Four fomer Irish Open winners – England’s Ross Fisher, winner of the Irish Open in 2010, Ireland’s own Shane Lowry (2009), England’s Richard Finch (2008) and New Zealand’s Michael Campbell (2oo3) – are primed to deny talented Austrian Bernd Weisberger this week’s Portugal Masters title.
Weisberger, a winner this year of the Ballantine’s Championship in Korea and the Lyonness Open in his native Austria, will take a one stroke lead into the final round of the event being played on the Oceanico Victoria course at Vilamoura on Portugal’s sun-drenched Algarve.
The Vienna-born Weisberger brushed past Fisher with four birdies in succession from the 11th hole in an eventual round of 65 that included just 28 putts.
Shane Lowry looks up at the leader board to see he is among four former Irish Open winners chasing Austrian Bernd Weisberger in the Portugal Masters. (Photo – Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ie)
Fisher (69) has shaken off an injury he sustained earlier in the week when he slipped off the first tee, to be in second place on 12-under and just three behind is the fellow Irish Open winning trio of Lowry (67), Campbell (67) and Finch (66).
Fisher commented: “It was a little disappointing not to knock that putt in at the last but overall I have to be happy with a 69 and just be one shot behind.
“The physio staff did a great job with my leg and while it’s heavily strapped I didn’t have a problem with it.
“I had a good night out last night with the family which was nice and some more treatment on it this morning and while there’s a bit of swelling and bruising it’s not all that bad and I managed to get through today without any real concern.”
However both Campbell and Lowry let slip finishing a shot closer to the Austrian front-runner when they bogeyed the last hole in the bright but gusty conditions.
“It was disappointing to bogey the last as I hit my tee shot out of position and really didn’t give myself a good angle into the green,” said Lowry.
“I played with Michael Campbell today and he and I overall played lovely, so at nine under par we are both still very much in the picture.
“The key tomorrow is to try and get off to a fast start and make up some early ground on Bernd.”
Finch commented: “I’ve now got a realistic chance but it could all depend on the conditions as it was quite tricky out there today but I will be doing my best and hopefully I can come out in front tomorrow.”
Incidentally, the last victory for Fisher, Lowry and Finch was the Irish Open whereas Campbell defeated Paul McGinley win the 2005 HSBC World Match-Play title at Wentworth.
Campbell’s Irish Open success was in 2003 at Portmarnock and a week after American Ben Curtis defeated Dane Thomas Bjorn to win The Open.
* See seperate Michael Campbell story for his post third round comments.
