Golf: Oldcorn blown off course

Andrew Oldcorn’s hopes of securing a place in next month’s Seve Trophy were blown off course today in the Madeira Island Open.

Oldcorn was one of 21 players forced to return to Santo da Serra this morning to complete their third rounds after fog caused play to be abandoned last night.

The Volvo PGA champion had just four holes of his round to play and was one shot off the lead when play resumed. But he dropped four shots over the closing stretch as a gusty wind, strong enough to close nearby Funchal airport, buffeted the course perched 2,300 feet above sea level.

Oldcorn ran up a double-bogey five on his first hole of the day, the 15th, and also bogeyed the 16th and 18th to card a 78 and drop back to three under par.

That put him four shots off the lead held by Holland’s Maarten Lafeber and Spain’s Ivo Giner and importantly only one ahead of England’s Steve Webster, his rival for the final automatic qualifying place in the Great Britain and Ireland side to take on Continental Europe at Druid’s Glen.

Oldcorn needs to finish in at least the top five to earn the €22,500 required to overhaul Webster, but the midlander can increase that amount with a good performance of his own.

The 26-year-old could also render Oldcorn’s performance irrelevant by finishing in the top 10 to overtake the absent Paul Casey. He began the final round in joint 17th, just two shots off that top 10 place.