Wood and Garcia are hot on the heels of Swede Marcus for French glory
Chris Wood yesterday produced one of the comebacks of the season to keep himself in contention on day three of the HNA Open de France.
However, he will have to overcome formidable opposition if he is to win his first Rolex Series event today.
The Englishman entered yesterday’s third round two shots behind leader Marcus Kinhult in Paris and that is where he ended it, although he needed a remarkable run of form around the turn to sign for a 67 and get to eight-under-par.
A double-bogey on the fourth and a bogey on the fifth sent Wood tumbling down the leaderboard, but the 30-year-old picked up eight shots in his next 10 holes, with the help of a chip-in eagle on the ninth, to find himself just one off the lead. A bogey on the last took some of the gloss off his surge through the field, and Wood was left looking over his shoulder as well as up at Kinhult, with 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia just one shot behind him. World No. 5 Jon Rahm was then at six under, two shots clear of world No. 2 Justin Thomas.
“A lot of players might let that get to them, three over through five, but I felt like I was hitting pretty good shots,” Wood said.
“I’m couple behind going into tomorrow. Same sort of approach and attitude tomorrow and see where it gets me.”
Kinhult chipped in for birdie on the first and then made a double-bogey after going in the water on the next, but five birdies in a row from the fifth handed him a five-shot lead before he came home in level par.
“It was a bit of a shaky start, but then I just hit some good shots and felt better and better throughout the round,” he said
“The momentum kind of kept me going in there so that’s good.”
Garcia made four birdies on the front nine and four more on the back before finding water to drop a shot on the last, while Rahm had a birdie-birdie finish in his 68.
Thomas had five birdies and three bogeys in his round to sit alongside fellow-american Julian Suri.