Matt Wallace will take a four-shot lead into the final round of the Omega European Masters despite testing conditions in the Swiss Alps.
Related: Matt Wallace lead by four at halfway stage
The Englishman was sitting pretty at the top by the same margin at the halfway point and headed into the weekend as the only player not to drop a shot through 36 holes.
The 34-year-old started Moving Day at 14 under, but high winds affected the whole field and it only took him two holes to card his first bogey of the tournament.
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Wallace battled through the tough conditions to register a third-round of 73, mixing six bogeys with three birdies to sit at 11 under at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club.
Alfredo Garcia-Heredia sat in second at seven under after an impressive 71 which saw him card four birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey.
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England’s Andrew Johnston and Sweden’s Henrik Norlander were one shot further back at six under, while Alex Fitzpatrick, home favourite Cedric Gugler, Australian Jason Scrivener and Edoardo Molinari, who was one of only three players to record under par rounds, are at five under.
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Jonas Blixt carded the round of the day with a 68 to climb to four under, alongside fellow Swede Sebastian Söderberg, who also carded a 69 like Molinari, Spain’s Nacho Elvira, South African Casey Jarvis, Germany’s Nicolai von Dellingshausen and 2021 champion Rasmus Højgaard.
Player quotes
Matt Wallace: Where do I start? Brutal, really hard. Felt I hit the ball just as good, in the right areas – they were the wrong areas by the looks of it.
The other day I was saying it was cold and windy, but that was crazy, that was mental. The greens were fantastic but just really fast as well. Man, that was tough, Jamie and I are very tired now.
Massively (proud with how I dealt with the conditions), really, really proud. I would’ve lost my head easily there from the get go; missed putt and a bogey on the second.
It’s obviously a little easier when you have a some sort of a lead and it’s playing really hard, but I just kind of felt like it was a Major and tried to treat it like a Major where every hole is some sort of merit and I’ll learn from that in the future.
Today wasn’t about really shooting under par, it was about keeping my lead and I did that and I will try and take the ego out of the three over, which I’m not happy about those type of scores but I probably left two or three shots out there which would have been an unbelievable score.
Alfredo Garcia-Heredia: I started really good. The only thing I blame myself is that I hit it out of bounds on seven, and you cannot do that, you can make bogey but not like that, but the rest was fantastic.
It was difficult because when there is strong wind at altitude it is hard to adjust the club, the greens are very tricky, the pin positions very tricky as well, so patience and a smile sometimes.
It’s golf, golf is drama, so we will see tomorrow.
