This is the final event of the season on European soil and with only two tournaments to follow this one, the race to be crowned MCB Road to Mauritius champion is also picking up pace.
Adilson Da Silva carded a round of 72 after his opening day 70, which puts him into a share of sixth place on the leader board and doing exactly what he needs to, applying pressure on the man leading the rankings – Peter Baker.
The Englishman is also our tournament host this week but hasn’t enjoyed his best week on the golf course. An opening round of 75 followed by a 1-under par 72 has left him in a share of 24th place, although that is now making things very interesting heading into the final round here in La Manga and beyond for the season-long standings.
Phillip Archer put together the round of the day, carding an unblemished 69. The Englishman was 4-under to the turn and then made par’s all the way back in to sit in third place four shots off the leader.
“I played lovely today, I didn’t play so well yesterday but scrambled it round under-par but I struck the ball great today, holed a few good saving par putts and knocked a few close, so to come off there with that wind and not make a bogey was lovely.
“I’ve played here a lot, with my sponsors we come here on golf trips quite a few times so I know the course, you’ve just got to read the greens well as they’re very grainy and slow in places.
“It’s going to be a bit more of a putting competition tomorrow but I am putting well which I’m happy with. You can get a little bit more aggressive tomorrow.”
Ricardo Gonzalez and Philip Golding join Archer on 5-under par going into the final round after they both enjoyed decent days with under-par scores.
Paul Eales is the man leading the chase into the final round. He backed up his opening round 69 with a 71 to reach -6 and be within three shots of top spot.
“Delighted! With the season that I’ve had to be anywhere near the top of the leader board is something new! It’ll be a lie in on a Sunday morning which is something which is always good and hopefully I can keep on playing like I have been doing.
“It was really tricky, fair pin positions but it was the wind that made it really awkward and it didn’t lessen through the day, it just got stronger and stronger.”
The forecast is for the winds to drop for the final day at La Manga. “I think it’ll bring a lot more players into play because there is a low score out there, the greens are nice and receptive and if that wind lays down then it should be an exciting day with a lot of people coming through.”
The man they are all chasing down is Sweden’s Patrik Sjöland, a rookie on the Legends Tour who has been determined to try and chase down a victory. His performance on the South Course on Saturday has now given him a great chance of doing just that. He would complete a round of 70 to reach 9-under par, including a hole-in-one on the par 3 12th.
“It was gusting from the right and I decided to go for a three-quarter cut 6-iron to hold it against the breeze. I hit a perfect shot and it landed maybe 10 feet short and then just trickled down into the hole!
“I’ve been driving the ball very well so hopefully I continue to do that. I can hit driver on pretty much every tee shot here so I will continue to do that and then we will see what happens, just put the ball in play and then take it from there.
“It’s a course that suits my game, I drive the ball pretty straight and if I can do that here then you have a lot of short irons into the greens – and that’s normally my strength. I enjoy it here, it’s a very nice course.
“It feels great. I feel like I have been playing some really good golf this year and I played really nice on the last day in Italy last week so I had a nice boost of confidence coming in here. The course suits my game, tomorrow is a new day, a lot of guys will chase me but I’m just going to go out and try to play my game as good as I can and we’ll see how far it goes.”
