NEWS

Parry reclaims lead after three rounds at Vivendi, Harrington shaping up

By Mark Garrod
Published on
Parry reclaims lead after three rounds at Vivendi, Harrington shaping up

England's John Parry will take a one-shot lead into Sunday’s final round of the Vivendi Cup on the European Tour. Parry, joint leader at halfway with Sweden's Jarmo Sandelin, carded a third round of 70 at Golf de Joyenval to finish 15 under par on Saturday. Denmark's Mark Haastrup fired a 66, the lowest round of the day, to move into a share of second place on 14 under alongside Sweden's Johan Edfors, who was round in 67. Sandelin briefly led on his own after birdies at the eighth and ninth, but the former Ryder Cup player bogeyed the last two holes to fall back into a four-way tie for fourth on 13 under. Parry, a teammate of Rory McIlroy at the 2007 Walker Cup, led after 36 holes in Austria last week but slipped back to 20th. The Harrogate golfer, who is in his first full year on the circuit, was confident he would have learned from that experience and certainly kept his nerve after a stumble on the back nine to stay at the top of the leaderboard. After going to the turn in 34 with three birdies and one bogey, Parry dropped shots at the 10th and 12th but regrouped superbly with birdies at the next two holes. Earlier in the day, Padraig Harrington showed signs of getting his game in shape for next week's Ryder Cup with a third round of 69. Harrington only made the cut right on the mark of 2 under par courtesy of three birdies in his last six holes. But the Dubliner recovered from a shaky start on Saturday to card a total of eight birdies on the Marly Course. Harrington dropped a shot at the first and birdied the third, but then ran up a double bogey on the fourth and bogeyed the fifth to no doubt leave European Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie a worried man. However, the 39-year-old -- one of Montgomerie's three wild cards for Celtic Manor -- rediscovered his composure to par the sixth and then birdie four of the next five holes. Further birdies followed at the 13th and 16th and, after a bogey on the 17th, Harrington finished in style with a birdie at the last. At 5 under par, the triple major winner still lies 10 shots off the pace.