Noah Woolsey stood in the middle of the 18th fairway at Chenal Country Club on Friday afternoon needing to execute just one more swing.
A precise iron shot to the center of the green and a routine two-putt were all that was required for him to be the 54-hole leader at the Southern Amateur Championship in Little Rock. After four birdies in his previous six holes, Woolsey had vaulted up the leaderboard and now led the tournament by one shot at 10 under, with his group the last on the Founders Course.
All that separated his ball from the back-left pin was 180 yards, but a small lake guarding the right side of the green dared him not to miss.
Then he missed.
With the wind at his back, Woolsey overcompensated and tried taking a little off of his 8 iron. He pushed it out to the right a touch and his ball came up short in the bank of the water hazard.
"Just a bad swing," Woolsey said.
He could have opted to play his ball from the hazard, but his ball sat in long, thick rough with a rock in front of it. Woolsey took his medicine instead, headed back to the fairway where he'd hit and took a penalty drop, eventually finishing with a double-bogey six and 3-under 68 in the third round, putting him in a tie for third at 8 under. In a matter of minutes, his one-shot lead had become a one-shot deficit.
"I'm still really happy. Three under is a great score out here, with a double. I'm playing really well," said Woolsey, a junior at the University of Washington. "One shot's really nothing on the last day. It would have been nice to have the lead, but my mindset is just put it in the fairway off the tee and give yourself some looks at birdie."
Woolsey's double bogey at the last hole Friday gave way for Johnny Keefer and Walker Lee to share the 54-hole lead at 9 under heading into today's final round.
Lee, who held the solo lead after both the first and second rounds, fired a 3-under 68 on Friday. Keefer tied for the second-lowest round of the day with a 6-under 65. Those two will play in the final group with Blaine Hale, a Dallas native who just wrapped up his career at the University of Oklahoma, at 9:20 a.m. Hale is tied with Woolsey at 8 under.
Four players sit in a tie for fifth at 7 under, including Argentina's Andy Schonbaum, who tied for the lowest round of the day with a 7-under 64. Four more are tied for ninth at 6 under, including Colorado State senior AJ Ott, who also shot 64.
William Buhl, a senior at the University of Arkansas, is one of the four tied at 6 under. Luke Long, a Fayetteville High School product and redshirt junior at Houston, and Garrett May, a Hope native and recent Baylor graduate, each sit in a tie for 21st at 2 under.
Lee, a junior at Texas A&M, saw his round Friday heading south after back-to-back bogeys to begin the back nine. He had lost his lead and fallen three shots back, but Lee responded by playing his next five holes in 3 under.
"I'm proud of the way I played today. It was kind of all over the place for a minute," Lee said. "I managed to bounce back pretty well after my bogeys. I was pretty pumped about that."
Keefer experienced his own slip-up at the par-5 16th, when he pulled his tee shot into the water. After a penalty drop in the rough, he found the water again with his approach from 219 yards into the green.
At the time, Keefer held the solo lead at 10 under, but his double-bogey seven dropped him back to 8 under. Moments later, as he waited on the tee box at the par-3 17th, Keefer's father, John Sr., patted his son on the back and offered some words of confidence.
"He said, 'Just grip it and rip it,' " Keefer said. "I really don't think I had any negatives going into that hole. It allowed me to put a pretty decent shot in there."
Keefer stuck his tee shot at the 17th to roughly 15 feet and two-putted for par. At the 18th -- after another stuffed approach shot -- Keefer walked in a birdie putt to get a shot back, finishing at 9 under and giving him the solo clubhouse lead at the time.
"It was a solid roll and a solid read," Keefer said. "Having that going into tomorrow is really nice."
Keefer, one of the youngest players in the field, just graduated from Lady Bird Johnson High School in San Antonio last month. The Baylor signee placed inside the top five at the Texas 6A state championship in May.
Now he has a chance to win one of the premier amateur events in the country.
"It's a confidence boost, obviously," Keefer said. "It helps me know that I can play with anybody. I mean, any given day, anybody can beat anybody."
Sports on 07/20/2019