Lane surges into lead
Barry Lane broke the course record at the new-look Belfry today to give himself the chance of his first win since New Year’s Eve seven years ago.
Lane, who from three-up lost a crucial singles match to Chip Beck in the 1993 Ryder Cup on the course, scored a sparkling seven-under-par 65 and will take a two-stroke lead over Mansfield’s Greg Owen into the final round of the Benson and Hedges International Open.
There was no doubt what was his shot of the day, a 164-yard eight-iron at the ninth which flew into the hole without bouncing for an eagle two.
‘‘I was aiming for it, I suppose,’’ he smiled. ‘‘But if it had hit the flagstick an inch higher it might have gone either in the bunker or the water.
‘‘That’s the luck of the draw and I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. It would mean an awful lot to me to win again.’’
His last success was the Andersen Consulting world match play championship in Arizona which earned him a million dollars. His last victory in Europe was over eight years ago and twice since then he has failed to finish in Europe’s top 100.
The 41-year-old had already birdied the second, third, sixth and eighth before the eagle gave him an outward 30, six under.
The back nine was not as exciting, but after a bogey at the short 12th he birdied the two par fives, the 15th and 17th, to reach the 10 under par mark of 206.
Now he will be hoping he does not suffer the same fate as the last man to break the course record.
Padraig Harrington did that in the third round two years ago to lead by five, then the following morning was disqualified when it was discovered he had not signed his first round scorecard.
Benson and Hedges International Open final leaderboard
206 Barry Lane 69 72 65
209 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 68 73 68
211 David Lynn 73 70 68, Phillip Price 71 70 70, Padraig Harrington 71 70 70
213 Nick Faldo 72 72 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 70 72
214 Peter Senior (Aus) 71 72 71, Malcolm Mackenzie 72 70 72
215 David Carter 68 78 69, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 73 70, Ian Poulter 70 75 70, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 73 71 71, Sam Torrance 72 72 71, Alastair Forsyth 71 72 72, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 71 72 72, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 72 70 73, Daren Lee 70 71 74, Steve Webster 73 68 74
216 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 75 71 70, Olle Karlsson (Swe) 78 68 70, Michael Hoey 73 73 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 75 70 71, Nick O’Hern (Aus) 77 68 71,Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 70 74 72, Paul Lawrie 73 70 73
217 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 73 73 71, Tom Gillis (USA) 72 72 73, Bradley Dredge 74 70 73, Mark Foster 71 72 74, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 72 71 74, Sandy Lyle 69 74 74, Rolf Muntz (Ned) 71 71 75, Santiago Luna (Spn) 72 70 75
218 David Gilford 73 73 72, Gary Evans 71 74 73, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 72 73, Raymond Russell 73 71 74, Richard Bland (Rsa) 75 69 74, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 72 71 75
219 Brian Davis 73 73 73, Benoit Teilleria (Fra) 75 71 73, Mads Vide-Hastrup (Den) 72 73 74, Gary Orr 74 71 74, Russell Claydon 71 74 74, Richard Green (Aus) 73 69 77
220 Mark Roe 73 71 76, Paul Eales 72 72 76, Charlie Wi (S Kor) 70 74 76,Richard Johnson (Swe) 73 70 77, Des Smyth 73 70 77
221 Ian Garbutt 70 76 75, Adam Scott (Aus) 74 71 76, Lucas Parsons (Aus) 72 73 76, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 73 72 76, Stuart Little 71 73 77, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 70 80
222 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 69 77 76
223 Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 72 77, Andrew Marshall 74 72 77
225 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 73 73 79
226 Eamonn Darcy 75 71 80, Mark Pilkington 75 70 81
