Josh Sine didn’t practice all week. He didn’t even warm up Saturday with a few strokes on the practice range before the third round of the 90th annual Springfield City Amateur.

Sine, a 1994 Shawnee High School graduate and six-time City Am champion, took the clubs out of the trunk and hit the course.

That strategy won’t work for everyone, but it worked for Sine on Reid Park’s North Course. He birdied the first two holes to take a one-stroke lead over second-round leader Andy Bonar and dueled Bonar the rest of the day.

Sine shot a 1-under 71, tying Norm Knowlton for low round of the day, and enters today’s final round one shot back of Bonar at 8-under 208 for the tournament.

“I’m not really happy with it, but it’s OK,” Sine said. “I just hit a lot of bad shots, especially toward the end. I bogied all the easy ones.”

Bonar, the defending champion, shot even-par 72 after rounds of 66 and 69 in the first two rounds. He has led after each round.

Bonar had two pars and two bogies and 14 pars.

“I hit it OK,” said Bonar, a Lancaster native who played at Wittenberg and now is an assistant coach at the school. “I didn’t putt that great, but I hit it solidly.”

A year ago, Bonar took a three-shot lead into the final round and shot a 72, beating Sine by four shots. Sine, who last won the City Am in 2010, avenged that defeat by beating Bonar in the finals of the Clark County Match Play championship last August.

Joining Bonar and Sine in the final group is Shawnee senior Clark Engle, the defending Division II state golf champion. He shot a 72 for the second straight round after opening the tournament with a 67.

Clay Portz, a 2012 Kenton Ridge graduate, had a double bogey 6 on No. 18 after overshooting the green. He was able to find his ball in the brush and get it out without taking a drop, but that hole dropped him five strokes behind Bonar. He shot 2-over 74 and is in fourth place.

In fifth place is Knowlton at 1-under 215. Two shots back of him is three-time champion Sean Ryan. Eight-time champion Dan Schuler fell out of contention with a 78 on Saturday and is now seventh at 219.

All three players in the final group Saturday spent a lot of time on the tee boxes waiting. On No. 14, their round stalled for close to 15 minutes because of a traffic jam ahead.

It took them close to 4 1/2 hours to play the round, and Bonar said he often finishes rounds in 3 1/2 hours.

“It was really slow today,” Bonar said. “Neither (he nor Sine) is slow. We both like to play quick. Waiting around is never fun.”

Fifty players made the cut for the final round. Kyle Glaser, who will be a freshman at Northwestern, got the final spot by winning a playoff over Jacob Lawson.