Gavin Moynihan has bolted 34 places up the leaderboard on moving day in China, firing a five under par 67 to share in a tie for 12th after round three of The Foshan Open.
Having signed for a pair of 72s over the opening two days, Moynihan was going to need to fire out of the blocks to ignite his tournament challenge and he duly obliged with successive birdies over his opening two holes.
The product of the Island Golf Club added another birdie two on 7 to make the turn in 33 shots and building nicely. He was quiet over the three-hole stretch from 10 to 12 before a birdie four at the 13th was backed up by another gain on 14 as Gavin got it to five in the red with four to play.
His only dropped shot of the day came at the par-4 17th but it was a momentary blip, the Dubliner bouncing back in style with a birdie at the par-5 last to sign for an inward nine of 34 and a fine 67 total. At five under, he’s ten back from the runaway leader.
Still, currently 23rd in the Road to Oman rankings, it’s been a stunning year for Gavin, and in this form he won’t want the season to end. He might not be signing for his first W this week but he’s made some massive strides in his consistency and scoring over the past few months and you have to think that illusive win isn’t too far away.
However this week seems to be all about Welshman Oliver Farr who will take a five-shot lead into the final round of the championship after carding a bogey-free 66 on day three in China.
Farr has been in excellent form on the European Challenge Tour in recent weeks, notching up one top five and two further top ten finishes in his last three starts on Europe’s top developmental tour.
Out in the final group today alongside overnight leader Zhang Hui-lin, Farr made steady progress over the front nine with two birdies to stay in touch with his playing partner who bogeyed eight and nine and saw his lead fall to two shots.
After a further gain at the par four 11th for Farr, Zhang came unstuck at the 12th where after failing to find the green he was forced to play from a difficult lie in the deep rough – the Chinese player eventually left the hole with a quadruple-bogey.
Farr seized his opportunity with aplomb, bagging three more birdies over his closing five holes to go into the final day five clear of Germany’s Sebastian Heisele and Englishmen Ryan Evans and Callum Tarren on fifteen under par.
“It has been a bit of a turnaround for me in recent weeks,” he said. “After the Bridgestone Challenge I was not in a good frame of mind with golf and I had a complete week off before arriving in Kazakhstan with not a lot of confidence, but I had a really good last round there and I got a lot of belief from that.
“This whole week has been pretty good to be honest. Today was one of those days where I had to stay patient and then after the 12th I found myself in the lead for the first time this week.
“I wanted to make some birdies coming in and I went on to do that. When I initially went out there I thought ‘this is going to be a tough day’ but I just hit some really good shots and made a lot of putts as well.
“It was still really tricky playing in the final group as the greens were really crisping up towards the end of the round, but all in all it was a really good day.”
At last year’s Foshan Open Farr was one of the first to congratulate champion Marcus Armitage – an experience he is hoping will be a good omen for him tomorrow.
“Marcus text me last night after yesterday’s round wishing me good luck,” he said. “Those were good memories and I came away from here last year feeling really happy for Marcus – hopefully that is a good omen for me tomorrow.”
Scores after Round Three:
201 O Farr (Wal) 69 66 66,
206 S Heisele (Ger) 67 70 69, C Tarren (Eng) 65 71 70, R Evans (Eng) 70 70 66,
207 S Fernandez (Esp) 72 67 68,
208 B Neil (Sco) 70 69 69, Z Hui-Lin (Chn) 68 64 76, C Sordet (Fra) 70 72 66, D Huizing (Ned) 66 70 72,
209 J Winther (Den) 71 69 69, R Cho (Kor) 70 71 68,
211 R McEvoy (Eng) 71 71 69, G Moynihan (Irl) 72 72 67, C Koepka (USA) 70 70 71, C Blomstrand (Swe) 71 69 71, N Cullen (Aus) 66 74 71, M Antcliff (Aus) 69 70 72,
212 J Guerrier (Fra) 71 70 71, S Brown (Eng) 70 71 71, J Dantorp (Swe) 69 68 75, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 72 70 70, A Saddier (Fra) 68 70 74, B Virto (Esp) 69 73 70, M Schwab (Aut) 68 70 74,
213 C Braeunig (Ger) 71 71 71, J Hansen (Den) 71 69 73, S Forsström (Swe) 74 67 72,
214 P Oriol (Esp) 69 67 78, M Lundberg (Swe) 66 74 74, C Ford (Eng) 73 69 72, M Ovesen (Den) 75 70 69, M Fenasse (Fra) 69 72 73, C Mivis (Bel) 69 74 71,
215 P Howard (Eng) 67 71 77, V Perez (Fra) 74 68 73, L Gagli (Ita) 71 68 76, M Madsen (Den) 72 71 72, R Saxton (Ned) 70 73 72, C Zi-Hao (Chn) 70 71 74,
216 A Pavan (Ita) 71 72 73, T Pulkkanen (Fin) 74 70 72, M Kinhult (Swe) 72 72 72, G Forrest (Sco) 72 69 75, W Hongfu (Chn) 70 75 71,
217 J Geary (Nzl) 72 71 74, D Lee (Kor) 76 69 72, T Sato (Jpn) 69 76 72,
218 D Foos (Ger) 72 71 75, G Porteous (Eng) 72 72 74, R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 69 75 74, J Heath (Eng) 67 72 79, H Wen-Yi (Chn) 75 70 73,
219 M Perry (Nzl) 72 73 74, J Arnoy (Nor) 74 71 74, M Webb (Eng) 74 71 74, B Macpherson (Aus) 71 73 75, J Doherty (Sco) 74 71 74, Y Jian-Feng (Chn) 73 70 76, T Rongjian (Chn) 70 72 77,
220 O Lindell (Fin) 73 71 76,
221 Y Tian (Chn) 71 73 77, T Murray (Eng) 72 73 76,
222 J Senior (Eng) 74 71 77,
225 Y Yi-Nong (Chn) 71 73 81,
** Z Jin (Chn) 70 73 WD,
146 O Lengden (Swe) 74 72 0, R Ree (USA) 69 77 0, R Kellett (Sco) 72 74 0, F Shiyu (Chn) 75 71 0, M Ford (Eng) 70 76 0, F Laporta (Ita) 70 76 0, O Stark (Swe) 75 71 0, N Geyger (Chi) 72 74 0, S Jung (Can) 72 74 0, X Bowen (Chn) 73 73 0,
147 M Wiegele (Aut) 72 75 0, C Changping (Chn) 70 77 0, J Sjöholm (Swe) 75 72 0, M Tullo (Chi) 75 72 0, E Goya (Arg) 71 76 0, M Orrin (Eng) 78 69 0, D Lawson (Aus) 74 73 0, N Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 78 69 0,
148 Y Hao (Chn) 73 75 0, C Wood (Aus) 75 73 0, L Xuen-Cheng (Chn) 74 74 0, C Hai-Meng (Chn) 69 79 0, B Hafthorsson (Isl) 77 71 0, M Baldwin (Eng) 73 75 0, R Santos (Por) 72 76 0, T Linard (Fra) 73 75 0, Z Zi-Hong (Chn) 75 73 0,
149 J Da-Xing (Chn) 74 75 0, S Hak (Hkg) 75 74 0, M McCardle (Aus) 78 71 0,
150 M Cheng-Yao (Chn) 77 73 0, L Chun (Chn) 75 75 0, G Charoenkul (Tha) 77 73 0,
152 Z Shang (Chn) 73 79 0, J Girrbach (Sui) 76 76 0,
153 X Qin (Chn) 80 73 0, S Zi-Han (Chn) 76 77 0, Z Wei-Yu (Chn) 76 77 0,
154 W Yanzhang (Chn) 78 76 0,
155 A Belt (Eng) 78 77 0, L Xiaofei (Chn) 75 80 0,
156 W Tu-Xuan (Chn) 77 79 0, W Ziting (Chn) 77 79 0, C Xiao Zhong (Chn) 77 79 0,
157 L Gui-Ming (Chn) 79 78 0, H Ze-Yu (Chn) 75 82 0, Z Zhu (Chn) 79 78 0,
159 L Xiao-Qi (Chn) 79 80 0, Z Guo-Wu (Chn) 80 79 0,
161 M Yiyuan (Chn) 77 84 0, H Ren (Chn) 79 82 0,
162 W Chang-Wei (Chn) 83 79 0,
163 H Jia Pei (Chn) 87 76 0,
166 D Chen Xiao (Chn) 85 81 0,
171 L Zhong Qiu (Chn) 88 83 0,
** M Skelton (Eng) 68 RT 0, S Dong (Chn) 84 WD 0, Z Jia (Chn) 81 RT 0, C Ding-Gen (Chn) 79 RT 0, H Shao-Cai (Chn) RT 0 0, H Zeming (Chn) RT 0 0,
Leave a comment