Galway’s Ronan Mullarney posted a one-under-par 71 in Saturday’s third round of the HotelPlanner Tour’s Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge to see the 30-year-old now sit T25 at four-under, seven strokes back from South Africa’s MJ Viljoen who leads.
Mullarney, who has occasionally made birdies look easy around Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil, continued to add circles to his scorecard on Saturday but amongst those birdies there was a couple of mishaps that really pulled a strong round away from him.
Mullarney started with an early bogey at the par-4 second but found some great form in the middle third of his round, making three birdies between the sixth and the 11th hole.
A few things came loose as Mullarney struggled at the final par-4’s of the day as he made bogeys at the 14th and 17th. Mullarney rallied well at the par-5 last to make birdie to see him sit one-under-par after 54-holes.
Conor Purcell climbed seven places on the leaderboard as he sits T52 heading into the fourth and final round in France. An early double bogey at the first was cancelled out by a brilliant eagle at the par-5 eighth.
Purcell made bogey at the 11th and 14th before a strong finish saw birdies at the 16th and 18th to see him post an even-par 72. Purcell holds the same score (even-par) after three rounds.
Liam Nolan finds himself two strokes back from Purcell after he posted his worse round of the week – a two-over-par 74. Nolan made three birdies and three bogeys, but it was a double bogey at the 11th that proved to be most costly as he now sits T59 at +2.
MJ Viljoen posted a bogey free 66 on Saturday, the lowest round of the day as he now leads by two strokes. Viljoen was plodding along well at the start of his round but it seemed to be the birdie at the eighth that lit a fire in his belly as he would go on to make three more and a chip-in eagle at the 15th.
“My first two rounds wasn’t too great, I wasn’t hitting the ball very good. I started looking for something on the range and yesterday afternoon me and my caddy found something nice. It felt easier today than the first few days,” said the South African.
The 31-year-old is looking to add to his lone HotelPlanner Tour win which came earlier this year at the SDC Open in his home country.
“I think it’s going to be a bit more relaxed tomorrow. Zebula (SDC Open) was a crucial win for me so I’m more relaxed… I think it’s going to be enjoyable,” added Viljoen.
There is a two way tie for second place as Kristian Kogh Johannessen and Alfie Plant sit at nine-under, followed by Julien Sale and Jacapo Vecchi Fossa who share T4 at eight-under.
36-hole leader Hamish Brown dropped to T6 as he carded his first over-par round of the week. Brown mentioned that he got lucky during his three-under-par Friday round but that luck wasn’t there on Saturday as he posted a two-over-par 74 to drop to seven-under.
Leave a comment