Hurley chasing top 10 in Portugal

England's Matt Wallace. Picture: Getty Images

West Waterford's Gary Hurley is tied for 20th heading into the final round of the Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort.

The former Walker Cup star dropped two shots early on but birdied the ninth, 13th, 15th and 16th to move to within two shots of the top 10 on eight under par after a two under 71 in the third round 

England's Matt Wallace takes a three-shot lead into the final round
after a level par 73 left him on 20-under par.

The 27-year-old was promoted to the Challenge Tour after winning six times on the Alps Tour last term, including a run of five successive victories.

He retained his five-shot overnight advantage when the second round was completed on Saturday morning, but admitted to struggling in the wind in Portimão as a third round 73 left the door slightly ajar for the chasing pack.

Two opening pars at the start of his third round saw the Englishman take his bogey-free run to 38 holes, but having overcome a bogey on the third with a birdie at the next, he dropped another shot at the sixth.

He birdied the ninth for the third time this week to turn in a level par 36, but both of his gains on the back nine were swiftly followed by bogeys.

German Sebastian Heisele closed within three with a third round 71, with England's Sam Walker third on 13 under after producing seven birdies in his 68. 

Matthieu Pavon of France is one shot further back on 12 under.

Matt Wallace

"It wasn't very good today, I lost a bit of rhythm out there and just struggled to get it round. I would have liked to have been a couple better and that would have given me more of a cushion going into tomorrow.

"I’m not really satisfied with the score and the way I played, but it could have been much worse out there for me today. I battled really hard and made some good putts to save some pars.

“Hopefully I can put as much effort in tomorrow as I did today, play a bit better, and hopefully I'll be here tomorrow with the trophy.

"This week is the best I've probably ever played, so I'm going to take that confidence into tomorrow.”

Sebastian Heisele

“It was a solid round, but slow in a way. I didn’t really get much going and my putting wasn’t quite there either.

“I had a few near misses here and there but I didn’t have too many chances and the few that I did have I didn’t make the most of.

“I didn’t play as well as I did for the first two days, so I’ll need something low tomorrow, I know that. Matt is just going to keep doing his thing. I’ll try to get a few shots back tomorrow, early obviously to build some pressure, and take it from there.”

Sam Walker

“I just played steadily. I holed a good putt on the par three fifth for birdie off the green and it just got my game going. I bogied the eighth, but I hit a good shot in and I was just unfortunate.

“I recovered from that quite quickly. I birdied the ninth and then just went on a run with a few more birdies at ten and 13 to get myself to six under for the day.

“I just played consistently, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just hit one bad shot out there which cost me a bogie on 17. Other than that I just played nicely and kept myself in the game.”

Matthieu Pavon

“I made a bad three putt on the first, but I actually didn’t play too badly there, I got to about nine feet and just had a bad putt.

“I know there are many birdie opportunities on the course so I stayed calm and patient and I was successful afterwards.

“I played steadily, I actually didn’t have a lot of momentum today. I didn’t have any big moments, but I played better than I did on the first two days.  It was disappointing to drop a shot on the last, but tomorrow I just need to try to hole some more putts.”

Round Three Scores 

202 M Wallace (Eng) 63 66 73, 

205 S Heisele (Ger) 64 70 71, 

206 S Walker (Eng) 69 69 68, 

207 M Pavon (Fra) 68 69 70, 

208 T Pulkkanen (Fin) 69 70 69, 

209 O Fisher (Eng) 69 72 68, J Lima (Por) 67 71 71, M Armitage (Eng) 70 68 71, B Evans (Eng) 68 68 73, M Foster (Eng) 70 72 67, E Van Rooyen (RSA) 68 69 72, J Suri (USA) 67 68 74, 

210 M Tullo (Chi) 68 70 72, R Evans (Eng) 71 68 71, M Ford (Eng) 70 69 71, J Garcia Pinto (Esp) 70 73 67, J Rutherford (Eng) 67 68 75, R Rock (Eng) 69 69 72, P Oriol (Esp) 68 70 72, 

211 C Ford (Eng) 73 68 70, Gary Hurley (Irl) 71 69 71, T Lewis (Eng) 71 70 70, L Canter (Eng) 70 68 73,

212 R Kakko (Fin) 70 70 72, J Abbott (Eng) 70 71 71, T Linard (Fra) 68 75 69, A Chesters (Eng) 66 71 75, A Saddier (Fra) 68 71 73, 

213 M Lampert (Ger) 71 70 72, C Braeunig (Ger) 68 69 76, J Ahlers (RSA) 71 70 72, J Dantorp (Swe) 69 73 71, G Forrest (Sco) 70 67 76, M Baldwin (Eng) 71 69 73, 

214 M Orrin (Eng) 69 73 72, A Tadini (Ita) 73 70 71, L Gagli (Ita) 75 67 72, J Allan (Eng) 68 72 74, S Brown (Eng) 73 69 72, R Coles (Eng) 70 69 75, E Goya (Arg) 71 68 75, S Fernandez (Esp) 69 72 73, O Stark (Swe) 73 70 71, J Winther (Den) 71 71 72, A Meronk (Pol) 71 72 71, R Santos (Por) 71 69 74, 

215 D Drysdale (Sco) 70 72 73, P Maddy (Eng) 67 72 76, J Edfors (Swe) 73 68 74, M Nixon (Eng) 69 72 74, D Van Driel (Ned) 67 75 73, S Khan (Eng) 73 70 72, P Widegren (Swe) 73 70 72, P Lawrie (Sco) 72 70 73, Z Lombard (RSA) 70 70 75, P Figueiredo (Por) 75 68 72, D Foos (Ger) 72 69 74, 

216 W Besseling (Ned) 67 73 76, D Perrier (Fra) 70 72 74, T Fisher Jnr (RSA) 69 69 78, S Webster (Eng) 74 69 73, A Rai (Eng) 70 72 74, 

217 B Eccles (Aus) 72 71 74, R Davies (Wal) 69 72 76, 

218 N Cullen (Aus) 71 72 75, J Senior (Eng) 70 72 76, A Quiros (Esp) 70 73 75, A Pavan (Ita) 72 71 75, 

219 F Mruzek (Cze) 68 72 79, D Fox (Aus) 71 72 76, B Virto (Esp) 70 73 76, 

220 S Soderberg (Swe) 75 67 78, D Stewart (Sco) 74 69 77