McGee and Selfridge in Kazakhstan money chase
Sebastien Gros. Picture by Phil Inglis
Ruaidhri McGee and Chris Selfridge are nine shots off the lead but still very much engaged heading into the final round of the €450,000 Kazakhstan Open in Almaty.
McGee shot a level par 72 and Selfridge a 70 to leave them tied for 38th on two under at Nurtau Golf Club but with a huge prize fund to chase, they have a lot still to play for
At 17th in the Road to Oman rankings, McGee is close to the Top 15 who will win automatic promotion to the European Tour at the end of the season while 52nd ranked Selfridge needs the cash to give himself a chance of making the 45-man Grand Final.
At the top of affairs, Sebastien Gros reaffirmed his status as one of the European Challenge Tour’s players of the season, carding a two under par 70 to muscle his way into a share of the lead alongside overnight leader Sihwan Kim (72) of the US and Denmark’s Mads Søgaard (69) on 11 under par.
Currently third in the Road to Oman Rankings. Gros won the Najeti Open Presented by Neuflize OBC earlier this year, though he does not think this will mean much in the final round.
“I wouldn’t necessarily give myself an advantage,” said the 25 year old. “Even though I have won this year, I’ve not always been very good when I’ve been in contention before. Maybe for those other guys it’s something they think about though.
“Golf can be so different from day to day, you can even have a bad last round without actually choking, so I’m not worrying about tomorrow, I’m just happy about my day and to be in contention.
“This round was a bit different from the two others. I had a few more difficulties on some of the greens, but obviously it’s great to be in contention for a big tournament like this.
“A week ago I would have definitely taken being co-leader with one round to play so, even though I could have probably had a better score, I’m happy with where I am right now.
“The greens are hard to read. The heat has affected a few of them, and then the ones in the shade are much slower, so this could be why the scoring has been more difficult today.
“The scoring on Thursday was very strange though, and was just one of those days. I played well and was still four shots behind the second place players, and they all just had one of those rounds that maybe happens once a season – it just happened on the same day for all of them.
“It’s not a course where 20 under par will win it, more like 15 or 16 under par, so the scoring right now is probably about right. And I’ll probably need to get to 16 under par tomorrow to have a chance to win.”
The round of the day went to Gros’ compatriot Clément Sordet, whose 66 propelled him up the leaderboard into fourth place, just one behind the leaders.
Sordet took a stunning maiden victory at last month’s Northern Irish Open in Association with Sphere Global and Ulster Bank and he hopes those memories can fuel another win tomorrow.
“Today I just needed a round like this to get close to the lead and hopefully give myself a shot at winning tomorrow,” said the 22 year old.
“I was thinking this morning about when I won in Northern Ireland and how I came through the field on the weekend. It happened once, why can’t it happen again? I wasn’t thinking about the score at all but I ended up on six under, so a very good round.”
There are 16 players within five shots of the leaders on a bunched leaderboard as the hard ground and firm greens made scoring more challenging than earlier in the week, but it sets up a thrilling final day for the biggest event of the Challenge Tour season.
Scores after round 3:
205 M Søgaard (Den) 64 72 69, S Gros (Fra) 68 67 70, S Kim (USA) 64 69 72,
206 C Sordet (Fra) 69 71 66,
208 G Murray (Sco) 72 69 67, W Harrold (Eng) 67 73 68, C Shinkwin (Eng) 69 69 70,
209 J Sarasti (Esp) 71 71 67, J Hansen (Den) 63 73 73, B Åkesson (Swe) 74 69 66, T Tree (Eng) 67 70 72, R Davies (Wal) 70 69 70,
210 P Whiteford (Sco) 70 71 69, J Makitalo (Fin) 69 71 70, R Coles (Eng) 69 74 67, J Winther (Den) 66 72 72, T Linard (Fra) 73 69 68, J McLeary (Sco) 68 69 73, J Fahrbring (Swe) 68 69 73,
211 J Guerrier (Fra) 69 71 71, J Sjöholm (Swe) 75 68 68, D Im (USA) 72 69 70, S Norris (RSA) 68 67 76, G Porteous (Eng) 72 70 69,
212 S Soderberg (Swe) 69 69 74, A Saddier (Fra) 71 69 72, H Joannes (Bel) 69 73 70, H Porteous (RSA) 70 71 71,
213 S Fallon (Eng) 72 70 71, D Palm (Swe) 73 70 70, J Stalter (Fra) 70 73 70, L Gagli (Ita) 72 72 69, J Robinson (Eng) 71 68 74, J Glennemo (Swe) 74 70 69, D Coupland (Eng) 69 69 75, E Cuartero Blanco (Esp) 71 71 71, J Huldahl (Den) 72 70 71,
214 Ruaidhri McGee (Irl) 70 72 72, Chris Selfridge (Nir) 69 75 70, G Boyd (Eng) 70 73 71, S Heisele (Ger) 74 70 70, M Schneider (Ger) 75 67 72, S Brown (Eng) 69 75 70, J Doherty (Sco) 69 68 77, S Jeppesen (Swe) 72 70 72, R Gouveia (Por) 74 67 73, J Heath (Eng) 71 72 71,
215 R McGowan (Eng) 70 72 73, P Relecom (Bel) 73 70 72, B Virto Astudillo (Esp) 72 70 73, J Hahn (USA) 75 69 71,
216 C Aguilar (Esp) 74 70 72, J Dantorp (Swe) 70 73 73,
217 E Saltman (Sco) 74 69 74, S Manley (Wal) 71 73 73, S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 73 71 73, N Bertasio (Ita) 76 68 73, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 75 69 73, C Hanson (Eng) 69 74 74, S Arnold (Aus) 71 70 76,
218 A Gee (Eng) 71 71 76, R Evans (Eng) 70 72 76,
219 A McArthur (Sco) 76 68 75,
220 O Stark (Swe) 74 70 76,
221 M Delpodio (Ita) 72 70 79, J Gonnet (Fra) 72 71 7
