Pavon Poised For Spanish Success As Rahm Drops Nine Behind

2 years ago by Comments Off on Pavon Poised For Spanish Success As Rahm Drops Nine Behind

After the bitter taste of finishing runner-up a year ago, Frenchman Matthieu Pavon will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the acciona Open de España presented by Madrid after a superb ‘moving day’ 66 on the host Club de Campo Villa de Madrid course.

Pavon has led the way since magestic opening 63 in the Spanish capital and produced a confident display of front-running to get to 16 under after 54 holes.

England’s Nathan Kimsey lies in second place at 14-under after a 65, two shots clear of local favourite Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (68), the French duo Romain Langasque (66) and Mike Lorenzo-Vera (68) along with South African Zander Lombard (65) sharing third.

Pavon is still looking for a maiden win on the DP World Tour but has two victories on the Alps Tour and has finished second three times on each of the European Challenge and DP World Tours.

One of those runner-up finishes came at this event last season, while he also finished second the only previous time he has held a 54-hole lead at the 2021 Portugal Masters.

He arrived in Madrid fresh off a fifth top ten of the season last week in Scotland and with just two dropped shots all week so far, is in the box seat to turn his consistency into a long-awaited victory.

“I fought a lot today against my emotions,” he said. “I like the place, I like the tournament and I know I did great last year, so a lot coming into my head today but it is all about managing things and this is what I did today and I think I did it pretty well.

“What I learned (last year) is that it is tough to beat Jon Rahm. Last year he got me by six shots and I thought I had a great week, he is the kind of player that is on another planet.

“This week I just try to be myself, I think I have some family from Spain, my grandfather was from Madrid also, so everything is kind of matching up, and I am just happy to be here. I like the course and I am doing great, so I am just enjoying every moment.”

Indeed Rahm, who is seeking a fourth Spanish Open in five appearances, is nine shots adrift of Pavon adding a third day 67 and moving into a very distant share of 34th place at seven-under par.

Pavon was caught by playing partners Shubhankar Sharma and Wil Besseling and even passed by the latter in the early stages but when he made a two-putt birdie on the par-five fourth to rejoin the lead, he never looked back.

An up-and-down thanks to a 16-foot putt at the par-five seventh saw him lead by two and he maintained that advantage thanks to a 21-footer after a fine recovery at the tenth and a neat up-and-down at the par-five 14th.

Victory for Pavan would be a first Spanish Open success for a French-born player a decade after Raphael Jacquelin captured the 2013 title while he would also join other France-born greats in Thomas Levet (2009) and Christain Cevaer (2004) as a Spanish Open winner.

And let’s not forget it is 111-years this year since legendary French golfer Arnaud Massey captured the very first Spanish Open in 1912.



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