Kevin Haefner of the USA continued to dominate the European Challenge Tour’s Panama Masters after a third round of one under par 70 handed him a four shot lead from Rafael Gomez of Argentina and Germany’s Erol Simsek.
Players from both the Tour de las Americas and the Challenge Tour experienced notably tougher conditions on day three of the Panama Masters as the wind blew strong and affected scoring all over the 6823 yard terrain.
Haefner managed to maintain his excellent form during the toughest of the difficult conditions to post a third round 70 for a nine under par 204 aggregate and assume a four shot lead going into the final round.
The 25 year old from New York has yet to win a tournament since turning professional in the summer of 2002, but is hopeful that statistic will change after his next 18 holes of golf.
“I am going to try not to think about that!” said Haefner, “but I will think of playing good golf tomorrow and hopefully things will take care of themselves. I am really excited about tomorrow. I know it’s going to be a very long hard day, but I am really excited.
“It was tough all day out there today, all day. I got off to a good start, got relaxed and just stayed relax and kept hitting good shots and letting things take care of themselves. It was definitely the toughest day conditions wise, so I am happy with where I am at right now.”
Gomez, currently Number One on the Challenge Tour Rankings, shared the best score of the day – a four under par 67 – with Paraguay’s Carlos Franco and Welshman Kyron Sullivan. Both Franco and Sullivan are in joint fourth position, alongside Soren Hansen of Denmark, on four under par 209.
The 37 year old Gomez, who won the 2004 Tour de las Americas Order of Merit, has performed remarkably during the Challenge Tour’s join-sanctioned events in Latin America. He won the first event of the 2005 Challenge Tour season at the 47th Abierto Mexicano de Golf, finished sixth at the Panasonic Panama Open, 14th at the TIM Peru Open and 11th at last week’s Costa Rica Open, all of which has seen him earn €46,684 in prize money and take the Number One spot on the Rankings.
Gomez was among the first players to tee off in round three, and took full advantage of the calmer conditions to haul himself up the leaderboard.
“It was important to go out in that first group,” he said, “because the wind was not strong over the first few holes. My ball striking was great and I gave myself the chance of trying to get a win tomorrow.”
Simsek, the highest placed European in the field, also has a chance to add to the five Challenge Tour victories he has notched in his professional career. The 33 year old German saw his fortunes on the greens change after he decided to borrow a different putter to his own for the third round.
“I’m not playing bad,” said Simsek. “It was the same last week, but my putting last week was very bad. This week, it has been ok.”
