Off in the final group and tied for the lead on Saturday, Takis’ championship aspirations suffered a major blow when he lost two balls off the tee on the par-4 fifth on his way to a quadruple-bogey 8.
Rather than let it derail his week completely, the 20-year-old played the final 13 holes in 3-under par, including a birdie-birdie finish to be 10-under ahead of Sunday’s final round.
Dowling made four birdies on the trot late in Round 3 to also enter the final round at 10-under par; the pair each seven strokes back of 16-year-old Japanese sensation Taisei Nagasaki (65).
Aware that one shot could cost him starts at two major championships, Takis made a conscious effort to not let an otherwise exceptional week fall completely by the wayside.
“I mean, I was just in shock for a few holes,” Takis conceded after signing for a 1-over 73.
“Kind of on the 10th hole, I spoke to my caddie and I was like, ‘We just need to post a score here and see what we can do tomorrow.’
“I’m proud of the way I played. The back nine … would’ve been nice to birdie 10, but 3-under, no bogeys; I can’t complain.
“I find the funny thing about that is when I’m out on the golf course and all that sort of stuff is happening, you have everyone at home looking at the scorecard.
“There’s no pictures on the scorecard. No one knows how that happened. Everyone’s just going to be like, ‘Oh, he hit seven bad shots and tapped in for eight.’
“So no one really knows, which kind of sucks, but I’m going to remember it until the day I die.”
Takis’ round hit a giant hurdle in somewhat mystifying fashion.
His first tee shot at the fifth could not be located and, after returning to the tee to hit three, he hit his next shot into the top of the palm tree.
While almost certain that it was his ball, Takis could not definitively identify it as his, so he again had to return to the tee to play what would be his fifth shot.
“To be honest, I think the first ball was either plugged or underground,” he added.
“It was just a really unfortunate situation. And then the second ball, what are the chances of that happening? There’s not really much I could do about it.
“I knew it was my ball, but you can’t identify it. I can’t say it definitely was, or I’d be cheating, so that sucked, but you’ve just got to kind of laugh it off, which I did better than I normally would today.”
From his ninth hole on Friday to his 10th on Saturday, Dowling made 19 straight pars before putts began to drop as they did on day one.
He birdied 10, dropped a shot on 12, but then made four straight from the 14th hole to drag himself back into contention.
Having played in the final group at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2023, where fellow Australian Jasper Stubbs came from six strokes back to win, Dowling did enough down the stretch to keep his hopes alive.
“It’s just more confirmation that anything is possible,” Dowling said of Stubbs’ win two years ago.
“It’s not like I’m going to go out there and just play golf and not try to get back up on the leaderboard.
“I definitely think that anything can happen and yeah, Jasper doing it, it just reaffirms that it’s possible.”
While relieved to see his putt drop on 14, Dowling said it was the second on 15 that helped generate momentum.
“The second one was kind of, okay, I actually can do it,” he said.
“First one’s like nice, maybe this is just a one off, but when I got two it was like, okay, now I can build off this, which I did.”
A bogey-free back nine of 4-under 33 saw Avondale Golf Club’s Declan O’Donovan climb into 25th position with a round of 2-under 70, with fellow New South Welshman Kayun Mudadana two strokes further back in a share of 30th.
The final round of the 2025 Asia-Pacific Amateur will be broadcast live on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports from 8pm-11pm AEDT.
Australian scores
T4 Billy Dowling (-10)
T4 Harry Takis (-10)
25 Declan O’Donovan (-1)
T30 Kayun Mudadana (+1)
T45 Jye Halls (+5)
62 Chase Oberle (+12)
MC Graham Hourn (+10)
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