2011 Champion Anthony Johnson.

Read the Final Round story below

Jun Seok Lee leads 2011 Pro-Am Championship after Day 1

However, he is being closely challenged by several other players, including those who played in the overcast and windy afternoon field, Tristan McCallum and Paul Donahoo on 66 and well known Queenslander Terry Price on 65.

The winning score last year was 10-under - If these players can keep up the momentum, who knows what the winning score will be this year.

In fact, a quarter of the field shot under par today, including local Anthony Johnson (3-under) and defending champion Euan Walters (2-under).

  Forty amateur players are playing head-to-head with the professionals for the four days of the tournament, and the leading Amateur for the day was Elliott Beel, who shot a round of 68, a score which would have placed him equal fifth in the professional field. Keep it going, Elliott!

Jun Seok Lee keeps lead into Round 3 - 69 in Round 2
Russell jumps to the Amateur Lead

Consistency is proving to be key for Lee and has posted rounds of 65 and 69 to be at eight under par. Lee will take a one shot lead over Australian golf stalwart Terry Price with a further shot back to Aaron Pike.

Lee will be looking for the biggest win of his short professional career come Sunday and he is looking forward to the challenge. “I am playing really nice golf at the moment, but I know I still have a lot of work to do. There are a lot of fine players playing this week, so I am not going to get ahead of myself and just continue to play my own game" Lee remarked after completing his round.

It is a different story for Price though who has been spending more time helping the members out at Townsville Golf Club in the golf shop, rather than striding the fairways of major events around the globe. Price who is now 50, is fine tuning his game before heading over to play a number of European Senior Tour Events and if he continues to show the form that he is showing this week in Mackay, it won’t be long until we see another Australian winner around the world.

Local hope and 2008 Mackay Pro Am champion Anthony Johnson has not done his chances any harm today after rounds of 68 and 71. Johnson will head into the final two rounds full of confidence knowing he is only five shots behind the leader.

The Mackay Golf Club this year is proving to be a stern test for the professionals with high winds sweeping across the course. Unfortunately conditions won’t be any easier over the weekend for the 52 professionals that survived the two day cut with wind and rain predicted for tomorrow’s third round before fining up for Sunday.

Winner of Wednesday's Platypus Purse Pro-Am, Darren Tan, was not able to repeat his 10-under round on Wednesday, but is still in good form sitting at 1-under, and could shake the leaders if he can find another 10-under in his bag.

On the Amateur side of the Pro-Am competition, Duane Russell jumped from sixth place to take the lead from overnight leader Elliott Beel by two shots.  Russell started his golfing career as a junior at Mackay, but moved south and now plays off Scratch for Keperra Golf Club. He followed his first round 73 with a superb 71 in the testing windy conditions, to remind the locals that he is here to be taken seriously.

Also tied for second place is Matthew Dwyer - Mr Consistency with two rounds of 73, and Matt Spilsbury lapsing slightly in the windy conditions to add a 75 to yesterday's 71.

Going into the third round, there are at least ten players capable of taking the honours, so the leaders will have to stay on their games to stay ahead athhte end of the four rounds.

The amateur nett competition is currently led by Matthew Dwyer, playing off a handicap of 5, and leading 12 marker Gavin Wesche and 4 marker Elliott Beel by two shots.  Dwyer is currently nett 6-under for the two rounds.

Anthony Johnson stakes claim on Title - 65 in Round 3
Matt Spilsbury snatches Amateur Lead

Local hope Anthony Johnson has staked his claim for his second Mackay Pro Am after shooting a six under par 65, to move into a tie for the lead heading into the final round.

In wet conditions Johnson carded a bogey free round, and was later joined for the overnight lead by New Zealander Doug Holloway after a third round 67.

Both Johnson and Holloway sit on nine under after three rounds, with a further three shots back to a group of six players which includes round two leader Jun Seok Lee, who shot a 2-over today to slip back in the field.

One shot behind Lee overnight, Terry Price also had what he would consider an ordinary day, shooting one-over to join Lee three behind the leaders, along side Leighton Lyle (2-under today), and Rowan Beste, John Martino and Paul Donahoo, all 1-under today.

It was a slow start for Johnson, before finding his feet on the inward nine. “It was one of those days, those who stayed patient reaped the rewards. I turned two under for the front nine before making a great birdie on 11 to get the round going. It’s great to be in the lead and I am really looking forward to the challenge tomorrow.”

The final round's play will get underway from 7:00am with the leaders teeing off at 12:00. With fine conditions forecast and a grouped leaderboard, a great afternoon of golf is expected. Spectators are welcome throughout the day.

Starting the day two strokes behind overnight leader Duane Russell, Matt Spilsbury shot a one-under round today to overtake Russell for the amateur lead going into the final round. Still not completely happy with his game, Spilsbury scrambled well and dropped the putts when needed, while Russell played well tee to green but couldn't buy a putt, finishing with a 3-over 74 today.  Russell slipped back to a tie for second place, along side Calvin Buckton who matched his first round even par score in today's third round - beware the injured golfer!

Anthony Johnson wins his second City of Mackay Pro-Am
Matt Spilsbury holds off the challengers to win Amateur title

Anthony Johnson (-12)
City of Mackay Champion 2011

Local professional golfer, Anthony Johnson has used his home course knowledge to take out his second Mackay Pro Am by shooting a three under par 68 in the final round. Johnson held off the challengers and won the title by one stroke from Rowan Beste. For the first time for several years, the Mackay Pro-Am did not require a play-off to decide the winner.

Johnson posted a 12 under par total to finish a single shot ahead of roommate for the week, Rowan Beste who came home strong with the best round of the day, a five under par 66. Second round leader Jun Seok Lee and Queenslander Paul Donahoo shared third place three shot behind.

Anthony started the day tied for the lead with New Zealander Douglas Holloway on nine-under par.  Anthony was the first to falter with a bogie on the second, but recovered with a birdie on the third, finishing the front nine one-under for a total 10-under. Holloway, however started well but a couple of bogies left him 1-over at the turn. 

First to mount a challenge was Deyen Lawson, who was playing 5 groups ahead of Johnson. Starting the day at 5-under, he made the turn at 8-under, just one behind Johnson. Then a few groups later, Rowan Beste started down the tenth at 8-under, one behind Johnson who had yet to birdie the ninth.

Holloway was unable to improve his score on the second nine, to keep up with Johnson and finished one over for the day and 8-under for the tournament.  Lawson, too, faltered on the back nine, and the challenge from that quarter did not eventuate.

Rowan Beste (-11)
Runner-Up 2011

However the back nine on Sunday is where tournaments are won and loss and Rowan Beste hadn’t given up all hope. Beste followed his first nine 2-under with a second nine 3-under to set the mark in the club house at eleven-under.  Three quick birdies from Beste and two nervous three putts from Johnson saw Beste take a two shot lead with four holes to play. Johnson was able to put the three putts behind though and went on to birdie the 15th and 16th to draw level at 12-under, and when Beste made a bogey on 16, Johnson had once again seized the lead.  Beste only managed to par the final two holes to finish 11-under.

Despite the 3-putts on the back nine, Johnson came home strong - 12-under with two holes to play.  A par on 17 meant that Johnson only had to par 18 to win.  A straight drive, a lay-up in front of the green, a chip and two putts secured the victory.

“It’s nice to be able to win my home event for the second time, but to do it in front of all my family is just something that I thought would never happen. Golf is a funny game and I guess this week was just meant to be my week” Johnson remarked in his acceptance speech.

A second place finish for Beste however is a step in the right direction after only coming back to playing golf full time at the start of this year. “I took 12 months off to complete my bridging school and it’s great to be back out playing. Now that’s complete I will focus my attention to playing for now and will again look to head overseas later in the year in the attempt to making my way onto the international stage”.

Duane Russell needed a good round today if he was going to overcome the two-shot deficit from overnight leader Matt Spilsbury.  Although Russell shot a steady 73, one shot better than yesterday, Spilsbury did not relax the pressure, and retained the lead with day's score of 72, for a total 288, three shots ahead of Russell and four ahead of Nathan Cole. 

Tied with Russell at the start of the day, Calvin Buckton stumbled with an uncharacteristic 79 to drop out of contention.

Top Amateur score of the day was posted by Nathan Cole, scoring an even-par 71 in the fine but breezy conditions on a slow course still wet for the previous day's rain.

The Queensland Sunshine Tour will now head south to play in Rockhampton next week, and at the Capricorn Resort at Yeppoon on the following week.

See the complete Professional and Amateur Trophy Winners and Scores here...