Vilamoura (Portugal): Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma made a solid start with three birdies in the first five holes, but failed to keep the momentum going and carded a modest one-under 71 in the third round to lie tied 40th at the Portugal Masters here. Sharma, who had rallied in the second round with a 67, is now at five-under 214 with one more round left in the tournament. South Africa’s George Coetzee will start the final round in search of a fifth European Tour title as he finished with a one shot lead on Saturday. He produced a remarkable eagle-birdie finish on day three to sign for an impressive 66 and move to 11-under par.
Sharma birdied the second, fourth and fifth but dropped a shot in between on third for a front nine of two-under 34. A birdie each on 12th and 18th with bogeys on 14th and 15th meant the Indian had an even par back nine for a total of 70. Coetzee, who won on the Sunshine Tour at Pretoria Country Club last week, had started the day eight strokes behind Julien Guerrier but the Frenchman’s five stroke overnight advantage turned into a one shot deficit after he failed to make a single birdie in his four over par 75.
The 34-year-old reached the turn in 34 shots after sandwiching a bogey on the seventh between birdies at the fourth and eighth. After taking advantage of the par four 15th for the third day in a row, Coetzee came agonisingly close to holing his approach into the long 17th for an albatross but had to settle for a tap-in eagle to climb to 10-under. He finished off with a confident 12 foot birdie putt to get to 11-under. Niklas Lemke and Laurie Canter shared the fourth place on nine-under after firing rounds of 65 and 68 respectively.
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