King and Little hold Russia Open lead
A sudden heavy downpour may have done just enough to safeguard Matthew King and Euan Little’s clubhouse joint lead at five under at the BMW Russian Open in Moscow.
The English golfer and his Scottish playing partner benefited from an 8.10am tee time to shoot 67s and when the heavens opened around 2pm local time they were both safely back in the clubhouse.
That rain caused a delay in play as some greens were tended because of the volume of water on them but the players were kept out on the course the whole time.
It came at exactly the wrong time for England’s Sam Walker who played the back nine, having started on the 10th, in just 31 to be five under at the turn.
Walker had birdies at the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 17th to claim a share of the lead, although he had a very damp front nine yet to play.
The lead was also being challenged by Jamie Spence, who was three under after six having birdied the first and eagled the par-five second.
King, having had three birdies and two bogeys on the front nine to reach the turn in 35, he hit a purple patch from the 11th and strung together three successive birdies.
He hit an eight-iron to five feet on the par-three 11th, pitched a sand wedge to 12 feet on the next for birdie and then holed an 11-foot putt at 12 for another three.
Two putts from 25ft brought another birdie on 15 and he got down in two from almost 30ft to pick up another shot on the par-five 17th, although he gave that back at the last after missing the green to the right and failing to get up and down.
However, that still brought him home in 32 for his five-under-par total.
“I wouldn’t say I hit the ball well but I scrambled well and putted well and hit some good shots on the back nine and took my chances there,” said King.
Little bogeyed the par-four first but had three successive birdies from four to six and added another at the eighth.
A bogey on the 408-yard 12th was forgotten after an eagle three on the 17th.
“I have been making a lot of changes in my game with Bob Torrance (father of former Ryder Cup captain Sam),” said Little.
“We worked hard at the (British) Open and then the week after that at the Irish Open and I feel as if we took two steps back to take three forward, which is now starting to pay off.
“Although in saying that, I didn’t feel as though I struck the ball that well today. I was hitting a lot of shots quite thin; they were finding the target no problem but it just didn’t feel the greatest.”
In the chasing group Welshman Kyron Sullivan and France’s Marc Pendaries both shot 68s to finish four under, while European Tour regulars Jarmo Sandelin, Daniel Gaunt and Sven Struver are in a group one shot further back.
