Keita Nakajima regains top spot at Asia-Pacific Amateur with defending champ Yuxin Lin on his heels

There’s a reason that Keita Nakajima and Yuxin Lin were favorites entering the week at the Asia-Pacific Amateur, and with a Masters invitation on the line at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, they’ve shown they won’t go down without a fight.

Both world No. 1 amateur Nakajima, of Japan, and defending champion Yuxin Lin, of China, resurfaced at the top of the leaderboard after the third round and will have big targets on their backs entering Saturday’s fourth and final round.

Most notably, Lin had a third-round 65, which tied for the second-lowest round of the day. That effort was helped tremendously by birdies on his first three holes.

“I really couldn’t ask for a better start,” Lin said. “Made some mistakes on the front. Should have made a couple more putts but I feel like I played pretty solid all round and stayed pretty patient and really just stuck to my game plan.”

After opening with a 67 that left him part of a big group of leaders, Lin brought in a ho-hum round of even-par 71 on Thursday. His 65 moved him to 10 under for the week, and leaves him in solo second, one shot behind Nakajima.

“I’m just really glad I have this opportunity to be in contention again,” said Lin, who won this championship in 2017 and 2019. “Obviously, it would be nice to achieve the three-peat. I’ve got myself in this position and I’m going to enjoy tomorrow and see what happens.”

Much has been made of the difficulty of Dubai Creek’s three closing holes. Lin took a double-bogey at the par-4 18th in the second round. Those holes could present a major storyline down the stretch in the final round, particularly if scores remain close.

For his part, Nakajima played those holes in 1 under on Friday, birdieing No. 16 after hitting an 8-iron to 15 feet, on his way to 4-under 67. A par save at No. 18, where Nakajima took a drop after hitting his ball in a penalty area, was key in keeping his one-shot lead.

“A couple miss short putts but 16 was a big birdie and big save last hole,” Nakajima said in addressing his game, particularly his putting. “So good for final round putting.”

Second-round leader Bo Jin, who also hails from China and plays collegiately for Oklahoma State, remains in the mix, too, after following a bogey-free round of 64 on Thursday with a 70 on Friday. He bogeyed Nos. 17 and 18 coming in.

Jin had played 43 bogey-free holes up until that point.

“I didn’t technically notice how much but I just knew you had a pretty good stretch going in,” he said. “The bogey on the last two holes was not bad, too. 18 was a tough hole and 17 I left myself in a tough spot.”

Korea’s Sam Choi is tied for third with Jin at 9 under and Taichi Kho of Hong Kong is solo fifth at 8 under after his third-round 64, the low round of the day.