Moroccan Open
Golf Royal D'Agadir
Agadir, Morocco
12th - 15th March 1998

Par 72 Prize Money £350,000

Third Round Report

Third Round Scores
Second Round Report
Second Round Scores
First Round Report
First Round Scores

Leaney opens up a four-shot lead

Agadir, Morocco, 14th March 1998 - Stephen Leaney broke clear of the field on Saturday to take a four-stroke lead into the final round of the Moroccan Open.

The 29-year-old Australian, playing his first full year on the European Tour, had a burst of three successive birdies from the turn to pull away from the field. He finished with a three-under-par 69 to move to 12-under 204.

In-form Robert Karlsson of Sweden chased hard after him by picking up six shots before the 15th but then ran out of steam and bogeyed the last for a 67 and 208.

His compatriot Mathias Gronberg also came through the field with a 67 to share second place.

Briton Mark Davis, who began the third round one stroke behind Leaney, looked to have lost any chance of mounting a challenge as he dropped four strokes by the 11th.

But then the two-times Austrian Open champion, who lost his card last year but then regained it at tour school, rallied to pick up four shots in the last seven holes to also share second place with a 72 for 208.

Ireland's Des Smyth, who had led the first round by three strokes after a course record-equalling 64, started the day badly when he bogeyed the remaining one hole he had left to complete his second round.

It proved the prelude to a miserable afternoon as the 45-year-old Irish veteran plummeted to a 77 and 213, nine adrift of his playing partner Leaney.

The Australian is bidding for a first European Tour win in his rookie year, five years after a serious injury threatened his career.

"I had a blood clot on my right shoulder caused by a rib pushing up and putting pressure on the shoulder," said Leaney.

"They had to cut seven centimetres or so off the rib and that set me back 12 to 18 months of my career.

"I'd just begun to get somewhere but it took me a long time to get over the operation, mentally and physically."

Leaney fought his way back to fitness and followed his 1991 Western Australian Open win as an amateur with victory as a professional in the same event in 1994. He also recorded wins in the 1995 and 1997 Victorian Open.

The Golf Royal D'Agadir course measures 6086 metres and has a par 72. First prize is £58,330.