South African Lawrence leads the way but Scott out to chase him down
Thriston Lawrence will take a three-shot lead into today’s final round of the Omega European Masters as he bids to claim his second DP World Tour title of the season.
After putting the finishing touches to his second round yesterday morning following Friday’s weather delay, Lawrence went into the third round one shot off the lead held by Alejandro Canizares.
He then made two birdies and a single bogey on the front side before adding three more gains and dropping one further shot on the back nine to reach 17-under-par.
Lawrence, playing this event for the first time, goes into today’s fourth round with that three-shot cushion over Matt Wallace, after the Englishman closed his 68 with back-to-back birdies.
South African Lawrence was the first winner of the DP World Tour era at the Joburg Open in November, after that event was reduced to 36 holes.
He said: “I’m happy with the way I played, played very solid, made a few clutch putts here and there.
“I’m confident going into tomorrow, but (there is) a lot of golf to be played, just stick to the process, stick to the game plan and enjoy it.”
Scotland’s Scott Jamieson and England’s Richard Mansell were then in a tie for third on 13-under, with Canizares among those another shot further back.
Jamieson said: “It looks pretty solid on the card, but as always with this place it was extremely tricky.
“You can get on momentum waves, which I was able to a bit. But it can jump up and grab you at any point when you think you might have hit a reasonable shot. I’m very happy with four-under.
“You’ve just got to deal with it (if something goes wrong) and get it out of the way before you get to your next shot.
“That’s a lot easier said than done, but we have a lot of time between shots so you need to make good use of it.
“Thriston is a few shots ahead, but I’ve just got to keep doing what I’ve done so far this week.
“I know it sounds clichéd and it’s a boring answer.
“If I keep my head down and get off to a good start, come the 14th, that’s when you have to start making decisions on whether you want to take something on or not.
“I’ll see how I’m doing after 13 holes tomorrow and maybe get after it.”