England’s Stuart Davis takes a two stroke lead into the final round of the European Challenge Tour’s Tessali-Metaponto Open di Puglia e Basilicata after a third round of two under par 70 at Metaponto Golf Club. The 21 year old may have a two shot advantage, but he will face a serious test to close out his maiden Challenge Tour victory with 11 players within four shots of the lead.
After the wet conditions of Thursday and Friday forced tournament officials to re-schedule the third round to be played over Metaponto instead of the rain affected Riva dei Tessali, the players produced a thrilling days golf, with Davis birdieing two of his final three holes to pull away from the pack during the closing stages of his round.
England’s James Heath had a similarly explosive finish, picking up three shot in his last five holes to join Frenchman Julien Foret, Welshman Kyron Sullivan and the Swiss, Robert Wiederkehr, on 11 under par.
But the performance of the day came from Sweden’s Pontus Ericsson, who lit up Metaponto with a quite stunning effort of ten under par 62 to move to ten under for the tournament and join England’s Lee S James, Scotland’s Andrew McArthur and Massimo Scarpa of Italy in a tie for third place just three shots behind Davis.
Ericsson started his third round hours before the leaders were even thinking about teeing off, but he ensured he would be joining them in the final groups on Sunday afternoon with a mesmerising performance that saw him go to the turn in 31 and then come home in the same number to post a 62.
If Ericsson can repeat that kind of performance during the final round, then the rest of the field may as well play for second place, but, with the fourth round due to return to the tree lined Riva dei Tessali, there will be an added degree of difficulty to the final round scoring.
Davis, for one, is looking forward to that challenge as looks to close out the first Challenge Tour win of his career. The Englishman came close at the Skandia PGA Open last year but lost out in a sudden-death play-off to Scotsman David Patrick.
He feels that experience, and the fact that he finished his third round so strongly, will stand him in good stead for a win that is long overdue.
He said: “to finish wit two birdies in the last three holes was massive for me today because I felt that I deserved to have a lead after the way I played. I started very well today but then just got a bit bogged down by certain thoughts and started to get a bit edgy over putts.
“But then I made a fantastic birdie on the 16th and I relaxed into it again. Then, on 18, I hit a great tee shot but found I had a terrible lie which made me miss the green with my approach. That’s always frustrating but I got over that and chipped it in for birdie which was a nice way to finish.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow – I have never gone into the final round of a tournament with any kind of lead so I am going to just try and stay relaxed and enjoy it. I feel I am capable of winning and that I should have won before now so hopefully this will be my week.”
