DP World Tour golfers continue to battle in the ISPS Handa Invitational presented by Aviv Clinics ($ 1.5 million prize pool). We have now reached the end of the third round and Ewen Ferguson remains firmly in command of the leaderboard of the Northern Irish tournament.
The Scot leads with a score of -11 (199 hits), closing the British Saturday with a lap of -2. -8 and second solo position for the American John Catlin, who precedes by one length the Dane Marcus Helligkilde, the Scotsman Connor Syme, the Spaniard Borja Virto, and the English Jack Senior.
-6 and seventh place for the English Richard Mansell, followed with -5 by compatriots Mattew Baldwin and Jamie Rutherford, and by the Italians Filippo Celli and Guido Migliozzi. For the first of the Azzurri, a small step backwards compared to the excellent performances of the two initial rounds.
The Roman golfer, not yet turned pro, slips into a +2 which costs him three positions. However, the twenty-one year old remains largely in the top ten, and is joined by the Vicenza. For Migliozzi an ascent of 16 positions facilitated by the good daily -3 (four birdies, one eagle, three bogeys).
Saturday to forget for Renato Paratore. The Capitoline golfer loses his feeling with the par 70 course of the Galgorm Castle Golf Club in Ballymena (Northern Ireland, United Kingdom) and stumbles into a negative +3. In partial consolation, the only birdie of the day found at hole 18 which allows him to stay in 18th place with a score of -2.
Jordan Smith also loses ground. English is 21st to -1 after today’s +4. As for the women’s tournament, which takes place simultaneously but on another path, the American Amanda Doherty leads the leaderboard one round from the end with a score of -12.
Virginia Elena Carta and Giulia Molinaro did not pass the cut. During his amateur career, Ferguson won the Boys Amateur Championship in 2013, and is the only player to simultaneously hold the British Boys and Scottish Boys Matchplay and Strokeplay titles.
Ferguson was a member of the Great Britain and Ireland team of the 2015 Walker Cup. In August 2016 he reached the quarter-finals of the amateur championship.
