How Scots Lawman got killer instinct
Swedish rookie Per Langfors was the top seed heading into the final match-play round of what looked to be a wide open battle for the ISPS Handa World Super 6.
The innovative event in Perth, Australia, sees the players compete in three rounds of stroke play before the top 24 go head-to-head in sixhole knockout match play today to determine the winner.
The 24 were decided yesterday, and it was world No. 678 Langfors who finished in the No. 1 spot after shooting an impressive eight-underpar 64 to finish the day with a oneshot lead on 10-under-par.
Langfors holed seven birdies and an eagle, with the only blemish on his scorecard being a lone bogey on the 13th hole, to propel himself 36 places up the leaderboard to the summit.
The 24-year-old sits one shot clear of Ireland’s Paul Dunne, Australian Brad Kennedy and Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan.
New Zealanders Ryan Fox and Gareth Paddison, Japan’s Yuta Ikeda and Belgian Thomas Pieters followed on eight-under to complete the seedings for the final day, meaning those eight players receive a bye for the first round of the match play.
Into the first round, all on sevenunder-par, went England’s Ben Evans, Australians Daniel Gale, Matt Jager and Min Woo Lee, Thai Jazz Janewattananond and Frenchman Clement Sordet.
With 11 players on six-under-par and just 10 spots remaining for the
final day’s match play, a play-off was needed to decide who would miss out and England’s Tom Murray was the unlucky loser.
Scots Bob MacIntyre and Conor Syme – hoping to deliver a tartan success on the European Tour for the second consecutive week following David Law’s stunning success in the Vic Open seven days ago – joined Panuphol Pittayarat, Adrian Otaegui, Ben Campbell, Steven Jeffress, Gregory Bourdy, Andrew Martin, Wade Ormsby and Scott Vincent after they all all progressed.
Top-ranked player Tom Lewis (twoover-par) and Jason Scrivener (fiveunder-par) are the biggest names to miss out on the final shoot-out from the 66 who made the initial cut on Friday night.
England’s Jodi Ewart Shadoff is four shots off the lead heading into the final round of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Shadoff, who shared the lead after the first round at The Grange Golf Club, remains in contention after a round of 70 yesterday to post a total of eight-under-par, a score she shares with Korea’s Jeongeun Lee and Taiwan’s Wei-Ling Hsu.
Compatriot Bronte Law is just a shot further back in a group of three after also going round in 70.
Scotland’s Catriona Matthew is in a tie for 55th on two-over-par.
The woman they are all chasing is Nelly Korda. The 20-year-old American holds a three-shot lead over Japan’s Haru Nomura after posting a round of 67 to move to 12-under-par.