Slattery expectant as he chases down a third Tour title
ENGLAND’S Lee Slattery, whose wife is currently eight days overdue with the couple’s second child, will take a two-shot lead into today’s final day of the D+D Real Czech Masters.
Slattery carded a third round of 67 at Albatross Golf Resort to finish 12-under-par, with South Africa’s Haydn Porteous his nearest challenger after a matching 67.
Sweden’s Pontus Widegren is two shots further back on eight-under, with halfway leader Chris Hanson another stroke adrift alongside compatriot Jonathan Thomson.
Hanson had led an English one-two-three after the completion of the rain-delayed second round, the 32-year-old playing 17 holes in five-under-par to add a 66 to his opening 68.
That gave him a three-shot lead over Slattery – with Morrison another stroke back.
Both of Slattery’s previous European Tour victories came after leading after three rounds and win No. 3 could be part of a double celebration, with the imminent birth.
Slattery found the green in two at the par five first for an opening birdie, but with Hanson starting with two gains, he was four shots off the lead.
However, driving into a hazard on the sixth cost Hanson a double bogey and when he dropped another shot on the eighth, Slattery took full advantage with birdies on the seventh and ninth to move into the lead.
As Hanson fell back, Slattery pushed on, putting his approach at the sixth to six feet and another excellent iron into the ninth gave him the lead at the turn.
A brilliant tee-shot into the par three 13th moved the 39-year-old to 11-under and a fifth birdie of the day from six feet on the 15th put him in control.
Porteous made a birdie-birdie start and a brilliant tee-shot into the par-3 seventh had him at eight-under. He got on the par-5 10th in two and when he holed from eight feet on the 12th he was in a share of the lead.
Slattery then pulled away and a Porteous bogey on the 17th meant the lead was three shots, but the 23-year-old holed a 10-footer on the last for a birdie in the fading light.
Widegren birdied the first and sixth and when the Qualifying School graduate hit a brilliant second out of the bunker into the eighth, he was eight-under. He then went bogey-birdie on the 14th and 15th on the way home.
Hanson holed some clutch putts for par on the back nine but also made two doubles and three bogeys in a 75.
Thomson – a tournament invite – gave back gains on the eighth and tenth with a double-bogey on the 11th, but then birdied four of his next five in a 68.
English duo James Morrison and Callum Shinkwin, last week’s winner Julian Suri, Austrian Martin Wiegele and Dane Jeff Winther were then all at six-under.
AMERICAN Clark Dennis fired the lowest round at the Travis Perkins Masters since 2012, a seven-under-par 65, to take a threeshot lead into today’s final round at Woburn.
The Texan, who earned his European Senior Tour card at Qualifying School in February, started the day on level par, but quickly made a move as he birdied the first and fifth holes to make the turn at two-under.
Gains on the 11th and 12th holes were followed by birdies on the 14th and 15th holes, before making his seventh of the day on the 17th.
Dennis is three shots ahead of Ireland’s Brendan McGovern, who won this year’s Qualifying School at Pestana Golf Resort.