Matt Wallace will head into the final round of the Omega European Masters with a four-shot lead, despite the Swiss Alps throwing everything they had at him.
Sitting pretty at the top with the same margin since the halfway point, Wallace entered the weekend as the only player to keep a clean slate through 36 holes.
Starting Moving Day at 14 under, it only took two holes before the high winds ushered in his first bogey of the tournament.
Battling through, Wallace posted a third-round score of 73, mixing six bogeys with three birdies to hold his ground at 11 under at the scenic Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club.
Matt Wallace: Where do I start? Brutal, really hard. Felt I hit the ball just as good, in the right areas – they were the wrong areas by the looks of it.
The other day I was saying it was cold and windy, but that was crazy, that was mental. The greens were fantastic but just really fast as well. Man, that was tough, Jamie and I are very tired now.
Massively (proud with how I dealt with the conditions), really, really proud. I would’ve lost my head easily there from the get go; missed putt and a bogey on the second.
It’s obviously a little easier when you have a some sort of a lead and it’s playing really hard, but I just kind of felt like it was a Major and tried to treat it like a Major where every hole is some sort of merit and I’ll learn from that in the future.
Today wasn’t about really shooting under par, it was about keeping my lead and I did that and I will try and take the ego out of the three over, which
I’m not happy about those type of scores but I probably left two or three shots out there which would have been an unbelievable score.
Nipping at his heels, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia sits second at seven under after an impressive 71, marked by four birdies, three bogeys, and a double bogey.
Just a stroke behind are England’s Andrew Johnston and Sweden’s Henrik Norlander at six under, while a cluster including Alex Fitzpatrick, home favourite Cedric Gugler, Australian Jason Scrivener, and Edoardo Molinari, one of the rare few to score under par rounds Saturday, huddle at five under.
Jonas Blixt made a significant move, firing a 68—the round of the day—to climb to four under, joined by fellow Swede Sebastian Söderberg, Spain’s Nacho Elvira, South African Casey Jarvis, Germany’s Nicolai von Dellingshausen, and 2021 Champion Rasmus Højgaard.
As Wallace gears up for Sunday’s finale, the Omega European Masters promises an exhilarating conclusion, set against the stunning backdrop of the Swiss Alps, with high stakes and even higher winds.
