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Great escape propels Ramsay up the leaderboard
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Great escape propels Ramsay up the leaderboard

Scotland's Richie Ramsay went from a share of last place to inside the top ten as the BMW PGA Championship resumed, partly thanks to a "Seve-like" escape on the 18th at Wentworth Club.

Richie Ramsay

Ramsay made the halfway cut with nothing to spare on two over par after rounds of 71 and 75 in cold and wet conditions which claimed notable scalps in defending champion Luke Donald and Ryder Cup team-mates Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Paul Lawrie and Ian Poulter.

But the 29 year old from Aberdeen made the most of a welcome improvement in the weather on Saturday morning to card a six under 66 that equalled the lowest round of the week and took him to four under for the tournament.

Former US Amateur Champion Ramsay carded four birdies and one bogey on the front nine and picked up three more birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th, but arguably saved his best until last.

"It was a Seve-like par," Ramsay said of his five on the 18th, a reference to the kind of escapes often conjured by the late Seve Ballesteros.

"I was playing great and went to be aggressive with my tee-shot down the right but pushed it and caught the trees. It ended up right in the middle of the bushes but I took an unplayable lie some 100 yards back and hit a rescue club over the ditch.

"I hit it a bit far into the rough and had a tree to go over but hit it to three feet. It was a great way to finish because it could have been a high number."

Fellow Scot Greig Hutcheon, playing on his own as the odd man out of the 71 players to make the cut, had completed a 67 to lie just one behind Ramsay on three under, three behind halfway leader Francesco Molinari.

And veteran Spaniard Miguel Angel Jiménez, making his 600th appearance on The European Tour, was also three under after four birdies in the first ten holes of his third round.


Jiménez moved to four under with a birdie on the 12th and after dropping his first shot of the day on the 16th, bounced back with a birdie on the 17th.

Molinari had been joined in the lead on six under before getting his round under way, England's Lee Slattery picking up four shots in his first five holes thanks to birdies on the second and fifth and an eagle on the fourth.

And Spain's Alejandro Cañizares made it a three-way tie with a birdie on the first as the players revelled in the improved conditions.


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