Crans Montana, Switzerland: Scotland’s Richie Ramsay believes that the key to victory would be to play his own game after he fired a flawless six-under-par 64 to take the third round lead at the Omega European Masters on Saturday.
Ramsay’s three-day total of 11-under-par 201 meant that he will head into the final round with a one-shot lead over fellow Scot Paul Lawrie, who remained in the hunt to record a second successive win following his victory in Scotland last week.
Lawrie signed for a 67 to take a share of second place alongside England’s Danny Willett on 202 while overnight leader Julien Quesne of France slipped to fourth place following a 70
Sweden’s Mathias Gronberg, South Africa’s Jaco Van Zyl and Wales’ Jamie Donaldson are tied for fifth place on 204.
2010 Asian Tour Rookie of the Year, Rikard Karlberg of Sweden and Australia’s Marcus Fraser, currently second on the Asian Tour Order of Merit are among the nine players bunched in equal eighth place on 205.
Starting the round in tied-eighth, Ramsay registered three birdies on each nine to sign for a 64 on a day when the par of the course was reduced to 70, with the sixth hole having been converted to a 140 yard par-three following heavy overnight rain.
The Scot knows that he cannot be distracted by the performances of his closest rivals and promised to stay focused.
“If someone started making loads of birdies and running away with the tournament, I would still have just stuck to my plan and played my own game. I know I play my best when I get into that mindset,” said Ramsay.
“There were plenty of chances out there, but as always my plan was just to play the golf course, not the other people out there,” added Ramsay.
Lawrie would be looking to follow the footsteps of defending champion Thomas Bjorn by achieving a double.
Twelve months ago, the Dane also won in Scotland before going on to secure the Omega European Masters title.
Having triumphed in Scotland last week himself, Lawrie is hopeful of achieving a similar feat.
“Your aim every week is to put yourself into a decent position with 18 holes to play, and I’ve managed to do that,” said Lawrie.
“At the start of the week I would’ve taken one shot behind going into the final round, and if I can go on to emulate the great Dane by getting another win under my belt, then I must be a half decent player,” added Lawrie.
Meanwhile Karlberg set himself well for a final-day charge after he made one of the round’s biggest moves.
The Swede had a spectacular run in his opening front-nine where he mixed five birdies against one bogey to turn in 31.
After his lone bogey, the 25-year-old seemed to be able to do no wrong when he continued his birdie blitz on holes 11 and 14 until a costly double bogey on the 15th put the brakes on his charge.
“I didn’t really like the tee shot of the 15th. It got to my mind and I had a bad swing which went out of bounds. I could have been up there but there’s another day tomorrow and we’ll see what happens then. I’m still in it.
Karlberg’s last two wins on the Asian Tour came in 2010 in India and he is hoping that his third will come from Europe.
“I’ve got to shoot a really low one to get it through tomorrow but I believe I can still do it,” said Karlberg.
The Omega European Masters is the first event in Europe to be co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and European Tour since 2009.
Leading scores after round 3 of the Omega European Masters being played at the par 71 (par 70 for R3), 6889 Yards Crans-sur-Sierre1 course (a- denotes amateur):
201 - Richie Ramsay (SCO) 69-68-64.
202 - Paul Lawrie (SCO) 69-66-67, Danny Willett (ENG) 67-67-68.
203 - Julien Quesne (FRA) 68-65-70.
204 - Mathias Gronberg (SWE) 70-69-65, Jamie Donaldson (WAL) 69-69-66, Jaco Van Zyl (RSA) 69-68-67.
205 - Rikard Karlberg (SWE) 72-67-66, Graeme Storm (ENG) 68-70-67, Anders Hansen (DEN) 68-70-67, Fredrik Andersson Hed (SWE) 65-73-67, Felipe Aguilar (CHI) 68-69-68, Romain Wattel (FRA) 67-70-68, Joost Luiten (NED) 71-71-63, Marcus Fraser (AUS) 68-68-69, David Howell (ENG) 66-70-69.
Selected scores
208 - David Lipsky (USA) 70-70-68
209 - Scott Barr (AUS) 66-72-71, S.S.P. Chowrasia (IND) 71-71-67
210 - Berry Henson (USA) 68-73-69, Mardan Mamat (SIN) 71-71-68
By Indian Sports News Network
