Tabuena cards 71, falls to 33rd

Miguel Tabuena waged a late-round rally, but it wasn’t enough as he still finished with a one-under par 71 to fall to the 33rd spot after the third round of the LIV Golf Adelaide on Saturday at The Grange East Course.

Playing without any team affiliation, the 31-year-old Filipino superstar started at No. 8 and quickly made his presence felt. He parred his opening hole and birdied No. 9 to gain momentum in this prestigoius $20,000 event where past champions and world-ranked golfers are also seeing action.

But Tabuena couldn’t sustain his hot form as he suffered with four bogeys in the next eight holes to fall off the 57-man field. Although he salvaged some measure of pride when he birdied Nos. 6, 7 and 9, he still wrapped up his round with one-under — the same score his posted in the secound round last Friday.

With that, Tabuena carded a total of five-under 211 after 36 holes — 14 strokes behind co-leaders Jon Rahm of Legion XIII and Bryson DeChambeau of Crushers GC.

Rahm, the Spanish superstar who used to be the world’s top golfer, fired six-under par 66 while DeChambeau, a nine-time PGA Tour winner before defecting to the Saudi-backed golf league, logged an incredible eight-under par 64 to forge a share of lead.

Anthony Kim, the comebacking American who took Tabuena’s spot in the 4Aces GC of former major champion Dustin Johnson, stayed consistent with a four-under par 68 to gain the solo third at 14-under total while Peter Uihlein of RangeGoats GC, Lucas Herbert of Ripper GC and Cameron Smith of Ripper GC are tied at the fourth spot with a total of 13-under after three days of action.

But everything is not yet lost for Tabuena.

The International Series Philippines champion can still turn things around in the final round on Sunday.

Should he come up with a solid finish, he will secure a handsome prize that is higher than the $50,000 — or close to P3 million — that he took home when he came up with a 48th-place finish in the previous edition in Riyadh. But more than that, he will gain massive momentum when the tour heads back to Asia for the LIV Golf Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Golf Club at Fanling from 5 to 8 March.