Murphy ahead of Walton

Philip Walton's hopes of a rapid return to the European Tour were put in jeopardy by the blustery west wind that hit the third round of the Qualifying School in southern Spain.

After sharing fourth place following his thunderous one, three, three finish to the opening round, Walton enters the fourth stage today with 16 other players, in 71st position. He returned a 78 at Sotogrande yesterday for a three-over-par total of 219.

Only the leading 75 and ties after 72 holes will go forward to the card-winning final 36 holes on Sunday and Monday.

David Higgins and Peter Lawrie face an even more difficult task to avoid an early return to Ireland after both shot 76, the former at Sotogrande, and the latter at San Roque where he was two under par after eight holes. Higgins stands on a four over par 220 (joint 88th), while Lawrie is at six over (108th equal).

However, Gary Murphy recovered from a double bogey seven at Sotogrande's sixth to score a level par 72 and remain two under, sharing 25th place. Spaniard Ivo Giner remained as leader, his 70 putting him four shots ahead on an 11-under-par total of 205.

Walton came to grief because he missed too many greens, and his putting with the broomhandle club in the boisterous, chilly wind was suspect. A birdie at the long second had him four under par overall after seven holes, but he then ran up the first of two card-wrecking double bogeys after missing the elevated eighth green with his five-wood tee shot. He duffed his chip into a bunker, then took three more shots to hole out.

He turned in 39, and although he got a second birdie at the 10th to get under par, this time the closing holes proved a nightmare. He missed the 15th and 16th greens, compounding his error at the latter with a poor return and three putts for another double bogey, then used the long putter three times from 50 feet at the last to drop yet another stroke.

Walton will probably need to break par at San Roque today to keep alive his card chances.

Inaccurate approach play saw Higgins sprinkle his card with five bogeys, while Lawrie had no answer to the conditions on the exposed section at San Roque, being six over par for the last 10 holes.

Murphy did not have an auspicious start, hitting his first iron shot into greenside sand to lose a shot, but a 15-foot birdie putt at the short second repaired the damage, prior to a series of adventures at the sixth.

There Murphy drove behind a tree, and after playing out sideways, hit his next shot with a three-wood into scrubland some 40 yards left of the green. He was thankful to hole out for a seven, and even more relieved to hole a 30 foot par-saving putt at the short eighth.

After that there were few alarms. Birdie threes from five yards at the ninth and 11th, were followed by his fourth birdie at the long 14th where he was home with a five-iron. But a sub-par outing eluded Murphy when he misjudged the wind at the 15th, came up short of the green, and took three more to get down.

Former Ryder Cup player Steven Richardson had the second ace of the week with a seven-iron at San Roque's seventh.