DP World Tour : Soudal Open Tee Times Leaderboard
Zander Lombard produced a brilliant birdie-birdie-birdie finish on day three to catapult himself into a three-shot lead heading into the final round of the Soudal Open.
The South African started the day in a share of the lead and while he quickly jumped clear, a wobble in the middle of the round allowed countryman MJ Daffue to join him in the lead after a 65 -15.
Lombard, however, was clearly not in the mood to be caught and his big finish saw him sign for a 66 and vault to -18 as he looks to seal a maiden DP World Tour title in wire-to-wire style.
Dane Jacob Skov Olesen, England's Ben Schmidt and Frenchman Tom Vaillant were at -14, a shot clear of Swede Albin Bergstrom, Spain's Jorge Campillo, Englishman Andrew Johnston and South Africa's Richard Sterne all -13
Lombard has seven runner-up finishes on the DP World Tour, with five of them coming between 2022 and 2024, before he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament playing padel and suffered a seven-month layoff.
He could not keep his card upon his return but romped to a 13-shot victory at the Qualifying School Final Stage in November and will now be looking to complete his comeback in fine style at Rinkven International Golf Club.
“If I knew, I would have won by now,” he said when asked about getting over the line. “But I'm just going stick to my guns, stick to my strengths and keep ticking my box to stay in my bubble.
“That putt on 18 was kind of an awkward double breaker and to put a good roll on it and to see it go in, that makes you sleep a little better tonight and come out fresh tomorrow.
“You don’t deserve anything in golf but I think I've worked really hard for it. It was a very slow turn, around nine, ten, 11, 12, a couple of loose shots. So to have that three-shot lead after hitting a couple of bad shots, it's very nice going into tomorrow.”
Vaillant bogeyed the 14th but picked the shot back up on the 16th to sign for a 70, while Olesen and Schmidt both carded rounds 67 as all three search for their own maiden wins.
Bergstrom carded a 66, one better than Johnston and two better than Campillo and Sterne, with Nathan Kimsey in the group at -12 under after matching the low round of the week with a 63.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
No comments:
Post a Comment