Hilversum, Oct 12: Lafeber's day was just the opposite to Hansen's as he wrested the lead with an exhilarating early run, picking up six strokes in his first 10 holes but then found only pars coming home.
He has been knocking on the winner's door for two years and has a third and two fourth places, including tied fourth in the Dunhill Links Trophy two weeks ago, to his credit this season. The 28-year-old from nearby Amsterdam is in line to be the first home winner of the Dutch Open since 1947 when Joop Ruhl won in Eindhoven.
Another Dane, 41-year-old Steen Tinning, who has said he will retire after defending his Madrid Open title in two weeks' time, is in a quartet three strokes off the lead. Also on 202 are Sweden's Fredrik Andersson, Welshman David Park and Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium.


Overnight leader Fredrik Widmark of Sweden, in his rookie year, never recovered from three opening bogeys and slid seven shots off the pace with a 75.


Leading scores after the third round of the Dutch Open golf tournament at the par-70, 6,634-yard, Hilversumsche course on Saturday (Britain unless stated): 199 Soren Hansen (Denmark) 68 65 66 200 Maarten Lafeber (Netherlands) 67 69 64 201 Jamie Donaldson 64 70 67, Gary Murphy (Ireland) 64 70 67 202 Fredrik Andersson (Sweden) 67 66 69, Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 67 69 66, David Park 68 67 67, Steen Tinning (Denmark) 66 67 69 203 Markus Brier (Austria) 68 65 70, Gary Emerson, 68 68 67, Gary Evans 70 68 65, Mathias Gronberg (Sweden) 70 66 67, Jamie Spence 69 69 65 204 Simon Dyson 69 66 69, Alastair Forsyth 64 72 68, Marten Olander (Sweden) 70 68 66 205 Gordon Brand Jnr 67 66 72, Stephen Dodd 67 70 68, Bradley Dredge 67 70 68, Kenneth Ferrie 70 67 68, Santiago Luna (Spain) 69 70 66, David Lynn 65 69 71, Richard Sterne (South Africa) 71 65 69, Anthony Wall 67 70 68


Bureau Report