tournament with Bedrock Golf Club and Long Cove Club tied with a net 174 after three rounds and holding a comfortable seven-stroke lead over their closest rivals.

Looking from the outside at what is shaping up to be a two-team battle for honours are second round net and gross division leaders, Westchester Hills Golf Club who simply "blew'' it yesterday with a disappointing performance at Mid Ocean Club. They could only muster a net 69 and gross 73, and go into the final round with a net score of 183 and 200 gross.

Bedrock are also the new gross leaders with a 190 after yesterday's 60. The Westchester Hills foursome now find themselves nine strokes behind the leaders in the net division and 10 strokes behind in the gross division.

Bedrock and Long Cove made their moves yesterday with impressive rounds at Castle Harbour and Belmont respectively. Professional Joe Carr led Bedrock with a net 55 while Long Cove's professional Bob Patton helped them to a net 57.

Westchester were last night licking their wounds after handing over their leads and amateur Joseph Christiano summed up their efforts by saying: "Mid Ocean just got to us.'' Christiano said everything they did simply failed to produce good results.

"It was just a bad day for everybody, everything we did was wrong. We are familiar with the course and like it a lot, but to be honest it is one which can be nasty to you when it wants to be.

"We just cannot understand it. We went to bed early, so we can't blame it on the great hospitality we always get here in Bermuda.'' What made it really frustrating for the team from White Plains, New York, is that they made the turn at two-under and even went to three-under soon afterwards. But it wasn't long before the bottom fell through for them. Today they play at Castle Harbour.

For Bedrock and Long Cove it was relative smooth sailing which is why Joe Carr and Bob Patton were in high spirits afterwards.

In today's final round Carr leads his team from Rutland, Mass., at Port Royal while the fortunes of Patton's team from Hilton Head, South Carolina, will hinge on their performance at Mid Ocean.

Carr was thrilled to see his team take a comfortable five-stroke lead in the gross division and grab a share of the net lead as well.

"The fact that we are eleven-under in gross is a great thrill, it was just a great day out there,'' said Carr.

"We had 11 birdies, I made five and my low handicapper Mat Dunn made four.

But the star was Tim McDonnell who finished things off superbly when he hit his driver into the wind and ended up four feet from the hole. He finished it off with a two and even the marker was amazed by his showing,'' said Carr.

Although Long Cove made a significant move in the net division Patton reckoned that the team still didn't play anywhere near its capabilities in the third round. But he was satisfied with the final score.

"We didn't play nearly as good as we did in the first round when we carded a 61 at Castle Harbour, but things have still turned out pretty good for us'' said Patton.

Looking ahead at today's challenge at Mid Ocean, Patton admitted that they will have to be sharper in order to stand a chance at winning.

"It's the best course in Bermuda, but it is also one of the most difficult courses you have here. I don't think it will be in our favour playing there are all,'' he noted.