Dodd, three strokes ahead at halfway, ran up that unpalatable score at the 408 yard seventh after his eight iron ‘airmailed’ the green, hit a bank and went into water. However he recovered admirably and that glitch was the only one on his otherwise flawless card of 70 containing five birdies. Despite that seven, the 38 year old former Amateur champion maintained his three stroke lead at the end of a day in which he and fellow countryman, Bradley Dredge, were first and fourth with a pair of Danes, Thomas Björn and Søren Hansen, were the ‘meat in the sandwich’ in second and third places respectively. At one point during the round, with Hansen having three successive birdies from the sixth, Dodd went from two shots in front to one behind. However Hansen promptly bogeyed the next two holes while the Cardiff player covered the remaining 11 after his triple-bogey in three under. By getting up and down from sand on the par five last Dodd was round in a two under 70 and with 18 holes to play stands on 208, eight under par, and still three clear of the dangerous Danish duo.
Hansen, playing with a hairline fracture of the little finger on his left hand suffered playing basketball nine days ago, matched Dodd's 70. Courtesy of www.europeantour.com | |||||
