McGinley soars into share of lead

Paul McGinley took off his captain’s hat and showed what he is still capable of at the KLM Open in Holland today.

The 44-year-old, who leads Britain and Ireland in the Vivendi Seve Trophy for a second time this coming week, covered Hilversum’s back nine in a stunning 28 shots – and from 33rd place at halfway was suddenly sharing the lead.

McGinley, down at 568th in the world and without a European Tour win since 2005, grabbed five successive birdies from the 12th and then capped that with an eagle on the 499-yard last.

The former Ryder Cup hero still had eight holes to play in his third round, however, after the field were split in half and sent off the first and ninth tees following delays on Thursday, first for vandalism on four greens and then flooding.

McGinley stood eight under par and part of a five-way tie with England’s Simon Dyson – one of his team in Paris – and David Lynn, German Marcel Siem and Indian Shiv Kapur.

Dyson, twice a winner here, had regained top spot at the start of the day with two closing birdies for a second-round 66, but he then came up short of the second green and bogeyed.

Lynn’s name is also on the trophy, his victory in 2004 being his only one in 350 events on the circuit.

The expected move forward from Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood did not come over the opening stretch, however.

Both bogeyed the first and fourth, leaving US Open champion McIlroy three under and joint 18th, while Westwood was two under and only 32nd.