Lake Wylie, SC – Chris Kamin of Scottsdale, AZ entered day three of the eGolf Tour’s River Hills Classic trailing overnight leader Brian Duncan by two shots following rounds of 69-64—133. An errant miss on a tap-in par late in the day did little to derail Kamin, who birdied the last to post a 4-under 67 and a 14-under 200 total, and will now take a two-shot lead into Saturday’s final round in hopes of claiming the event’s $28,000 first-place prize.

The River Hills Classic is the 10th of 24 events on the 2012 eGolf Professional Tour schedule, and is being contested this week at both River Hills Country Club in Lake Wylie, SC and Palisades Country Club in Charlotte, NC.

Kamin made a name for himself in the latter part of the 2011 eGolf Tour season, shooting 65-67-69-67—268 en route to winning the tour’s Grand Harbor Open in his first career start. The 37-year-old returned in 2012 to the eGolf Tour, but had just two made cuts in four starts entering the week at River Hills.

“It has been kind of an up-and-down year for me,” said Kamin. “A lot of rounds at even par where you get run over out here. But, I’ve been working hard on a few changes, and I started hitting it good last week, so I was expecting to play well this week.”

An opening-round 69 at Palisades Country Club on Wednesday gave way to a stellar 64 at River Hills yesterday, setting Kamin up for a solid run on Friday. Playing in the day’s penultimate threesome, and just two behind Duncan, Kamin made an early move with birdies at Nos. 2, 6 and 9 to offset a bogey at the par-3 third for a front-nine 34.

“I played well early on today, hit a lot of fairways and greens,” Kamin said. “I three-putted No. 3 for bogey and missed a 3-foot birdie putt a four, but other than that I played well.”

Birdies on 12 and 13 took the former Bradley University golfer to 14-under for the week and in sole possession of the lead heading to the narrow dogleg right par-4 14th, where a good approach shot left him 20 feet for birdie.

A lagged birdie try at 14 left Kamin with a simple 1-foot tap-in, which he graciously tried to clean up so that his playing partners could finish.

“I hit a good birdie putt, just left it a foot short,” said Kamin. “From there, I tried to slap it in to get out of a guy’s way, and I just missed it. That really stung, but I felt like one more birdie over the last four holes would make up for it.”

Pars on 15 through 17 did little to erase Kamin’s blunder at 14, but a closing birdie at the tricky par-4 18th helped ease the sting, and in turn gave him a third-round 67 and the tournament’s 54-hole lead at 14-under 200.

“It’s a tough golf course. If you get hot with the putter, you can make some putts out there,” he said. “You have to play smart, which is good for me. I’m excited about tomorrow and the chance to go out and compete.”

If the Willard Byrd-designed River Hills course is suited for anyone, it’s the patient player with an idea where the ball is going. Narrow fairways and throwback greens featuring back-to-front slopes harken to a day when shotmaking far outweighed brute force.

This latter idea is one that suits Kamin just fine.

“I think a lot of guys like this kind of course,” said Kamin of River Hills. “You have to hit it well, bottom line. I like it a lot because it suits my game. I don’t hit it 350 yards like a lot of these guys do, but I know how and when to stay patient, so hopefully I can use that to my advantage.”

Trailing Kamin by two shots at 12-under 202 are a pair of eGolf Tour regulars who went toe-to-toe at the tour’s Willow Creek Open just last week. Canadian Matt Hill and Drew Weaver of High Point, NC will join Kamin in Saturday’s final pairing, with Hill eyeing a breakthrough win and Weaver hopeful of making it two in a row.

Hill, a native of Ontario, Canada who now calls South Florida home, played with Kamin on Friday and found birdies hard to come by. Fortunately, the former N.C. State star also found bogeys hard to come by, posting just two birdies against 16 pars for a third-round 69 to reach 12-under on the week.

Hill birdied Nos. 6 and 9 to turn at 34 on day three, but carded nine consecutive pars thereafter to wrap up his 2-under effort.

The 2009 NCAA Champion has played some of his best golf of late as a professional, posting three top-10 finishes in his last five starts on the eGolf Tour – including a solo-fourth-place effort at last week’s Willow Creek Open, where he fell three shots shy of Weaver.

Just three years ago, Hill’s name echoed in the halls of some of college golf’s best all-time performers. As a sophomore at N.C. State, Hill won nine Division I college titles – a run capped off with an individual win at the 2009 NCAA Championship. The nine wins tied a single-season record previously held by Tiger Woods, and resulted in Hill being named the winner of the Jack Nicklaus Award and the Arnold Palmer Award, as well as being named “Player of the Year” by Golfweek Magazine.

Weaver, who played in Friday’s final pairing after opening with rounds of 67-65—132, made Hill’s scorecard look like a veritable roller coaster ride. The former British Amateur champion and Virginia Tech star could muster just one birdie on the day at the par-5 sixth, but played U.S. Open-like golf on the other 17 holes with pars on each. The third-round 70 kept Weaver in the final pairing for yet another day, where he will begin tied with Hill and two behind Kamin.

Weaver solidified his status in United States golf lore when he won the 2007 British Amateur, in turn becoming the first American-born player to win the prestigious title in almost 30 years – dating back to a 1979 win by Jay Sigel.

The overseas title allowed Weaver to compete in the 2007 British Open and the 2008 Masters Tournament. In 2009, Weaver played his way into the U.S. Open at Bethpage Black, where rounds of 69-72-74-74—289 gave him a T40 finish. Later that summer, he was selected to represent the United States in the Walker Cup. At the conclusion of the bi-annual team competition, Weaver turned professional.

In the fall of 2010, he notched his first professional title with a playoff victory at the tour’s Caddy For A Cure Classic en route to a fifth-place finish on the tour’s season-ending money list.

A winless 2011 season led into a stellar 2012 campaign, where Weaver has notched three top-5 finishes – including last week’s win on his home course at Willow Creek – to reach No. 5 on the tour’s money list with $37,301 in earnings.

The Willow Creek victory was especially sweet for Weaver, as it came on the heels of a T2 finish just two weeks prior at the tour’s Columbia Open, and was witnessed by friends and family surrounding the 18th green at the High Point, NC club. The win was also a continuation of good play for Weaver, who is now 46-under par in his last 10 rounds posted on the eGolf Tour.

Former University of Texas golfer Russell Surber is in solo-fourth place at 11-under 203 following a third-round 71.

Surber, who entered the third round one shot off Duncan’s lead and in the day’s final pairing, birdied 12 and 14 to reach 12-under for the week, but closed with a bogey on 18 to finish at even par on the day. The Southern California native, who now resides in Orlando, FL, is making his first start of the year on the eGolf Tour.

Duncan, who wound up with a 2-over 73 on Friday, is tied for fifth with Chesson Hadley, Chris Epperson and Bryden Macpherson for fifth place at 10-under 204.

Macpherson, the 2011 British Amateur champion, tied the week’s low round at River Hills in round three with eight birdies en route to a 7-under 64. The Australia native is making his first eGolf Tour start of the year after competing in the PGA TOUR’s HP Byron Nelson Championship last week. The 21-year-old Macpherson will follow up his eGolf Tour debut with starts at the TOUR’s Memorial Tournament and Travelers Championship.

Macpherson burst onto the American golf scene in 2009 when he earned SEC “Freshman of the Year” honors at the University of Georgia. A stellar sophomore campaign in Athens gave way to the British Amateur win in the summer of 2011, which gave Macpherson exemptions into the 2011 British Open, the 2012 Masters Tournament and the 2012 U.S. Open. Prior to competing in The Masters, Macpherson dropped out of UGA with the intention of turning professional shortly after playing in the year’s first major. By doing so, he forfeited his exemption into the U.S. Open.

The final round of the River Hills Classic will begin at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning, with players competing in threesomes off No. 1 and 10 tees at River Hills. The tournament is open to the public and free of charge.