Portugal Open 2017: Matt Wallace Hangs on to Lead After Round 3

Matt Wallace remains clear of the field at the end of the third round at the 2017 Portugal Open at the Morgado Golf Resort on Saturday.

The Englishman shot a round of 73 to maintain his lead and is three strokes clear of Germany's Sebastian Heisele.

Heisele's effort of 71 trimmed Wallace's overall advantage heading into the final round.

Here is the current leaderboard via the European Tour:

Position	Player	Overall	Round 3
1	Matt Wallace	-17	73
2	Sebastian Heisele	-14	71
3	Sam Walker	-13	68
4	Matthieu Pavon	-12	70
5	Tapio Pulkkanen	-11	69
T6	Oliver Fisher	-10	68
T6	Mark Foster	-10	67
T6	Marcus Armitage	-10	71
T6	Jose-Filipe Lima	-10	71
T6	Erik van Rooyen	-10	72
T6	Ben Evans	-10	73
T6	Julian Suri	-10	74

Saturday Recap

Promotion to the Challenge Tour has been grasped with both hands by Wallace as the 27-year-old dominates in Portugal.

His second round of 66 damaged the charge of his opponents, and he maintained form on Saturday after poor weather conditions.

Andrew Redington/Getty Images

Four birdies and four bogeys told the story of a mixed third day for the tournament leader, but only Heisele and countryman Sam Walker could respond with consistency.

The second-placed German posted three birdies as he cut the margin between himself and Wallace.

Walker's round of 68 has fired him into contention, but he remains fours shots adrift of the lead.

The Challenge Tour highlighted Wallace's control and power:

Matthieu Pavon and Tapio Pulkkanen are also still in the hunt at 12 under and 11 under, respectively.

Pavon posted five birdies during an excellent third round, as Pulkkanen went two better with seven birdies on Day 3. 

Oliver Fisher's strong round of 68 left him adrift of Wallace by seven shots, and he explained the difficulties experienced on the course, per the European Tour.

"The only tricky thing out there is controlling the ball in the wind," said Fisher. "As long as you are driving it okay, you don’t necessarily need to be hitting fairways, as long as you’re controlling the ball and your distances.

I had a few nice numbers, hit some decent shots, and putted nicely. It was a good, grinding round. I made some nice putts on the front nine. I hit a lovely shot into the eighth and made a par from there. That was probably one of my best shots of the day." 

In current form, Wallace is the undoubted favourite, and he appears at home in the Portuguese setting.

He would have liked to have retained a deeper buffer heading into Sunday, but the rest of the field will need to play magnificent golf to get near his expected effort.