PGAs of Europe international team championship

SCOTS LEAD BY FOUR FROM
IRISH - BUT IT'S NOT OVER
YET IN SPAIN

SCOTLAND take a four-stroke lead into Saturday's final round of the PGAs of Europe international team golf championship, supported by Glenmuir, at the Roda Beach & Golf Resort in Murcia, Spain.
But, although the Scots – Craig Lee, Sam Cairns and Jim McKinnon – have made all the running so far, this is far from being a one-horse race for the title down the home straight.
Ireland’s Robert Giles, John Dwyer and Leslie Walker narrowed the gap at the top of the leaderboard from a start-of-the-day six shots to a margin of only two with three holes to play but a two-shot swing, under the best two from three scores to count, gave the Scots just that little extra breathing space that may prove crucial in the final analysis.
Worth remembering that if there can be a two-shot turnaround over only three holes, the whole title picture can change over the 18 holes of the final round.
This is not to be pessimistic about Scotland's chances of leading from start to finish. They are definitely favourites but need just one more good team total to clinch what would be their first victory since Scotland won back to back in 1996 and 1997.
Stirling’s Craig Lee was again the Scots’ main man with a four-under-par 68 – his worst round so far. Both his team-mates had two-under-par 70s.
A team score on the day of 138 put Scotland on the 24-under-par 408 mark.
Ireland are on 412 with a third-day total of 136 – their best yet. If Lee is the man in form for Scotland, then Robert Giles is delivering the goods for Ireland. He followed up a pair of 67s with a 66. That was coupled with a 70 from John Dwyer for the Ireland score.
Although there are no prizes for the lowest individual aggregate in what is essentially a team event, one off-the-record side issue on the final day will be the Lee v Giles dual. Lee has the lowest score so are of 18-under-par 198 for the three rounds. Giles, who played for the last Ireland team to win the title in 1998, is on 16-under 200 – four shots ahead of the third best man so far, Niklas Diethelm of Norway.
Norway are lying third in the team event on 416 – four shots adrift of second-placed Ireland and one shto ahead of fourth-placed Wales.
England are occupying fifth spot on 419.
+Picture shows PGA Scottish Region secretary Peter Lloyd, who retires at the end of the year, and the Scotland trio of (left to right) Sam Cairns, Craig Lee and Jim McKinnon.

THIRD ROUND TOTALS
(Par 432: 6 x 72). Teams count best two from three individual scores per round.

408 SCOTLAND 134 136 138 (C Lee 68, S Cairns 70, J McKinnon 70).
412 IRELAND 139 137 136 (R Giles 66, J Dwyer 70, L Walker 81).
416 NORWAY 142 135 139 (N Diethelm 69, J Elgborn 70, J Uppard 79).
417 WALES 136 140 141 (S Edwards 69, M Litton 72, A Evans 77).
419 ENGLAND 139 142 138 (P Simpson 69, P Wesselingh 69, D Muscroft 70).
424 SOUTH AFRICA 143 139 142 (I Ficalbi 69, I Palmer 73, M Truter 75).
425 AUSTRIA 143 144 138 (A Wernig 66, S Beretzki 72, M Krainz 77).
426 ITALY 143 141 142 (J Baglioni 69, M Bianco 73, S Betti 78).
428 GERMANY 142 145 141 (L Spencer 69, S Brown 72, M Stevenson 74), CZECH REPUBLIC 142 139 147 (J Nemecek 72, J Juhaniak 75, P Strougal 77); FINLAND 143 138 147 (S Aho 73, R Soravuo 74, M Martikainen 75).
431 SWITZERLAND 146 142 143 (J-J Dusson 70, R Swords 73, W J Ross 78); SWEDEN 141 142 148 (S Sterner 74, R Thornqvist 74, J Stenberg 75).
432 FRANCE 147 146 139 (D Montesi 69, J C Clugnac 70, Y Yver 83).
441 BELGIUM 149 148 144 (M Willems 71, G D’Hollander 73, F Dhondt 75).
442 BULGARIA 150 143 149 (N Turley 70, S Nickolay 79, P Simard 80); POLAND 145 143 154 (M Proctor 77, D Ekberg 77, M Bednarczyk 78); HOLLAND 150 147 145 (A Hastie 72, B Valk 73, G Loning 76); UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 147 152 143 (J Shippey 71, A Mackenzie 72, S Payne 74).
446 SLOVENIA 148 151 147 (D Kraljic 71, U Gregoric 76, A Osmancevic 77).
447 CROATIA 152 147 148 (M Raic 72, N Smoljenovic 76, D Ljubanopvic 78).
448 PORTUGAL 150 150 148 (A Sequeira 73, N Cavalheiro 75, D Moura 75).
452 LUXEMBOURG 150 152 150 (J Pailler 74, J Pickford 76, L Cain 84).
455 SPAIN 149 154 152 (M Alonso 74, D Romero 78, R do Miguel 80).
459 RUSSIA 153 158 148 (A Nesterov 72, S Staskov 76, L Akremenko 78).

LEADING INDIVIDUAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3 x 72)
198 Craig Lee (Sco) 66 64 68.
200 Robert Giles (Ire) 67 67 66.
204 NIklas Diethelm (Nor) 70 65 69.
208 Jiri Nemececk (Cze) 69 67 72, Simon Edwards (Wal) 68 71 69.
210 Simon Brown (Ger) 69 69 72, Duncan Muscroft (Eng) 69 71 70, Paul Wesselingh (Eng) 70 71 69.
211 Neil Turley (Bul) 71 70 70, Sam Cairns (Sco) 8 73 70, Jim McKinnon (Sco) 69 72 70.