Jennian Homes Waikato Winter Strokeplay
Gillespie shows no respect for reputation, girds his putter for battle
The field cut to an elite top 50 after two rounds faced horrible conditions, black, heavy cloud, steady light rain and cold, for the two final rounds. A delay of 15 minutes to allow sufficient light and the leaders
Sam Hunt at nine under, Nick Gillespie five under and Ross Valentine four under all struggled with the tough conditions. Despite taking three hours to manouevre their first nine holes, Hunt and Gillespie had protected their par total but Valentine had dropped two.
The rain stopped, the brilliant Waikato sunshine that has blessed this tournament in the past returned and so did the fireworks. Gillespie who birdied six holes on the front nine in heavy rain yesterday, eagled the first hole, his tenth hole of the day, and added birdies on the fifth and seventh to come home in 32.

 Sam Hunt took a couple of birdies but he failed to get up and down on the par seventh.
Hunt still leads by one shot and he remains on target to break the tournament record of thirteen under par but he faces a new challenge from this 19 year old talent from Hastings, Nick Gillespie.
Best round of the morning to Leighton James from The Grange who was threatening the lead mid afternoon yesterday until he hooked two balls out of bounds. This morning no dropped shot and an eagle, three birdies 67. Apart from this, and Gillespie's, the only round of 70 or better was that of a future talent from the stable of Andre White at Hokowhitu, Josh Munn. The 16 year old started with a bogey, but recorded four birdies in his 70.

Leaderboard:
206 Sam Hunt, Rotorua - 10
207 Nick Gillespie, Hastings -9
212 Andrew Henare, Maraenui -4
212 Leighton James, The Grange - 4
215 Lee Young - Jae, Springfield -1
215 Ross Valentine, Remuera -1
216 Gavin Cortesi, Tokoroa even
216 Park Eun-shin, Hamilton even
217 Jason Mann, Auckland, +1
217 Blair Shaw, Hutt, +1
217 Thomas Lannie, Peninsula +1
218 Greg Bell, Ngaruawahia +2
218 Josh Munn, Manawatu
+2
218 Andrew Searle, Russley +2
218 Mark Smith, Springfield
218 Fraser Wilkin Auckland