Caldwell leads in Normandy with Kearney lurking
Oliver Farr. Picture: Getty
Jonathan Caldwell, Oliver Farr and Darren Fichardt will share a one stroke lead heading into the final round of the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge at Golf PGA France du Vaudreuil.
Northern Irishman Caldwell carded a five under par round of 67 which included an eagle on the 14th and a birdie-birdie finish to reach ten under par for the week.
Fichardt, from South Africa, played the front nine in level par before registering four birdies and two bogeys coming home to sign for a two under par round of 70 and join Caldwell at ten under.
Welshman Farr, who began the day one off the lead alongside Fichardt, made inroads at the earliest opportunity when he birdied the difficult par four first. Despite a bogey at the eighth, back-to-back gains at the 11th and 12th gave him the outright lead before a bogey at the last saw him join Caldwell and Fichardt on ten under par.
Farr, a three-time winner on the Challenge Tour, is looking forward to being in contention again on a Sunday having last tasted victory back in 2019.
“It feels like I haven’t been at the top of the leaderboard for a while,” he said. “It was nice to see that I was up there after two days and after three days I’m still up there competing to try and win this thing.
“I made some good birdies and even though I didn’t quite have my game how I wanted it, I battled well. I’ll just try and do more of what I’ve done the last three days. I haven’t done anything too spectacular, but hopefully more of the same will be enough on the last day.”
The 35-year-old has had a mixed season on the Road to Mallorca, registering back-to-back top ten finishes in March, then missing the cut in his last six outings before arriving in France. With blustery conditions in Normandy, Farr is enjoying the tactical challenge of plotting his way around the course.
“You’ve got to think your way around this course,” he added. “I definitely would’ve taken that score at the start of the day.
“It wasn’t easy out there. There was a lot of wind and this course is fiddly at times without any wind, so today was extra tricky. Whenever you see that it’s windy and rainy, you know you’re going to have to really grind.”
Englishman Richard McEvoy, who won the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge five years ago in 2018, signed for a bogey-free four under par round of 68 to move into fourth place, one shot off the leaders.
Three players share fifth on eight under par, including Portugal’s Tomas Gouveia, South African Yurav Premlall and Swede Christopher Feldborg, with English duo Jamie Rutherford and Ashley Chesters, Ireland’s Niall Kearney and Italian Lorenzo Scalise one shot further back in eighth on six under par.
The final round gets underway at 7:20am local time with Caldwell, Farr and Fichardt teeing off at 11:33.
