Hill in need of a little help as he goes in pursuit of in-form Higgo

CALUM HILL shot 13 pars and birdied the five par- fives on hi s way t o a 66 at t he Canary Islands Championship t o sit just two shots off the lead.

In-form South African Garrick Higgo is the man in front after he shot 64 having won just two weeks ago and is now a total of 61 under for his 11 rounds on the European Tour’s threeevent Canary Islands swing.

Hill knows the challenge he will face against Higgo and believes he will need to get his game in order off the tee to have any chance of mounting a challenge.

“It was a good score for what I had to play with,” he said. “My driver wasn’t behaving itself all day. On the 12th [for a par save] I yanked left, duffed the second shot, hit a very average wedge and hit a great putt. Didn’t look like a four but I managed to come off with a four.

“In order for me to win I’ll need a bit of help from Garrick. If he plays like he did today he’ll run away with it, so I’ll need a very low one and a bit of help.”

In between Hill and Garrick is Englishman Richard Mansell, who carded a bogey-free thirdround 64 to get to 18 under.

Mansell enjoyed an impressive collegiate career in the United States before turning professional in 2017 and finishing second in the third-tier EuroPro Tour Rankings in 2019.

His maiden Challenge Tour season saw him finish second at the co-sanctioned Euram Bank Open and he plans to use lessons from that experience as he heads out in the final group on a Sunday for the second time in just his ninth European Tour event.

“I finished second at Euram Bank last year,” he said. “It was a co-sanctioned event, so a win would have got me my card.

“I didn’t and I had a little moment there on the 15th where I went to tap it in for birdie to tie the lead with three to play and missed it. Careless mistake, bit of a rookie error.

“Potentially that could have been the best thing that happened to me not winning there. I would rather do that in that event rather than The Open or the Masters one day.

“Learn from it, try to keep getting better and that’s what I’m doing. I’m happy with the progress.”

Mansell turned in 31 with birdies on the first, fourth, fifth and ninth and led by two when he added three more on the 13th, 14th and 17th.

But he could not keep Higgo at bay as the 21-year-old – who had carded two eagles, two bogeys and a birdie – finished with four gains to get to 20 under.