For Steven Bowditch, his tournament-best third-round seven-under 63 in Ohio couldn’t come at a better time as he chases his President’s Cup dream.
While Bowditch knows he must back up his performance at Firestone Country Club in the final round and post a high finish, the blistering effort has no doubt landed on International team captain Nick Price’s radar.
Price visited with International team hopefuls in the lead up to WGC tournament and spent time with Bowditch on the range knowing the Australian is ranked 12th on the international team list with just a month remaining before qualifying ends.
While Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman are locks in the team, which is picked via world rankings, to take on the Americans in Incheon City South Korea on October 8-11, Bowditch is among those fighting hard to get inside the top-10 automatic places.
India’s Anirban Lahiri sits ninth on the list, fellow Australian John Senden is on the bubble at 10th, Korean local hopeful Byeong-Hun An is 11th and Korean born Kiwi Danny Lee, also in the mix this week, is behind Bowditch in 13th.
Price will add two captains picks to his team after qualification ends on September 7 however the Asian players are said to have an edge given their home field advantage.
“Being over there in Korea and a few guys that are floating around my area, I dare say I’m probably not going to be a pick,” said Bowditch, who won earlier this year in Texas.
“So we all know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to finish inside that top 10, and it’s basically in our own hands.
“I wouldn’t say it is at the back of my mind, I would say it is right up front. It’s something that I really want to do. It will be a dream of mine for sure.
“I really started to get the drive when I saw it in Australia (2011) and that was when I thought, yeah, it’s really, really time to try to have a go at this.
“When it’s all said and done, I’d love to be able to say that I at least represented the international team one time.”
Senden is not in the field this week meaning a top 10 finish in Akron would push Bowditch in front of his fellow Queenslander – with half of round three still to play Bowditch sat in a tie for fourth, importantly tied with Lee who had holes to play.
The 31-year-old Bowditch was not getting over confident, particularly in the aftermath of his last start where he was in the mix through three rounds at the Quicken Loans National only to shoot an 83 on Sunday.
“I don’t know what happened last Sunday. Ever since then, it’s just been feeling all over the map,” he said.
“But today I was able to get a few feelings back that I’ve had the last sort of six, seven weeks with my golf swing and started to get the ball back to where I was looking again.
“Hopefully, I can carry it into tomorrow.”
