Bickerton and McGowan share Perth lead

John Bickerton is hoping playing with Ross McGowan tomorrow will prove a good omen as the English pair head into the final round of the Johnnie Walker Classic tied for the lead.

Bickerton secured his last victory on the European Tour at the Alfred Dunhill Championship in December 2007 when playing with his younger compatriot in the final round.

And they will tee off together once again on Sunday after moving to the top of the leaderboard on 14 under at The Vines Resort and Country Club today.

After carding a six-under-par 66 to reach that mark, Bickerton could hardly help but smile after seeing who his co-leader is.

“Ross, isn’t it? Yeah, he’s doing well and funny enough, the last time I won, I played with Ross at Leopard Creek,” the 39-year-old said.

“It might be his turn but you never know.”

McGowan, whose best Tour finish to date was fifth at that Alfred Dunhill Championship, matched the day’s best round with a seven-under 65 as he and Bickerton opened up a two-stroke gap on the rest of the field in the £1.25m (€1.39m) event which is sanctioned by the Asian, European and Australasian Tours.

Sharing third spot on 12 under is a group of four players that includes Raphael Jacquelin of France (66), Chile’s Felipe Aguilar (68), Australian Terry Pilkadaris (68) and New Zealand amateur Danny Lee (69).

Spain’s Ignacio Garrido bogeyed his final hole to card a 70, which dropped him into a tie for seventh on 11 under with Korea’s Bae Sang-Moon (65), Australian Michael Sim (67), Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen (69) and Hiroyuki Fujita of Japan (70).

Ireland’s Peter Lawrie had a share of the lead midway through the round but a double bogey on the 16th saw him finish with a 69 as he joined compatriot Damien McGrane (72), Ulsterman Gareth Maybin (68) and three others on 10 under.

Lee Westwood is in contention on nine under after carding a 68 that included an eagle, five birdies and a double bogey while Colin Montgomerie is seven under after a level-par 72.

Anthony Kim’s hopes of mounting a challenge suffered a severe setback when the world number 11 became the second player in two days after Westwood to play a quadruple-bogey nine on the par-five third during his round of 75 that put him on five under.

Bickerton was eight under after two rounds and parred his first six holes today before rolling in a 12-foot putt for his first birdie of the day on the seventh.

It helped to ignite the 39-year-old who birdied six of the last 12 holes for a six-under 66 that put him back into contention after a poor run that has seen him miss the cut in his last four tournaments.

“So far, so good. Obviously the last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle after taking time off in the winter and then to come back last week was the first sign of actually playing decent,” said the European Tour veteran.

“The difference this week is that the putts are going in and sometimes that’s what makes the difference.”

With 30 players within six strokes of the lead, Bickerton knows there is still much to play for in the final round.

“The Tour is so strong these days that anybody is capable of winning.

“These guys wouldn’t be here unless they were capable of winning. It’s a strong, strong Tour nowadays – it’s not like it used to be.

“And they are all young as well, which really peeves me off,” he added, laughing.

McGowan put himself into a strong position to claim his first win on the European Tour after firing seven birdies in a bogey-free round.

The 26-year-old began the day on seven under, three shots behind overnight co-leaders McGrane and Anthony Kang of the United States, and was out in 34 after birdies on the sixth and ninth.

He picked up five more on the back nine including back-to-back birdies on the last two holes to finish his day tied with Bickerton.

“I just hit the ball nicely really and hit a lot of fairways. Around here if you can do that, the second shots and third shots aren’t too tough,” McGowan said.

“I just played solid and hit the ball fairly close to about 10 foot most of the day and made a few putts.

“It’s very balanced and you can make a lot of birdies out there, and several guys have proven it today.”