ESTORIL (Portugal), April 3: Former Open winner Paul Lawrie rediscovered his old winning form to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the rain-affected Portuguese Open on Saturday and put himself on course for a first win in three years. Scotland’s Lawrie shrugged off three separate rain delays to soar into the lead by carding a third-round 66 to finish 11 under par, one shot ahead of England’s Barry Lane.
However, Lane was unable to finish his round.
He was in the middle of the 16th fairway when play was halted in near-darkness and he will be one of six players who will return to the course to complete their third rounds on Sunday.
208 - Jonathan Lomas 68 71 69, Richard Sterne (RSA) 71 67 70, Ignacio Garrido (ESP) 71 66 71
209 - Neil Cheetham 67 71 71, Stephen Scahill (NZL) 67 70 72, Niclas Fasth (SWE) 70 71 68
210 Gary Emerson 73 71 66, Leif Westerberg (SWE) 69 70 71, Gary Murphy 69 68 73
211 - Stuart Manley 72 71 68, Fredrik Andersson Hed (SWE) 69 72 70, Simon Hurd 71 69 71, Marcel Siem (GER) 72 67 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP) 71 68 72, Henrik Nystrom (SWE) 70 68 73, Roger Chapman 71 67 73, Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 72 65 74, Stuart Little 69 67 75
Mayfair leads
ATLANTA,(Georgia): Billy Mayfair sits atop of the leaderboard at four-under-par through 13 holes as the first round of the PGA BellSouth Classic finally kicked off on Saturday.
American Mayfair was one of 66 golfers unable to complete his round on Saturday.
J.L. Lewis, Scott McCarron and Ted Purdy are in the clubhouse after rounds of three-under-par 69 in tough conditions following two earlier washouts.
Brett Quigley and Japan’s Ryuji Imada also are at three-under through 16 and 11 holes respectively.
With play postponed Thursday and Friday due to rain, players sat through another delay of about an hour on Saturday due to rain and light snow.
Under cold temperatures and winds gusting over 75 kilometres per hour, Mayfair carded four birdies and no bogeys.
A two-time winner on tour, Lewis fired five birdies and two bogeys.—Agencies
