in that last group and have people follow you,? Anderson said. ?You get to show off. It?s not about winning. I just like to show off.?
Nicky Arn holds an even bigger lead than Anderson. Arn shot a 1-over 73 to lead Diane Vaske by five strokes in the women?s division, which had seven players. Arn has won four consecutive city titles and 11 of the last 13.
Arn was somewhat disappointed after starting the back nine with back-to-back birdies. She was 1-under until she had three-putt bogeys on Nos. 14 and 15.
?I thought I would have a lower score knowing I had three birdies,? Arn said. ?After I went birdie-birdie on 10 and 11, I thought, ?this is going to be a good round.? Then I had some three-putts there. But it was a solid round.?
The addition of a senior flight for golfers 62-and-over brought Ken Stark back to the tournament after an eight-year absence and he took a two-stroke lead over Denny Luke. Stark shot a 2-over 74 from the gold tees, which are 1,200 yards shorter than the white tees.
?I missed four easy birdies; they hit the hole and could have went in, but I hit them too hard,? Stark said.
Many of the leaders shot better on the notoriously tough back nine.
Recent Aquin graduate Keaton Korosec shot 40-37 for his 77.
?I got a lot of pars on the back nine, which is good, because the back nine is really hard,? Korosec said. ?I wish I could have done that on the front, too. I should have done that. That?s what you are supposed to do. But you do what happens.?
Korosec and Schmidt, who shot 39-37, putted far better on the back.
?I had four three-putts on the front and a few one-putts on the back,? Schmidt said. ?That helped a lot. But I was hitting a lot of fairways.?
That was the opposite of Anderson, who was saved by his chipping.
?I hit probably two fairways all day,? Anderson said. ?I was all over the place.?
Anderson also fared better on the back nine, shooting 37-34.
?The back is usually easier for me,? he said, before pausing to add with a sheepish smile: ?Well, I wake up by then.?
He?s going to wake up Sunday with a big lead.
?It?s going to take something pretty low,? Bardell, who had birdies on No. 2 and 8 but bogeyed 3 and 9, said of his chances to defend his title. ?You see a lot of lower scores on the East. I don?t want to set a number that I have to shoot, but it?s going to take a solid round to catch up to Brian.?
Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge
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