Alex Maguire is determined to turn a season of near misses into a winning one as he tees off the final round of the MENA Tour’s Al Houara Classic in a share of the lead.
Maguire is six-under-par with Joseph Pagdin and one shot clear of former DP World Tour winner and Ryder Cup player Chris Wood while Mark Power is part of a group of players at four-under.
Maguire battled hard in the 40km/h winds and ground out a 71 which two birdies and two bogeys on his front nine and a solid inward half where he birdied the 14th.
The Laytown & Bettystown man has had finishes of 7th, 10th, 3rd and 12th this season and he hopes today will be his time to clinch a first pro victory.
“When you’ve got a 40-kilometre wind off the left or right, you’re not firing at flags, you’re aiming for the fat part of the green because if it gets knocked down or pushed, you can short-side yourself very quickly,” he said. “If it dies down tomorrow, you can definitely be more aggressive and I think the course will play easier – with the quality of players here, it could turn into a bit of a birdie fest.
“I feel like I’ve been knocking on the door for a while now and being in those positions has been a huge learning curve. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll knock on the door again and this time it opens.”
Mount Juliet’s Power can’t be ruled out after back to back 70s put him within two shots of the lead while 2017 Walker Cup player Paul McBride is inside the top-10 on one-under after rounds of 74 and 69 and a low one today could put him in the mix.
Marc Boucher made the cut on plus ten.
Scoring HERE
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