Spanish golf fans turned up at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid hoping home hero Jon Rahm would storm to the top of the leaderboard in round three of the Acciona Open de Espana presented by Madrid.
They got their wish.
The 2021 US Open champion rewarded them with a bogey free 6-under 65 to reach 16 under and move into solo first place. The two-time champion lies one shot ahead of Australia’s Min Woo Lee.
“I’m feeling good” Rahm said. “I wish most of my rounds could be as organised as this one right now. I don’t feel like I did anything special, maybe the up-and-down on 17, but I just played consistent golf, put the ball in play, and the few times I missed the tee shot I was never really out of it.”
The seven-time DP World Tour champion enjoyed playing alongside Lee. Just as well, because they tee it up together in the final round along with South Africa’s Louis de Jager, who sits three shots adrift on 13 under in a seven-way tie for third place.
“It’s been great, we have played really good golf both of us,” Rahm said about playing alongside the Australian. “It is easy to feed off each other right, you know every time one of us is in the fairway we are going to have a birdie look, so you know birdies are coming. We have both been getting up-and-down from a lot of spots, he has had two hole outs, I’ve had one, and some really good shots besides those that we holed out.”
Lee is looking for his third DP World Tour victory while Rahm is hoping to win his home Open for the third time to emulate the late Seve Ballesteros’s trio of victories.
Spanish amateur Luis Masaveu had a strong start to his day with back-to-back birdies on the opening two holes, followed by another two birdies on the fourth and fifth holes. Things then got a little trickier for the 19-year-old. He followed a bogey at the sixth with a double bogey at the par-3, 9th. He offset two further bogeys at the 12th and 16th with birdies at the 14th and 18th. Still, a 2-under 70 to reach joint 18th place wasn’t a bad return for his third round of professional golf.
“Yeah, I started very good and hitting very good shots, I was very calm, and everything was going well until hole number 6,” Masaveu said. “I missed a short putt and things didn’t go as good, putts started to not go in and I made a few mistakes. I went back to -8 and then I made a very good birdie on 14 and three putts on 16 and finally a good birdie. It was a round could’ve finished very well, but things didn’t go smooth.”
Masaveu is one of three amateurs in the Acciona Open de Espana presented by Madrid, including Quim Vidal who also made the cut. Currently ranked 106th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, Masaveu is the world’s second highest ranked Spanish Amateur. He has enjoyed three top-15 finishes this season on the amateur circuit, and earlier this year won the individual title at the 2022 Spanish University Championship at Antequera Golf Course in Malaga.
Another Spaniard with a strong third round showing was seven-time DP World Tour winner Alvaro Quiros. The Guadiaro native is six shots off the lead after carding a 5-under 66 to sit in equal 13th place. He hasn’t won on the DP World Tour since 2017. While he’s a long shot to land the trophy, a win in his home open would prove popular with Spanish golf fans.
The leaderboard is tightly packed with 17 players within six shots of the lead. The question going into the final round is: will Rahm match Seve Ballesteros Spanish Open record or will someone else deny him one of the oldest trophies in European golf?
