From Paul Gallagher at the K-Club
Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn made an early morning charge on the leaders after carding a seven-under par 65 in the third round of the Smurfit European Open at the K-Club today.
The Dane had a burst offour birdies in a row from the second to reach the turn in four-under 31.From there the 30-year-old notched up three more birdies on the home stretch and moved to seven-under for the tournament.
Bjorn is joined by Colin Montgomerie who set about rectifying a subdued level par 72 with a fast start of his own.Last week’s winner of the Irish Open birdied the first, third and fifth to get within five of the overnight leader, Sweden’s Fredrik Lundberg, who leads on 12-under.
The 27-year-old Swede got his round underway just after 2 p.m. while Darren Clarke, on eight-under, was joined immediately by Padraig Harrington after the Dubliner opened with a birdie three on the first hole.
Earlier in the day, Damien McGrane threatened to move under par, but the Wexford professional had to settle for a second successive level par round to remain on one-over.
It was a similar situation for Eamonn Darcy who started the day on level par and stayed that way as the Druids Glen touring professional shot a level par 72.
The defending champion Lee Westwood could not find any sort of his true form.After scraping in on the cut mark of one-over, Westwood immediately dropped shots at the first two holes and had to eventually settle for a one-over par 73 to drop to two-over overall.
