The back nine at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid provided plenty of drama on Saturday, where Englishman Joe Dean took control of the leaderboard and saw himself get to as low as 16 under, only to lose three strokes at holes Nos. 16 and 17.
Dean collected himself to birdie the par-4 18th and reach 13 under to regain a share of the lead for the moment, but had to wait and watch as 36-hole leader Grant Forrest played the final hole to see if he’d be entering Sunday’s final round with a deficit.
Forrest missed his birdie attempt, settling for par and a tie at 13 under after a bogey-free back nine.
Dean was enjoying a similarly clean day until he ran into trouble at the par-4 16th, where he double bogeyed for his first mistake of the day. It was compounded at the penultimate hole with another square.
“Nothing’s guaranteed in this game — it only takes a slight lapse in concentration or a bad shot at a bad time, and before you know it, you’re chasing it,” said Dean, who had his career breakthrough win at the British Masters just six weeks ago. “This is a high-pressured situation — you hit the shot that you’ve got at that time and if it’s not the right one, then it’s back to the drawing board.”
Switzerland native Joel Birrbach birdied the final hole to reach France’s Victor Perez and Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olesen at 12 under for a tie for third.
Five birdies and one bogey on the third-round card was good enough for Birrbach to stay in contention.
“The heart rate is going like most guys, I’d imagine, you just got to keep breathing,” said Dean when asked about how he kept himself calm with so many challengers circling him on the back nine.
Perez carried a share of the lead heading into the back nine after posting a bogey-free, 6-under 30 across his opening nine holes Saturday.
Sitting in sixth is Spaniard Angel Ayora who used a 5-under 66 to take Eugenio Chacarra’s spot as the lowest-scoring national player in the field through the first three rounds. Trailing Ayora by a single shot and sitting in solo seventh is Frenchman Martin Couvra.
“Tomorrow it’s going to be a good fight, we have to be patient and make good decisions and pray for the result,” said Ayora, who finished birdie-birdie.
Chacarra has been battling through a fractured toe this week, and the pain from the injury seemed to show more on Day 3 than it did over the first two rounds. He posted a 1-under 70 and sits T-8 at 8 under after a pair of front nine bogeys.
Sitting tied with Chacarra is New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier who won a BMW iX5 SUV after he aced the par-3 17th on Thursday. Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren is also at 8 under thanks to shooting the low round of the day at a 7-under 64.
“It’s hard for me to trust that I can move my body because my mind thinks it’s going to hurt a lot,” said Chacarra, who trails Patrick Reed by 559 points in the Race to Dubai and needs a win to overtake him.