La Armada keeps its three victory options intact at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge after the third round. It hasn’t been the dream moving day, it must be said, but it wasn’t bad. Enough to stay in the fight and give themselves a chance in the final round. Not every Sunday do you have a chance to win a HotelPlaner Tour tournament. Rocco Repetto (-11), Joseba Torres (-10), and Lucas Vacarisas (-9) have it. They have provided it for themselves.
However, in the last 18 holes, they will need to seal a genuine moving day, more or less in the style of David Horsey and Eddie Pepperell, two of the three tournament leaders who delivered rounds of 65 on Saturday. They share the lead with Swedish Albin Bergstrom. All of them at -13. That is, two, three, and four strokes ahead of the three Spaniards.
Not long ago, Horsey and Pepperell shared the lead after a third round, but in the DP World Tour. Life. The ups and downs. Coming and going. Be that as it may, both are desperately seeking a victory to relaunch their careers. Pepperell, who reached World Number 32, hadn’t made a cut since March. “Today I played like I used to when I played well,” he acknowledged. Why? That remains a mystery. When he solves it, we might see him among the best again. He’s 34 years old. Plenty of time. Meanwhile, Horsey, who reached World Number 77, hasn’t finished a tournament in the top ten since April last year.
Repetto, Torres, and Vacarisas will need something like a 65 this Sunday to give themselves a chance. Repetto signed for 68 strokes, with a magnificent finish that included three birdies between holes 14 and 18. The extraordinary naturalness with which this young newcomer from Málaga is handling himself on the HotelPlanner Tour continues to surprise. Joseba Torres’s performance is also not bad, another who was an amateur until the day before yesterday. Today he shot 69, with a very orderly round, with four birdies and a solitary bogey.
Meanwhile, Vacarisas deserves a separate chapter. The golfer from Golf Montanyà led the tournament on Saturday and made a flurry of birdies. He achieved no less than eight, the same as Horsey, the leader. His problem was on the 12th hole, par 5. The second easiest hole of the day. Lucas made a triple bogey. The only double bogey or worse of the day on this hole. Bad luck. A derailment that likely cost him a place in the featured match. He reacted well with two birdies on 15 and 16, but finished with two painful bogeys that leave him somewhat far, but with his options intact given his great ability to make birdies on this course. He has 18 in 54 holes.
Finally, Luis Masaveu (-2) and Quim Vidal (-1) are far from even contending for a top 10 this Sunday. In any case, no one needs to explain to them the importance of earning every point on Sundays with an eye on the Road to Mallorca and the possibility of advancing to the DP World Tour.
