MADEIRA OPEN: Estanislao Goya put himself in a commanding position to clinch the Madeira Island Open after a third-round two-under-par 69 gave him a three-shot lead heading into the final day tomorrow. Goya trailed overnight leader Michael Hoey at the start of today's round on Porto Santo but capitalised on his rivals' slip-ups to lie three strokes ahead of Damien McGrane.
On a day of mediocre scoring among the leading players, Hoey, a former British amateur champion, quickly relinquished his lead by dropping a shot at the first hole and despite birdieing the second, he dropped two shots at the par-four third.
Two birdies at eight and nine briefly narrowed the gap behind Goya but Hoey then suffered a double-bogey at the 10th. A birdie at the par-three 15th limited the damage but he ended the day with another bogey and had to settle for a disappointing 75.
Goya carded two bogeys in each of his two previous rounds of 68 and that trend continued today, with four birdies keeping him his card under par.
McGrane, four under at the start of the day, was his closest challenger after a 70 today.
The Meath man could have slipped out of contention early on when he bogeyed two of his opening five holes but he recovered with a birdie at the eighth and three more on the back nine.
Co Donegal’s Michael McGeady was even better placed heading into the third round, a 69 and 67 leaving him one shot off Hoey’s overnight lead — but having finished yesterday’s round with a double-bogey at the last, he started the day in similar fashion to plummet down the leaderboard.
Back-to-back double bogeys at three and four and four further bogeys contributed to a poor six-over 77, leaving him level par overall.
Sweden’s Joakim Haeggman was another player to drop off the pace having occupied a promising position, with a 75 dropping him back four shots to two under.
Callum Macaulay of Scotland found some form to fire four birdies and an eagle in a four-under 67 — the best score of the day — to leave him two over.
Collated Scores
205Estanislao Goya (Arg) 68 68 69
208 Damien McGrane66 72 70
209Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 65 71
210 Michael Hoey69 66 75
211Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 66 70 75, Wil Besseling (Ned) 69 72 70
212Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 72 69 71
213 Michael McGeady69 67 77
214Anthony Wall 72 69 73
215Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 75 71, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 74 69, David Drysdale 72 72 71, Callum Macaulay 74 74 67, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 72 74 69, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 68 72
216Andrew Butterfield 68 73 75, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 72 73, Richard McEvoy 70 75 71, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 73 72 71, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 76 69
217Richard Bland 78 64 75, Stuart Davis 70 71 76, Alvaro Velasco (Spa) 69 74 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 70 76, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 76 72 69
218Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 71 71 76, Ake Nilsson (Rsa) 73 74 71, Marcel Siem (Ger) 75 70 73, David Horsey 73 73 72, Scott Drummond 71 71 76, Anthony Snobeck (Fra) 75 69 74, Carl Suneson (Spa) 68 72 78, Gary Boyd 72 76 70, Inder Van Weerelt (Ned) 75 72 71
219Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 74 70 75, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 69 76
220Martin Wiegele (Aut) 76 69 75, Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 74 72 74, Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 70 75 75, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 76 72 72, Robert Coles 74 74 72, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 72 73 75, Paul Broadhurst 70 72 78, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 78 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 76 71 73
221Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 74 69 78, Roope Kakko (Fin) 74 72 75, Liam Bond 75 69 77, Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 73 70 78, Branden Grace (Rsa) 72 72 77, Klas Eriksson (Swe) 74 74 73, John E Morgan 74 74 73, Iain Pyman 76 70 75, Ricardo Santos (Por) 74 73 74
222Julien Clement (Swi) 77 71 74, Antonio Sobrinho (Por) 75 73 74, Michele Reale (Ita) 71 73 78, Matthew Mills 73 70 79, Bradley Dredge 72 74 76
223Gary Clark 71 73 79, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 75 77, Adilson Da Silva (Bra) 72 76 75, Paul Waring 69 74 80
224Garry Houston 71 73 80
225Richie Ramsay 73 74 78, Nathan T Smith (USA) 75 72 78, Nuno Campino (Por) 79 69 77, Phillip Price 75 73 77, Javier Colomo (Spa) 71 74 80, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 77 69 79
226Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 76 71 79
227Petter Bocian (Swe) 78 69 80, David Griffiths 72 74 81, Costantino Rocca (Ita) 72 76 79
