Michael Hoey had mixed emotions yesterday after his 67 left him two shots off the Russian Open lead, lamenting after 15 birdies in 36 holes that he should have been better off than two-shots adrift of leader Rikard Karlberg.
The public pep talk worked, it seems, because this afternoon he sits five shots ahead of the Swede after a seven-under-par 65 that saw him card six birdies, one eagle and just the one bogey at Tsaleevo Golf Club near Moscow.
Karlberg could only shoot a level par 72 and was joined in second by England’s Matthew Nixon (68).
His fellow Swede Oscar Floren (66) was the only one to come within one shot of Hoey's score, while David Higgins (76) and Gareth Shaw (70) are the remaining Irishmen and both are two under.
South Africa’s James Kingston and France’s Alexandre Kaleka are on eight under, while JB Hansen, Mikko Korhonen and James Morrison were in a three-way tie for sixth place on seven-under-par.
Hoey has four European Tour victories to his name, the last coming in the Trophee Hassan II in 2012, but the 34-year-old has not finished better than 25th on European Tour so far this season and missed seven of his last 10 cuts coming into the event.
Hoey admitted that, to some extent, things just fell for him today.
“It was one of those days where everything went my way for the most part,” Hoey told europeantour.com. “I played really well and was swinging the club well, but I got a few breaks here and there that really helped the score.
“I holed a 70-foot putt on the ninth for example — that’s was probably the biggest break I had out there. You just don’t really expect to hole those ones so that was a bit of a bonus. I am making a lot of putts this week and that is always the difference at this level. It’s all about putting.”
However, Hoey knows anything could still happen on the final day, and he is not yet contemplating his fifth European Tour win.
He said: “Obviously I have a good lead but you just can’t take it for granted. Things went my way today but it might be someone else’s day tomorrow. I am just going to go out there and try to enjoy it. I have been in positions to win before and finished it off and that will help a bit, but you still need to hit the shots and hole the putts.”
Russian Open scores
202 Michael Hoey 70 67 65
207 Matthew Nixon 69 70 68, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 67 68 72
208 James Kingston (Rsa) 71 69 68, Alexandre Kaleka (Fra) 70 67 71
209 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 72 70 67, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 69 70 70, James Morrison 68 71 70
210 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 72 71 67, Matthew Baldwin 68 69 73, Mark Foster 69 69 72
211 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 70 71 70, Gary Lockerbie 72 70 69, Chris Paisley 72 71 68, Oscar Floren (Swe) 76 69 66
212 Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 72 69, Matteo Delpodio (Ita) 69 74 69, Simon Dyson 67 74 71, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 71 71 70, Wen-Chong Liang (Chn) 67 70 75, Gregory Havret (Fra) 72 70 70
213 Scott Hend (Aus) 70 69 74, David Horsey 70 72 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 69 73 71
214 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 71 71 72, Jamie Elson 71 71 72, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 68 73 73, Mark Tullo (Chi) 74 69 71, Soren Hansen (Den) 77 67 70, Richard McEvoy 74 71 69, Nils Floren (Swe) 71 75 68
215 Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 70 72 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 70 73 72, Jake Roos (Rsa) 70 71 74, Sam Little 69 72 74, Simon Wakefield 73 68 74, Alexander Levy (Fra) 72 72 71
216 Romain Wattel (Fra) 72 72 72, Richard Finch 73 74 69, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 73 69, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 74 74 68, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 72 72 72, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 70 73 73, Chris Lloyd 71 73 72 217 Joel Sjoholm (Swe) 78 69 70, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 74 73 70, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 71 76 70, Andreas Harto (Den) 70 71 76, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 73 74 70
218 Martin Wiegele (Aut) 72 72 74, Gareth Shaw 71 77 70, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 71 74 73, David Higgins 71 71 76
219 Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 74 71 74, Scott Henry 73 73 73
220 Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 73 71 76, Jurgen Maurer (Aut) 71 74 75, Alastair Forsyth 74 73 73, Tom Lewis 71 74 75
222 Matthew Southgate 73 74 75, Pablo Martin Benavides (Spa) 70 77 75 223 Javier Colomo (Spa) 68 79 76, Daniel Brooks 77 71 75
224 Tommy Fleetwood 72 76 76, Jack Singh brar 77 66 81, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 78 70 76
225 Callum Macaulay 72 76 77
227 Sebi Garcia (Spa) 75 71 81
