Pavon showed his title credentials in Madrid leaving Rahm with almost no options

The French Matthieu Pavon This Saturday he completed a brilliant third day of the Spanish Openwhere he scored a card of 66 strokes (5 under par) for an aggregate score of 197 (-16), allowing him to reach the final day of competition as the main favorite for victory ahead of players such as of Jon Rahmthe local idol who has run out of options to get his fourth crown.

Pavon30 years old, has not achieved any success on the European circuit (now DP World Tour), but hopes to achieve the first at the Villa de Madrid Country Club, where he completes a sensational tournament and where he shows which he does. not feeling pressured.

The French golfer, son of Michel Pavon, who is a footballer for teams such as Toulouse, Montpellier, Girondins and Betis, once again completed a great day of play with six birdies and was marred only by one bogey on the 17th hole where he recovered at the last.

No other player has shown more success than Pavon, confident at the start, reliable over long distances and increasingly solvent as the days go by.

The only thing that kept up with Pavon was English Natham Kimseywho scored a card of 65 strokes (6 under par) and a cumulative score of -14, a record that allowed him to climb to second place in the classification ahead of the quartet of -12 that make up the South African Zander Lombardthe French Romain Langasque and Mike Lorenzo-Vera and the best of the Spanish, Alfredo Garcia Heredia, who had already surprised the previous day with a very good round with seven birdies and no errors.

The opposite happened to Jon Rahmnumber three in the world, who did not get the reaction he needed to rejoin the leader of the ranking.

The ‘Lion of Barrika’, paired again with his compatriot Rafa Cabrera Bello, as in the first two days, also shared a match with South African Louis de Jager, number 314 in the world, who has yet to finish the any tournament on the European circuit in the top ten ten months ago, when he was fifth at the Johannsburg Open held in his home country.

Rahmwho started at -3, far behind Matthieu Pavon’s -11, began his round on the third day from hole 1. On the second day, he closed out that hole with a bogey but on the third day that he did it with a birdie, something that made him smile for the first time of the day.

The rictus changed on the second hole, which is considered one of the most difficult to reflect the statistics, where he got stuck and solved it with a bogey. Those two holes were the prelude to what was to come later throughout the day, with a very erratic game that led him to finish with five birdies and two bogeys for a round of 67 (-4).

Rafa Cabrera Bello He didn’t have the best day. He started the day three under par and finished -2 ​​as he finished the course in 72 strokes, one over par.

English is not good either. Justin Rosewinner of the last Ryder Cup with Europe and with Jon Rahm, who was -3 after completing the third day’s course in 72 strokes, one over par.

One of the best moments of the day starred the Englishman Dan Bradbury, who aced the first hole in one of the tournament. It is on hole three of the Country Club with a distance of 205 meters. In addition, he finished his performance with 29 strokes in the first nine holes, a record that will not count in the record book of the course because the players, due to the rain that fell in the morning, had the option of putting the ball.