Clément

Berardo

The Frenchman announced himself to the European Tour with T3 at the Trophee Hassan II at the start of last month and he was in the mood to repeat that performance on day one at Bro Hof Slott GC. His round began with two sedate pars, giving no hint of what was to come - in fact he would card only three more pars in the entire round and his first move was backwards, with a bogey on No. 3. He turned it round by marking red at 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10. He added two more at 12 and 15, but spiced it up with blue on 11, 13 and 16. In finishing with back-to-back birdies on 17 and 18 he posted 67 and claimed a share of the clubhouse lead as the morning wave made their way back to the clubhouse, alongside Andrew Johnston, Scott Henry and Sebastien Gros. Late in the day they were joined at the top by Marc Warren and Florian Fritsch.

The Frenchman is one off the lead, held by his third round playing partner Chris Hanson, who shot 5-under, as the two sparked a pincer movement on the pre-round leaders. Berardo is in uncharted waters on the European Tour, the nearest to this sort of pressure being a 54-hole T10 in this year’s South African Open, prior to ending the week T21. It is also some contrast to the 81-84 he shot in the recent Open de Espana. He was anything but raw on day three, despite losing a shot on the third hole. He responded with red numbers on 4, 6, 10, 12 and 15 before dropping another stroke on 16, with the impetus reasserted thanks to a final hole birdie that sets him up for a career best finish tomorrow. He shares T2 with David Dixon.

With a previous European Tour best of T21 at this year’s South African Open the French rookie easily surpassed his pre-tournament expectations, but may rue a back nine that betrayed a few nerves. The flipside is that he showed plenty elsewhere in the round to suggest that he’s a player to watch out for. He got the ball rolling with a chip-in birdie on the 4th which tied the lead, before a bogey-6 on the very next hole dropped him back. On 13 he nailed his approach to tap-in range to again threaten the lead, only for bogeys to follow on 14, 15 and 17. A closing birdie allowed him to finish T3 on 4-under 284 and go a long way towards retaining his card.