Peter Lawrie rallied late in the day to salvage a 77 but his hopes of winning back his European Tour card suffered a major blow in tough third round conditions at the Trophée Hassan II.

Just two shots behind leader Francesco Laporta at halfway, the Dubliner had a nightmare start to his third round by following bogeys at the first, fourth and eighth with a double bogey six at the ninth to be out in 40.

He plummeted down the leaderboard when two more shots went at the 12th and 13th. But to his credit, he birdied the 15th and 16th and followed another bogey at the 16th with a birdie four at the last.

His 77 left him tied for 26th, three shots outside the Top 10 and only seven behind  European Tour rookie Chris Hanson, who shot 67 in  tough scoring conditions at Royal Dar Es Salam in Rabat. 

A stiff breeze meant just 19 players broke par on day three of the €1.5 million event, with Qualifying School graduate Hanson separating himself from the pack courtesy of a 67 – the joint lowest round of the week.

The highlight of Hanson’s day was a chip-in eagle on the 12th hole, and the 30 year old – who finished fourth in a Challenge Tour event in Madrid last week – added five birdies to move to six under par.    

Greystones’ Paul Dunne made the cut on the mark and then took advantage of that by carding five birdies in a superb 69 to clamber his way back to one over alongside Lawrie into a tie for 26th.

Dunne has also picked up another sponsor with Bank of Ireland coming in recently for the next two years to join KPMG, Audemars Piguet, Davy, Footjoy-Titleist and the the Hartl Resort in Bad Griesbach.

He also appears to be wearing the logo of former US college UAB.

Gary Hurley shot a three over 75 to be 57th on six over with Kevin Phelan, who signed for a 78.

Hanson’s nearest challengers are fellow Englishman David Dixon, who matched Hanson’s round of 67, and Frenchman Clément Berardo, who shot a 68. 

Another Englishman, Josh White, heads into the final round two shots off the pace in fourth place after signing for a round of 70.  

Poignantly, five years to the day since Seve Ballesteros’ death, White’s clubs were carried by Pedro Ramseyer, who was the late, great Spaniard’s last ever caddie on The European Tour.

Overnight leader Francesco Laporta endured a day to forget, shooting a four over par round of 76 to slip back to two under par.

Chris Hanson

“I can’t say I was confident of shooting that kind of score today, but I’ve been playing pretty well lately and today it all came together nicely. I got rewarded for playing some good golf today, which doesn’t always happen so it’s nice when it does.

“I got a bit lucky, because I hit my chip a bit hard but it hit the pin and dropped in. But on a course like this, you need every bit of luck that comes your way.”

David Dixon

“You really do just have to take it one hole at a time and try to keep your ball in play on this course. I managed to do that today, and it was pretty stress-free golf.

“I didn’t get many starts at the beginning of the season, but hopefully I’ve got a bit of a run of events coming up, so it’d be a good time to find a bit of form and start climbing the rankings.”

Clement Berardo

“It’s a very tough course, so you have no choice but to stay patient. The rough is very thick and the fairways are very narrow, so there’s danger on almost every hole.

“I got a flier on the 13th and the ball landed 30 yards over the green. I duffed my first chip, but then chipped in for par. It was probably a little bit lucky, but I will take it because you need some luck sometimes.”

Josh White

"Pedro’s a top man, and he’s definitely saved me some shots this week. He told me this morning on the putting green that Seve had died five years ago today, and he was in the back of our minds today. I needed some Seve hands on some of my recovery shots today, and having Pedro on the bag was a bit of an inspiration for me.”

Round Three Scores

210 C Hanson (Eng) 72 71 67, 

211 D Dixon (Eng) 73 71 67, C Berardo (Fra) 70 73 68,

212 J White (Eng) 73 69 70,

213 J Wang (Kor) 71 68 74,

214 R Rock (Eng) 74 70 70, J Scrivener (Aus) 68 71 75, M Korhonen (Fin) 70 73 71, N Elvira  (Esp) 71 71 72, E Goya (Arg) 69 75 70, F Laporta (Ita) 68 70 76, A Saddier (Fra) 69 72 73,

215 K Mueck (Aus) 72 70 73, B Vierte Astudillo (Esp) 69 70 76, N Bertasio (Ita) 72 72 71, J Lima  (Por) 72 70 73, S Benson (Eng) 72 71 72, R Paratore (Ita) 70 76 69, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 72 70 73, S Henry  (Sco) 71 71 73,

216 C Shinkwin (Eng) 74 69 73, M Southgate  (Eng) 72 73 71, D Burmesen (RSA) 71 74 71, O Fisher  (Eng) 74 70 72, G King (Eng) 71 70 75,

217 Peter Lawrie (Irl) 71 69 77, M Orrin (Eng) 71 75 71, D Frittelli (RSA) 72 75 70, D Papadatos (Aus) 72 74 71, A Levy (Fra) 71 75 71, B Åkesson (Swe) 73 73 71, J Senior (Eng) 72 70 75, M Nixon (Eng) 75 72 70, D Im (USA) 71 69 77, Paul Dunne (Irl) 72 76 69, Z Lombard  (RSA) 70 70 77,

218 L Nemecz (Aut) 77 67 74, N Marsh  (Eng) 73 72 73, D Brooks (Eng) 77 71 70, R McEvoy  (Eng) 73 71 74, 

219 A Cañizares  (Esp) 71 72 76, L Jensen (Den) 71 74 74, A Quiros  (Esp) 75 71 73, F Serghini  (Mar) 71 72 76, A Wall (Eng) 75 71 73, 

220 M Lorenzo-Vera  (Fra) 69 76 75, A Otaegui  (Esp) 74 70 76, T Pilkadaris (Aus) 76 72 72, A Johnston (Eng) 70 74 76, M Manassero (Ita) 72 73 75, T Linard (Fra) 68 77 75, S Webster (Eng) 74 72 74, B Hebert  (Fra) 76 72 72, 

221 P Peterson (USA) 71 72 78, R Jacquelin (Fra) 73 73 75, T Lewis (Eng) 71 75 75, 

222 S Griffiths (Eng) 74 74 74, G Bourdy (Fra) 74 74 74, Gary Hurley (Irl) 71 76 75, B Eccles (Aus) 70 75 77, Kevin Phelan (Irl) 70 74 78, P Gustafsson (Swe) 72 76 74, T Muto (Jpn) 71 75 76, T Sinnott (Aus) 75 72 75, 

223 C Doak (Sco) 72 73 78, S Gros (Fra) 77 70 76, J Carlsson (Swe) 75 72 76, J Knutzon (USA) 74 74 75, E Molinari  (Ita) 76 72 75, 

224 R Fox (Nzl) 74 74 76, S Kapur (Ind) 72 73 79, 

225 J Hugo  (RSA) 76 72 77, S Manley (Wal) 77 71 77, 

226 C Bouniol (Fra) 76 72 78, 

231 Y El Hassani (Mar) 69 79 83, 

** E Pepperell (Eng) 73 74 RT