Italy’s Renato Paratore birdied the final hole to maintain his half-point advantage by a single stroke and lead the Betfred British Masters going into the final round at Close House.
The 23-year-old from Rome hasn’t dropped a single shot on the hilly course just to the west of Newcastle and wasn’t headed from the top of the leaderboard at any point on a fine July afternoon in the North East, despite the threats from South Africa’s Justin Harding and Denmark’s Rasmus Hojgaard.
All three shot five-under 66s meaning that they maintained their positions from Thursday night. The other halfway leaders – sadly including Scotland’s Calum Hill and David Law – slipped back with the most ground being made up by the US-based Sam Horsfield, who stormed around to a ten-under 61 with three eagle threes and jumped from 41st to a tie for fifth.
Paratore is at 16-under after three rounds. The last European Tour winner to play without dropping a shot was Jesper Parnevik when he took the Scandanavian Masters in 1995.
Paratore, who won the Nordea Masters three years ago and qualified from the Tour School at just 17, will no doubt recall that he lost to Hojgaard, one of two 19-year-old Danish twins that have stormed on to the European Tour, in a play-off for the Mauritius Open last year.
But he showed no signs of allowing anyone to get away in the third round, and has made no notable mistakes over three days trekking up and down the considerable hills of Close House, although it’s not been entirely error free.
“I played really solid these three days, and when I’ve needed it the short game which has helped me save some shots, so I’m happy with that,” he said.
“I spent the lockdown in Dubai and was able to play a lot of competitive rounds with the other guys on the tour who stay there, and I think this helped me to stay competitive.
“It’s got me into being really consistent, but we practice so much to be in contention so I can’t wait to get out there tomorrow.”
Harding is easily the most experienced of the three leaders at 34 – he was 12th in the “other” Masters last year – and thought he could have done better than a 66.
“If a couple of putts could have dropped on the back nine it could have been a really good one but today was all about putting yourself in position for tomorrow and I feel like I’ve done that.
“Renato birdies the last so he’ll start the day one ahead, but I was just hanging in there and giving myself an opportunity going into tomorrow.”
He’s not so keen on the lack of crowds, so he and his caddie are making their own noise.
“I enjoy the crowds, I love having them there and they add their own atmosphere to it, but at the end of the day with or without them you’ve still got to go and get the job done,” he said. “I just clap to myself every time I go and get a birdie!”
Hojgaard admitted to a little nervousness after the long lockdown break but will put the experiences of his previous win into practice.
“Last time I stayed calm and didn’t force anything,” he said. “That will be my plan again tomorrow.”
Horsfield finished his 61 before the leaders even went out, showing the form that made him a standout amateur. Usually based in Florida where he went to college, he found the protocols were very different for dealing with the coronavirus back in his home country.
“It’s not very strict over there at all, the golf courses are all open, and you can pretty much do whatever,” he said. “I don’t think that’s going to change.
“My best friend contracted the virus and I was with him when he had it, but I was tested immediately and I was all clear. So many people I know have had it.
“They’ve definitely done things the right way over here, that’s for sure.”
The Scottish challenge melted away on the third day with both Calum Hill and David Law, tied for fourth overnight, falling back after forcing their way into the last handful of pairings for Friday.
Perthshire’s Hill did get to within a shot of the lead at one point, after an opening bogey was corrected by three birdies at the fourth, sixth and seventh, and he seemed poised to maintain his challenge.
However he was long with his tee shot at the short ninth and failed to get up and down, following with a bogey six at the long uphill tenth. Another bogey six at the 17th left him with a one-over 72 and sharing 14th place after three rounds.
“Just bad golf and terrible decision-making, all round,” said a disappointed Hill. “It was fractionally like what was happening when I was struggling early in the week, but it was just awful.
“Hopefully one of those days you learn a lot from”.
Law was in the penultimate group of the day, but admitted he struggled to get anything going on the way to a five-over 76, and slipped down the field into a share of 39th place.
Playing with Harding, two early bogeys at the second and fourth knocked him back on his heels and double-bogeys at the 8th and 13th worsened the situation.
“I don’t know how to describe it really,” he said after he finished. “Obviously just now I’m disappointed and annoyed. I kind of felt like I was fighting it all day.
“It’s another round under my belt and I’ll be going out tomorrow trying to finish as low as I can and end the week positively, because so far this week there’s been huge positives to take out of it.
“I’ll not let that round get me too down.”
Law’s slide down the leaderboard meant that Scott Jamieson went ahead of him after a three-under 68 to be six-under for the week. Richie Ramsay is one three-under after a 70 in the third round while Grant Forrest had a par round of 71 to be one-under.
