Jean Van de Velde takes a two stroke lead into the final round of the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos after his third round of one under par 71 handed the Frenchman an 11 under aggregate on a day of very difficult conditions at Santo da Serra Golf Club that started with a four hour delay due to low cloud cover over the course.
Those clouds were cleared by a swirling wind that grew stronger as the third round progressed, but Van de Velde stood firm to establish a two stroke advantage over 1999 Madeira Island Open champion Pedro Linhart of Spain, who’s 69 moved him to nine under for the tournament and into second place – one stroke ahead of Irishman Damien McGrane, Jarmo Sandelin of Sweden and the English pair of Lee Slattery and Simon Wakefield.
Of that quartet, and indeed the whole field, Slattery performed best, posting a brilliant six under par 66 to propel himself into third place. The Englishman is beginning to show signs of the form that saw him dominate the 2004 Challenge Tour and will have a great chance of landing his maiden European Tour win if he can match his third round performance on Sunday afternoon.
But he will have to overcome the men in front of him which will be no easy task considering the current form of Linhart and Van de Velde. Linhart has been inspired by his return to the scene of his only European Tour success, and he is hopeful that he can emulate Sweden’s Matts Lanner in becoming the second two time champion at the Madeira Island Open Caixa Geral de Depositos.
He said: “It was windy all the way today, but I played well yesterday and that continued today. I like this place. I come from a hilly golf course in the Canaries so I am used to playing on this kind of course. I have been playing mainly in Spain and in the occasional Tour event. I went to the Tour School but I only have category 14 so I can play in some events, but not many.
“If I can win tomorrow then it would change everything, but I don’t wan to think too much about that – I will wait and see what happens. When I won here in 1999 I was leading the tournament from the second round so this is completely different. That was also a long time ago!”
Van de Velde was at his philosophical best after signing for his 71. The 38 year old is well aware that he is on the verge of making an unbelievable comeback form the knee injury that almost forced him to retire.
“As far as I’m concerned I started the day tieing for the lead and I will start tomorrow two ahead. All I am going to do is concentrate on my game. Hopefully we will have better conditions and we will see what happens. It’s there – I am playing well and was under par again today. It could have been much better than that which it didn’t turn out to be but that’s how it is.
“To me, this all started last year with me starting to play golf and then getting my card again, then playing in the British Open and the Volvo Masters. Now here I am leading a tournament so what else could we hope for? I had a baby boy three months ago and he is very healthy so I am a lucky man. But seriously, with the health problems that I have had it’s great. I was only able to start hitting balls again this time last year, so here we are.
“It’s very exciting. That’s what we all hope and dream of – leading a tournament and being in this position. Of course it is not going to be easy and of course the first guy I am going to have beat out there tomorrow is me, but that’s it. The outcome will be whatever it is. I might win by ten, I might win by five or lose by five. God only knows what will happen, but one thing so for sure that I am in a position that a lot of people would like to be in.”
