Scot Dear and English Dodd on top

It took 3 days and a half to complete the first two rounds of the Open de Mogador. The weather was so bad that players could not play on first and third day of initial schedule. Players, officials, greenkeepers had to sweat it out and waited for better weather conditions. Typhoon has left the area during Thursday night and today sky was clear at day break.

Two players enjoyed this fair weather and signed for 64, the first official course record. Scottish Gavin Dear and English Lawrence Dodd took a five stroke advantage ahead of Frenchman Jérôme Forestier.

Dodd, 26 year old, is playing in Morocco for first time. “I had full category on Challenge Tour in 2008 but I did not play very well so last year I had a poor ranking. I am a good friend of Steve Lewton who finished 4th on the Alps Tour order of merit last year and he told me that the Alps Tour is well run. It is the only satellite tour with a full season so I decided to be a member and I made qualifying school.”

As amateur, Dodd played for English Elite Squad and won the Greek championship in 2004. As professional, his best performance was a top 40 at Saint Omer. He has today a real opportunity to  get his maiden victory.

“I only missed one fairway in 36 holes. I am used to play in windy conditions so I handled well tough conditions we had. The greens are softer thanks to the rain so I could be a little more aggressive.”

Scot Dear is racing for a maiden win too. The English-Scottish duel of the third and final round will for sure be thrilling as both of players are in a very good form today. Fellow players in the group of Dear made this comment at recording : “We won’t him for a long time on the Alps Tour…”

However, Dear felt a little sick this morning and confessed his card could have been even better.

“ I have been training on the course for more than 10 days. As we had two days during which we did not play it helps me a lot because I knew the course very much. I started my second round with 3 birdies in a raw and today I played well but honestly I did not feel very well due to something I ate. I could have scored 61 or 62. My goal this morning was not to fall ill on course ! This afternoon, the target is to play about 68, 67 and not to drop a shot as I did on the first 36 holes.”

The last round will start at the very beginning of the afternoon. It will be a shot gun start for 46 players including 4 amateurs as the cut is fixed at +3.

At Essaouira
Agathe Séron