CANBERRA'S Nikki Campbell will harness the emotion of her home crowd as she attempts to chase down a four-shot deficit on the final day of the Canberra Ladies Classic at Royal Canberra Golf Course.
Campbell, at five-under par for the tournament, is four strokes behind leader Karen Lunn after the tour veteran blitzed the field yesterday, shooting a seven-under round 66 to be three shots clear at nine under.
Lunn's round was highlighted by a eagle on the last hole and she also had six birdies and only one bogey to establish herself clear at the top of the leaderboard.
First round leader Kym Larratt is in second place heading into today's final round after carding two rounds of 70 on her first visit to Royal Canberra.
It is the first tournament of the year for Campbell who is based primarily on the Japanese tour and is pleased with her start. The Royal Canberra Golf Course member is looking for plenty of home support.
''It would be great if lots of Canberra golf supporters came out to follow the last few groups, to give some support for the tournament and hopefully get me over the line,'' she said.
Campbell was three under for her round yesterday with five birdies and two bogeys in her round and rued some misses yesterday.
''I messed up a few holes today after hitting good tee shots which was disappointing,'' she said
''On 10 I had a wedge in, hit it in a bunker and made bogey. I hit a really good shot into 14 and three-putted so there was a couple of wasted opportunities there.''
The three-put on the 14th was the second time that Campbell has three-putted this tournament after three-putting the ninth hole of Friday.
''I've had a three-put which is pretty bad around [Royal Canberra] as I know the greens,'' she said.
Despite dropping a couple of shots on the back nine, Campbell finished strongly with three birdies on the 16th, 17th and 18th holes to finish her round.
Campbell's boyfriend fellow professional golfer Damon Welsford has been caddying for Campbell this week and she believes his advice on the bag has been helping her.
''He is very positive and I tend to play a bit too conservative so he helps me,'' she said.
''If I don't want to go for a pin he's like, 'Why not? What is the trouble just go for it,' so that helps me pick a bit more aggressive targets and hopefully I will start to score better because of it.''
Campbell, Lunn and Larratt will be the final grouping teeing off at noon today.
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