Hojgaard recovers from nightmare hole to retain lead

RASMUS HOJGAARD bounced back from a nightmare start yesterday to head into the final round of the Cazoo Open de France with a one-shot lead.

The Dane saw his commanding six-shot halfway advantage cut to one stroke in the early stages of his third round after running up a quintuple-bogey eight at the short second hole, having found the water three times.

The shell-shocked 21-year-old then sent his tee-shot at the next hole straight into the water and made a bogey there to surrender the lead. But he recovered with birdies at the sixth, eighth and 11th as well as several important par saves to return to the top of the leaderboard.

And Hojgaard mixed two birdies with two bogeys over the last seven holes to post a 74 and finish the day on 12 under par.

“It’s obviously not the Saturday I wanted but at the same time I’m just happy that I stayed in there, managed to make some birdies and I still have the lead. So I’m looking forward to tomorrow," Hojgaard said. “I’ll just be patient. I showed out there today that by being patient I managed to make a few birdies and not let it affect me too much. Hopefully I’ll get off to a better start but I’ll stay patient and trust what I’m doing.”

A two-shot swing on the final hole saw George Coetzee get within one of Hojgaard as he finished his 68 with a birdie courtesy of a magnificent approach shot. Home favourite Paul Barjon and Belgian Thomas Pieters were another shot further back in a tie for third on 10 under.

Scott Jamieson is leading Scot after his 68 left him joint 12th on six under.