If anyone can, Simon Khan

Simon Khan quickly extended his overnight lead in the early stages of the third round of the Mallorca Classic today.

Starting the day three shots clear of the field, par at the first two holes was enough for Khan to move four ahead of the chasing pack headed by pre-tournament favourite Sergio Garcia.

A strong breeze was making scoring difficult when the leaders eventually began their rounds, Peter Fowler running up a triple bogey seven on the first and Emanuele Canonica taking six on the same hole.

Spain’s Carlos Rodiles also dropped a shot on the short par four after pulling his drive behind a tree, but Garcia and Khan safely made par.

However Garcia, as short as 3-1 favourite to claim the £115,000 first prize after turning down the chance to compete for £1million with some of the tour’s star names in the World Match Play, then bogeyed the second to drop back to six under par.

That left Khan four clear of Garcia and Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez, who had made the biggest move up the leaderboard with birdies at the second and third.

Plenty of danger lay in store however, Jonathan Lomas running up a 10 on the 11th after making several visits to the water which guards the front of the 313-yard par four.

Khan is chasing his second victory of the season following his shock victory in the Wales Open in June.

The 32-year-old from Essex had made a total of nine visits to the European Tour qualifying school and taken a variety of jobs, from taxi driving to roofing and pipe fitting, to fund his golf before his triumph at Celtic Manor.

Ranked 255th in the world at the start of the week, Khan equalled the tour record with a front nine of 27 in his second round 61 before coming from four behind with seven to play on the final day to beat Paul Casey in a play-off.