Peter Lawrie kept his hopes of a successful defence of his Spanish Open title on course in Girona this afternoon after he carded a one-under par 71 to trail Frenchman Thomas Levet by three shots going into the final round.
The Dubliner played a steady hand for most of his round yesterday, firing 13 straight pars, before making birdies at the 14th and short 16th to close on Levet. His only blemish would come on the final hole, when he failed to get u and down from short of the green to record his only bogey.
It left him on 11-under, one behind England’s Stuart Davis, who is a further two behind Levet, who also carded a 71.
Davis improved from sixth to second with a superb 67 which included four birdies in the last seven holes in the windy conditions.
Lawrie needs only to think back 12 months to believe he can still do it. He came from five adrift to beat Spaniard Ignacio Garrido in a play-off in Seville.
“It was a bit of a struggle. The pin placings were very tough and my putter let me down a few times, but 71 is not bad,” he admitted. “I am in a good position and it would be wonderful to win again. Any tournament anywhere is more than rewarding.”
Welshman Stephen Dodd and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti are in joint fourth place on nine under, while Paul McGinley dropped to a tie for 14th on six under after he carded a 73. Gary Murphy had a day to forget after a 77 left him towards the end of the field on five over.
American John Daly is down on level par, two double bogeys on the back nine taking him to a 74.
Daly, playing his first event since December and still serving a six-month US Tour ban imposed after he was put in jail to sober up last October, said: “First an eight-iron plugged under the lip of a bunker on the 11th and in trying to get it out the ball popped up and buried again.
“Then on 15 I flushed a five-iron from the rough, but it caught a tree. Other than that it was pretty damn good. I love the way I am swinging, I’m hitting it solid and I’ve made only three bad swings, which is good coming back. I’m just not making any putts and I’ve got to get that sorted out.”
LEADERBOARD
(Par 72, GB & Ireland unless stated)
202Thomas Levet (Fra) 64 67 71
204Stuart Davis 72 65 67
205 Peter Lawrie68 66 71
207Stephen Dodd 69 69 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 71 70 66
208Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 67 71
209Francesco Molinari (Ita) 69 70 70, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 67 73 69, Soren Hansen (Den) 63 70 76, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 75 69 65, Marcel Siem (Ger) 67 70 72, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 65 73 71, Paul Broadhurst 70 69 70
210Juan francisco Sarasti (Spa) 73 69 68, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 66 75 69, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 69 74, Paul McGinley 70 67 73
211Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 69 74 68, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 75 69 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 67 74, Pablo Martin (Spa) 68 72 71, Mark Foster 69 72 70
212Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 68 74 70, Pedro Linhart (Spa) 71 69 72, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 70 74 68, Jordi Garcia pinto (Spa) 73 71 68, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 68 71 73, David Lynn 69 73 70
213Iain Pyman 68 76 69, Marcus Higley 71 69 73, Sion Bebb 69 71 73, Raul Quiros (Spa) 68 75 70, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 71 73
214Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 73 71 70, Gary Orr 68 72 74, Steve Webster 74 68 72, Robert Rock 73 70 71, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 69 74, David Horsey 72 70 72, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 71 72, Gonzalo Fdez-Castano (Spa) 72 69 73
215Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 72 74, Chris Wood 66 70 79, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 74 69 72, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 69 74 72, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 73 71 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 71 70 74, Matthew Millar (Aus) 69 75 71, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 70 73 72, Ross McGowan 71 71 73
216Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 72 70 74, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 70 73 73, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 67 76 73, Phillip Price 73 71 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 68 76, John Daly (USA) 70 72 74, James Kamte (Rsa) 73 71 72, Miles Tunnicliff 72 70 74, Bradley Dredge 72 71 73
217Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 67 78, Callum Macaulay 65 76 76, Steven O'Hara 72 72 73, Graeme Storm 69 71 77
218Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 68 75 75, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 71 71 76
219Stephen Gallacher 71 70 78, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 71 71 77
220Paul Lawrie 68 72 80
221 Gary Murphy70 74 77
222Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 72 72 78
223Manuel Quiros (Spa) 69 74 80
