Golding closing on first tour win
England’s Philip Golding, the 40-year-old who has made a record 16 visits to the European tour qualifying school, has a chance to be remembered for something more than that tomorrow.
A third round 68 in the French Open at Le Golf National near Paris leaves the former model from Luton leading by one on the 12 under par mark of 204.
Golding has never finished higher than sixth in 200 tour starts, but is now aiming for a first prize of just over £290,000 which is almost as much as he earned in his entire career prior to this season.
But if he needs inspiration for the closing 18 holes all he has to do is think to last year’s event. Sheffield’s Malcolm Mackenzie, also 40 at the time, won his first tour title at his 509th attempt.
“It’s been a real battle and everybody tells me about the record, so obviously winning is a dream,” said Golding, who was persuaded by his wife Sally to make another trip to the school last November after an agonising finish to the season.
He produced a closing 63, the best round of his life, in the final counting event, the Italian Open, and thought he had saved his tour career. But he fell to 13th and discovered later he needed a 62.
Halfway leader Thomas Bjorn surprisingly bogeyed three of his first seven holes, but came back and would have shared top spot except for missing a three-foot birdie putt on the last.
As a result the Ryder Cup Dane shares second with cup team-mate Pierre Fulke, of Sweden, England’s Barry Lane and David Howell and Australian Peter O’Malley.
Collated totals after the third round of the French Open at Le Golf National, Paris
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72, (x) denotes amateur):
204 Philip Golding 66 70 68
205 Peter O’Malley (Aus) 70 69 66, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 70 68 67, Barry Lane 70 68 67, David Howell 71 65 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 64 71
206 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 68 68, Stephen Gallacher 68 69 69
207 Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 69 64, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 68 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 69 71
208 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 68 74 66, John Bickerton 69 71 68, Brian Davis 68 72 68, Andrew Oldcorn 69 70 69, Simon Dyson 70 69 69, Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 70 68 70
209 Peter Lawrie 69 73 67, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 71 67, Bradley Dredge 67 72 70, Richard Bland 72 67 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 66 70 73
210 Gordon Brand Jnr 70 73 67, Ian Poulter 75 68 67, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 73 70 67, Matthew Blackey 71 71 68, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 72 70 68, Raymond Russell 71 70 69, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 67 74 69, Simon Wakefield 70 70 70, David Carter 71 69 70, Santiago Luna (Spa) 70 70 70, Stephen Dodd 72 67 71, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 69 71, Justin Rose 68 69 73
211 Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72 68, Miles Tunnicliff 74 69 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 71 69, Greg Turner (Nzl) 73 69 69, Peter Fowler (Aus) 72 69 70, Marc Farry (Fra) 68 73 70, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 70 70 71, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 69 69 73, Graeme McDowell 70 68 73, Anders Hansen (Den) 70 66 75
212 Ilya Goroneskoul (Fra) 76 67 69, (x) Eric Chaudouet (Fra) 66 77 69, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 72 71 69, Paul McGinley 71 72 69, Julien Van Hauwe (Fra) 74 68 70, Gary Birch 67 74 71, Gary Evans 72 69 71, Alastair Forsyth 68 73 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 68 74
213 Andrew Marshall 69 74 70, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 75 68 70, Ronan Rafferty 70 72 71, Sven Struver (Ger) 70 72 71, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 74 67 72, (x) Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 70 71 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 71 70 72, Gustavo Rojas (Arg) 71 69 73
214 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 72 71, Ian Garbutt 71 71 72, Olivier Edmond (Fra) 70 72 72, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 69 72 73, David Park 72 69 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 71 68 75
215 Jean Louis Guepy (Fra) 71 72 72
216 Kenneth Ferrie 71 72 73, Fredrik Widmark (Swe) 73 69 74, Gary Murphy 68 74 74, Per Nyman (Swe) 72 69 75
217 Gary Orr 71 72 74, Jonathan Lomas 69 74 74, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 69 74 74, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 73 70 74, Mark Pilkington 72 71 74
