Paraguay’s Marco Ruiz takes a two shot lead into the final round of the European Challenge Tour’s Peugeot Challenge R.C.G El Prat after a third round 71 in swirling winds gave the 30 year old a two shot lead over Spain’s Ivo Giner and Lee James of England.
Ruiz carded one of only six rounds under par during the third day’s play at the Real Club de Golf El Prat in Barcelona, putting together an eagle two birdies and three bogeys to move to the top of the leaderboard.
Giner and James posted respective third round scores of 74 and 76 to move to two under and tied second place, with Spain’s Francisco Cea, in fourth position on one under, the only player in the field with an aggregate score under par after 54 holes.
Four players share fifth position – Germany’s Kariem Baraka, Michael Hoey of Northern Ireland and the Spanish pair of Pedro Linhart and Carl Sunseon, who posted a best of the day four under par 68 in the testing conditions.
Ruiz has won two professional events in his career – the Litoral Open and Venezuelan Open – and is hopeful of securing a maiden Challenge Tour victory, and the first prize of €18,400, on the north east coast of Spain on Sunday afternoon.
“I played very well today, especially on the front nine where I managed to make eagle,” said Ruiz. “My three dropped shots were really down to missing short putts but I was generally calm out there today.
“Tomorrow I will have to try and take it easy again, but it will be tough because it is a very difficult course. It would be great to win a third tournament because my two previous victories seem so long ago that I cannot even remember them!”
Like Ruiz, Giner, whose second round 65 is the lowest score of the tournament so far, missed a few short putts on his way to a 74 and admitted that drained him of confidence on the greens. But the 28 year old was positive about his chances of a third Challenge Tour victory given that he is only two shots off the lead.
“It was really tough today,” he said. The win was coming from a different direction today and was inconsistent, which made it hard to commit to a lot of shots because you were unsure of the wind.
“The course was playing very difficultly as well. I had an eagle putt on the ninth green that I missed and after that I got a little scared of the short putts But today was by no means awful.
“I don’t think it was a day when you were going to make a score that could win you the tournament, but it was possible to lose the tournament today because of the conditions and I was conscious of that when I was playing. In that respect I am pleased because I am only two shots behind.”
James agreed that round three had been the most difficult of the week, but, like Giner, was positive about his chances of victory.
He said: “The score was no good today. I played OK but putted badly, but it should be better tomorrow. If I can start putting well then we will see what happens, but today was definitely the most difficult in terms of the conditions and the way the course was playing.”
