Dredge makes mark with birdie blitz

Bradley Dredge made the biggest move up the leaderboard in the early stages of the Spanish Open third round in Fuerteventura.

Dredge, who fired a third-round 60 on his way to victory in the Madeira Island Open last year, picked up four birdies in his first six holes this morning to improve to five under par.

That was still six shots off the lead however, currently held by his fellow Welshman David Park, who had just started his third round.

Park was 11 under par after rounds of 64 and 65, and has dropped just one shot this week despite the course playing significantly harder than its yardage of 6,638 would suggest.

The 29-year-old was four shots ahead of France’s Christian Cevaer, with Swede Peter Hedblom a stroke further back in third.

Park made an amazing start to his European Tour career, leading from the start of his first event in the Moroccan Open in 1999 only to lose to Miguel Angel Martin on the sixth hole of a play-off.

The following week he went one better by winning the Compaq European Grand Prix and finished 40th in the Order of Merit from just 15 starts, but struggled to recapture that form the following year and had to return to the qualifying school to keep his playing rights in 2001.

He has failed to finish in the top three in 134 events since his win and admitted: “It was a little difficult to deal with because it was a goal of mine and it came a bit quicker than I had envisioned so it was a bit of a shock to the system.

“It was sort of ‘where do I go from here?’ and it took me a while to figure it out.

“There were a couple of years where I stagnated a bit in all aspects of my game while everyone else improved. But I have improved over the last few years and apart from the first round last week I have been playing nicely.”