Brendan Lawlor is relishing the prospect of successfully defending his G4D Open title on Friday after he leapfrogged Kipp Popert heading into the final round.
Lawlor carded a second round of 71 to climb to two-under-par and it was enough to edge ahead of world number one Popert as he looks to retain his crown in Woburn.
“I’ve never defended before. That’s going to be really exciting for me to go out and do it,” said the Carton House man.
“Again, I’m not going to put pressure on myself to go out and defend a title. If Kipp goes out and shoots 6-under, there’s nothing I can do. But I want to go out and shoot an under-par round tomorrow and see where it leaves me.”
It was another slow start for Lawlor who dropped a shot on the par-3 2nd but he roared back into the mix with back-to-back birdies and a third birdie on the par-4 8th to turn in 34.
Popert at this stage had opened with back-to-back bogeys and closed out his front nine with pars.
Lawlor, who has Ellis Van Creveld Syndrome, dropped shots on 12 and 15 but ensured he stayed in front with a welcome birdie on 15.
“Yeah, happy, another 71, 1-under par, 2-under for the tournament. Again I left a few out there. Made some really good up-and-downs in the front nine. Turned in 2-under. Then I kind of sprayed it a wee bit in the back nine. Didn’t really have the driver on a string but I had a few nice up-and-downs. Made a really good birdie on 15. Bogeyed 17 and parred 18. So plus one back nine and 2-under for the tournament, yeah.”
Despite being exactly where he wants to be, the Louth native is wary of the threat of Popert and is keen to get the putter working more consistently on the greens.
“Like I holed some really good putts on the front nine for birdies, and I missed a few from like five, six feats for pars and that’s kind of killing me. So it could have been two, say, 3-, 4-under rounds, but again, you have to stay out of trouble here. I feel I’ve done that pretty well.
“If you’re in the trees, it’s bogey all day long. So I’ve kept it on the fairway good the last two days. Didn’t capitalise on the greens but if I can do the same tomorrow, hole a few putts, we’ll be down there.”
Lawlor holds a six shots lead over Chris Willis in third so it looks like he and Popert will be involved in a final day shootout.
Popert has dominated the G4D Tour scene over the last couple of seasons and has often got the better of Lawlor, but the Ardee man got one over on the Englishman here last year and hopes to do so again.
“Yeah, it’s going to be exciting. Me and Kipp, we get on pretty well. He’s a really good golfer. His game’s on a really good level, but my game is also on a really good level.
“He’s No. 1 at the minute. I want to try to take that off him eventually. He’s too far ahead but I think if he can go out and win this event, it’s true who the real No. 1 player is. So let’s see what happens.
“There’s a lot of crowd, actually, around the place following your shots, clapping, and you don’t — like no one knows what that means or boosting you. If things aren’t going well, having people to keep me in check it sometimes a good thing. It pulls you up from that down state to make a few birdies and keep on going. Yeah, I’m excited for tomorrow.”
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