Lawrie leads as weather takes turn for the worse

Former Open champion Paul Lawrie was today enhancing his reputation as a bad-weather specialist in the Portuguese Open.

Lawrie shrugged off three separate delays caused by torrential rain to claim a share of the lead in the delayed third round at Oitavos Golf Club.

The Scot carded birdies at the third, fourth and seventh to be out in 33, and also birdied the daunting par-four 10th to lie 10 under par with six holes to play.

He was joined at the top of the leaderboard by veteran Englishman Barry Lane, who recovered from three-putting the first to also fire four birdies.

The duo were one shot ahead of Portugal’s overnight joint-leader Jose-Filipe Lima, who got off to a terrible start with a triple-bogey seven on the first this afternoon.

Lima, who represented France until switching nationalities at the end of last year, hit back immediately with a birdie on the second and added four more to remain in the hunt for his second tour title.

Former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst, who shared the halfway lead with Lima, had also fought back from early mistakes to lie in fourth place on eight under alongside Welshman Stephen Dodd.

Lawrie made just 12 cuts in 23 events last year, finishing 140th on the Order of Merit. That would have cost him his tour card for this season but for a 10-year exemption for his victory at Carnoustie in 1999.

The Scot has slumped to 346th in the world rankings and has not won since the 2002 Wales Open, where he was forced to play 36 holes on the final day due to delays for rain, fog and lightning.

The 36-year-old’s first tour win in the 1996 Open Catalonia also came when the tournament was reduced to 36 holes because of high winds.

He did master the Shamal winds in Qatar to win over 72 holes in 1999 before his famous win at Carnoustie a few months later, and won the Dunhill Links Championship last year when more bad weather forced the tournament into a fifth day.

Even his win in the 2002 Scottish Matchplay championship was affected by bad weather, the final moved from Deeside because of flooding to his native Aberdeen, only to be further delayed by fog.