Ferrie shoots 60 as McGinley eyes top finish

Paul McGinley tees off on the 16th during the third round of the Open de Andalucia. (Photo Eoin Clarke/Golffile 2011)Paul McGinley goes into the final round of the Open de Andalucia chasing his first top-10 finish for 18 months.

The Dubliner, 44, hit a bogey free, four under par 66 on Saturday to get to five under par and share 23rd place, seven strokes behind leader Paul Lawrie.

McGinley’s best finish last season was a share of 14th place in the Irish Open in Killarney while his last top-10 came in 2009, when he was ninth in the Dunhill Links Championship.

Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion, shot a bogey free 65 to lead by a shot from England’s Mark Foster and Kenny Ferrie, who came within inches of carding the European Tour’s first 59.

After an eagle and seven birdies in the first 17 holes of the par-70 Parador course, Ferrie needed to hole his six-iron approach to the 449-yard last and from the right-hand rough it trickled past the edge of the cup.

He tapped in to become the 14th player to shoot 60 on The European Tour without the help of preferred lies since Italian Baldovino Dassu was the first to do it 40 years ago.

“It was unspectacular, but it added up to a spectacular score,” Ferrie said.

“You’d expect somebody with such a low score to have holed putts and hit spectacular shots, but it was just a very steady round - lots of fairways, lots of greens and a lot of wedge shots to four or five feet which I managed to knock in.

“Some days you shoot 70 and you are doing cartwheels and are over the moon, but I don’t feel I did anything above and beyond.

“I realised that if I finished birdie-birdie-birdie it would have been 59, but 16 and 18 are strong holes and if you get out of position on them you are going to struggle to make pars.

“My six iron at the last looked very good and when it landed I got a little bit excited, but I would gladly have taken 60 with three to play.”