Aaron Lisenbee's lead slipped away in a barrage of a backside bogeys.

The Savannah native and Missouri Western graduate needed a lucky bounce off a tree and one magical shot with his gap wedge to fix his round Saturday afternoon at Moila Country Club. After falling behind with four bogeys in a span of five holes, Lisenbee played the final three holes in 4-under - complete with the third hole-in-one of his life on No. 17.

The final scorecard showed five birdies, five bogeys, two eagles and one bogey with only four pars.

The 3-under 68 in the second round of the City Golf Championship combined left him 2-under for the tournament and two strokes up on the field entering today's final round at Fairview Golf Course.

"You go from possibly going OB on that shot to having an eagle shot," said Lisenbee, the 2006 city champion. "They were staying right in there, and I was just giving them shots. And then I finally caught that break."

Brian Haskell followed a first-round 76 with a tournament-best 5-under 66 to vault into today's final group with Lisenbee. After an even-par front 9 at Moila, Haskell made his score with three straight birdies at 12-14. He added two more at 16 and 18 in a bogey-free 5-under back nine.

After two rounds, Haskell is 7-over on his front 9s and 7-under after making the turn.

Now, the championship concludes at Haskell's home course where Lisenbee is yet to play at this year.

"Everybody's played the courses in town enough to know where to hit it," said Haskell, who has won this event five times but not since 2003 "(Lisenbee's) playing pretty well, and he's putting good. Fairview's a course a lot like this. There's going to be lots of birdies and eagles, and there's probably going to be a lot of fireworks."

Lisenbee entered the second round in a three-way tie with fellow Western golfers Mitch Girres and Caleb Carter.

That trio played in Saturday's final group with recent-Savannah graduate Derek Baade, who started one shot back of his playing partners. Lisenbee led for much of the front side until a double-bogey resulting from an out-of-bounds tee ball dropped him one shot behind Girres at the turn.

"I played pretty good, just had one bad swing," Lisenbee said.

But Lisenbee drove the green on the downhill par-4 10th and converted a sliding right-to-left putt for his first eagle.

Suddenly back ahead by one shot, Lisenbee gave it all back on holes 11-15. He made four bogeys in the span with a lone par at the par-3 13th - the only par on his final nine holes.

More trouble appeared to await Lisenbee on the par-5 16th when his second shot went right and threatened an out-of-bounds fence line. Instead, his ball caromed off a tree and onto the green, 10 feet away from the front-right hole location.

Lisenbee missed the eagle putt but made birdie to draw within one shot of Girres and Baade.

At No. 17, Lisenbee pulled his 52-degree wedge and hit a high shot that landed just beyond a tricky, back-left sloping pin location. The ball crept slowly back down the hill and fell in the cup for a second eagle and Lisenbee's second hole-in-one at Moila.

"I played for some spin and went right back in," Lisenbee said.

To complete the spectacular showing, Lisenbee chipped in for birdie on No. 18 from just off the green.

Entering the 16th, Girres held a three-stroke lead on Lisenbee and Baade a one-shot advantage, but a par-bogey-bogey finish left Girres three shots back. He is tied for fourth at 1-over with Carter, who turned his day around with four birdies on the backside to complete an even-par round.

Carter will play in the final group along with Baade, who shot a 2-under 69 to forge a second-place tie at even-par with Haskell.

"With him making good shots, you want to match them," said Baade, who leaves for New Mexico State next Saturday on a golfing scholarship. "But obviously it's hard to match a hole-in-one, but I think I played pretty solid."

Girres ends up in the next to last group with Kyle Hummer (74-74-148), Greg Diederich (75-75-150) and Don Chancey (81-73-154).

Assistant sports editor Ross Martin can be reached at rossmartin@npgco.com