COLIN Montgomerie and Lee Westwood were unable to stop little-known Pablo Larrazabal taking a three-stroke lead into the final round of the French Open.
Ranked only 481st in the world and a qualifier for the event, Larrazabal produced a superb four-under-par 67 after reaching halfway sharing top spot with England's David Lynn at Le Golf National near Paris.
Now the 25-year-old from Barcelona, play
ing just his 17th European Tour event, is 11-under with Montgomerie and Dane Soren Hansen his closest challengers and then Westwood and Lynn one further back.
"I saw the names Monty and Westwood – I love to shoot lower than those," he said.
"I'm not the star of the tournament. I came from the pre-qualifying. There are 156 players and I am maybe the 150th best, but that's not a problem for me.
"If I play like I did today it's going to be fun. I hit the ball great."
A first prize of almost £528,000, a two-year tour exemption and a place in the coming Open Championship at Royal Birkdale is there for Larrazabal's taking – but the real challenge is still to come.
"The hardest part of trying for your first win is to have patience during a round," said Montgomerie, 45 last Monday and suddenly back in the spotlight after a slide outside the world's top 100. "You tend to want to go for things and this course is very demanding on you mentally."
Westwood said of Larrazabal: "He's done well and looks a good player. It's never easy when you have the lead overnight, so well done to him. Now he has another night thinking about it."
Larrazabal, whose brother Alejandro was British amateur champion in 2002, birdied four of his first eight holes to take command of the event.
Westwood had piled on the pressure with three in his first four and then another on the short 11th but bogeys at the next two set back his bid to make instant amends for his US Open near-miss two weeks ago.
Montgomerie then moved into second spot on his own, turning in 33 and adding further birdies on the 10th and long 14th, but he strayed into the rough on the next two and bogeyed both.
After his own outward 32 Larrazabal's first bogey came when he also failed to get up and down from beside the green on the 175-yard 16th. But his reply was stunning. The 17th is a 484-yard par four, but his second shot stopped just a foot from the flag.
Montgomerie is not in the leading 40 on the Ryder Cup table, but victory could take him into one of the top-10 automatic spots. In that respect, the final round is as big a day for him as it is for the leader.
Larrazabal, though, is seeking to extend a run of shock winners of the title. In 2002 Malcolm Mackenzie won his first tour title at the 509th attempt, then it was Phil Golding grabbing his maiden victory at the 201st try. Frenchman Jean-Francois Remesy won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005 despite not being in the world's top 150 either time, two years ago John Bickerton was ranked 189th and last year's winner Graeme Storm was not in the top 200 .
Hansen had been the third round leader then and should he go one better he could leap from 11th to sixth in the Ryder Cup standings.
The full article contains 593 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
