Pavon replaces himself, Vaillant 3rd in ISPS Handa Championship

A master response. After two rather neutral rounds for him (68), given the rather low points at the beginning of the week, and a start to the third that left him far from the lead (-1 on the attack on the 12th, without mistakes or exploits), Matthieu pushed Pavon hit the gas pedal hard at the ISPS Handa Championship: five birdies in the last seven holes to fully relaunch himself in the race for the crown (-10) and position himself three shots off the lead (8th).

For his second return to the DP World Tour this season, after finishing 5th at the Singapore Classic, the Frenchman looks set to shine in a tournament that bears the name of one of his main sponsors (ISPS Handa). This is obviously not the only reason for his motivation, as Pavon, who became one of the stars of the PGA Tour at the beginning of the year, has only won once on the DP World Tour, in Madrid, in October. A springboard success.

The Bordeaux player is not the only Habs to shine in Japan as Tom Vaillant (age 22) is doing slightly better than his famous elder at the moment. Rookie on this circuit, recently disaffected (five missed cuts in the last six tournaments) and shaped by Jean-François Lucquin, Vaillant finished a very fine second round with a birdie, the fifth of his day (bogeys on 9 and 11), enough to place you two shots behind Casey Jarvis, along with Ryosuke Kinoshita, Hao-Tong Li, Keita Nakajima and Sebastian Soderberg (-11).

The South African actually leads the way (-13) after co-signing the best card of the day (64), without any errors (six birdies) and this time in no way affected by fog or the absence of light, as was the case during the first rounds : “It was definitely not an easy day. We had to be patient and play intelligently to get closer to the flags. I feel good this week. I’m more of an aggressive player, so it’s not easy to ask me to be good. It has to be this Sunday though, I live for this kind of moment. »

Promoted to the DP World Tour, Jarvis will have to deal with the threat of Yannik Paul, the German is much more experienced (winner at Mallorca Open 2022) and only placed one shot away (four birdies including one on 18, two bogeys) : “I don’t look too much at the leaderboard, I’m mainly focused on my game. It’s really not easy to make birdies here, you have to be serious, the flag positions are not easy. »

While 20 players are within four shots, Jeong-Weon Ko is one of them (17th, -9). The Frenchman shot a superb 65 (six birdies, one bogey) and can aim big this Sunday. Julien Brun is not very far away (27., -7). Antoine Rozner (48th, -4) and Mike Lorenzo-Vera (56th, -2) are more so.