SOREN HANSEN'S FOUR LATE BIRDIES
GIVE HIM THE LEAD IN THE
EUROPEAN OPEN AT K CLUB

Great Dane Soren Hansen staged a grandstand finish to his third round - four birdies over the last five holes - for a seven-under-par score of 63 and a two-stroke lead on 10-under 200 with one round to go in the Smurfit Kappa European Open at the K Club, Co Kildare, Ireland today.
Hansen, 33, finished second in last weekend's French Open. He has been winless since the Irish Open of 2003.
He leads by two from Englishman Robert Rock who had a 66 for 202.
Hansen was in almost the same position last Saturday evening in the French Open and then made two double bogeys in the opening holes on Sunday.
Australian Peter O'Malley matched Hansen's 63 to be tied for third on 203 with Peter Hanson, Gregory Havret and Niclas Fasth.
Hanson made a hole-in-one on the 173-yard 18th with a 6-iron. That hole is normally a par-5, but was reduced to a par-3 this week because of waterlogging after heavy rain.
Colin Montgomerie, who shot 64 on Friday, bogeyed the last two holes for a 71 and was tied for seventh.
US Open champion Angel Cabrera ran up a quadruple-bogey 8 at the fourth hole after finding water twice. His 74 left him in 65th place among the 68 players in the tournament.

THIRD-ROUND TOTALS
Par 210 (3 x 70)
200 Soren Hansen (Den) 69 68 63.
202 Robert Rock 65 71 66.
203 Peter Hanson (Swe) 68 69 66, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 65 68 70, Gregory Havret (Fra) 65 70 68, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 72 68 63.
204 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 68 67, Graeme McDowell 69 70 65, Colin Montgomerie 69 64 71, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 69 69 66, David Frost (Rsa) 68 66 70, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 68 68 68, Simon Wakefield 70 69 65.
205 Steve Webster 70 70 65, Phillip Archer 70 69 66, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 67 65 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 68 64, Simon Khan 67 67 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 67 68.
206 Anthony Wall 68 72 66, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 69 66 71, Sven Struver (Ger) 73 67 66, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 66 71 69, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 68 70 68, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 65 70 71.
207 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 66 69 72, Richard Green (Aus) 69 67 71, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 69 69 69, Johan Edfors (Swe) 69 70 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 69 67.
208 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 68 71 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 72 69, David Griffiths 70 70 68, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 64 72 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 67 70, Paul Broadhurst 72 69 67, Marc Warren 69 69 70, Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 71 67, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 69 71 68, Padraig Harrington 71 68 69
209 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 67 73 69, Markus Brier (Aut) 71 68 70, Alastair Forsyth 72 68 69, Terry Price (Aus) 71 69 69, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 70 69 70, David Higgins 73 68 68
210 Gary Lockerbie 71 70 69, Stephen Dodd 66 73 71, David Howell 69 72 69, Ariel Canete (Arg) 67 71 72, Thaworn Wiratchant (Tha) 68 73 69.
211 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 66 72, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 70 70, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 68 72 71, Alexander Noren (Swe) 70 71 70, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 73 68 70, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 67 71, Paul Lawrie 70 69 72, Ian Garbutt 67 73 71
212 Lee Slattery 72 68 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 68 73 71, Graeme Storm 71 67 74
213 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70 72, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 68 72 73.
214 Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 68 72 74, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 69 74
215 Rafael Echenique (Arg) 72 69 74.
216 Mark Pilkington 71 70 75200 Soren Hansen (Den) 69 68 63.