Jimmy Lytle maintained his lead for a second straight day as the chasing pack shuffled again on day three of the Bermuda Open Championships yesterday at Port Royal.

Lytle, of Ocean’s Reach, Florida, opened a two-stroke lead going into today’s final round despite carding a two-over-par 73.

It was his highest score of the week and leaves him at two under, the only player at sub-par among the professionals.

Three players shot in the 60s yesterday to move into contention and capitalise on Mark Davis’s disappointing round of 78 in calmer conditions. Davis finished the front nine with bogeys on holes 4 and 9 and had pars on 10 to 14 before the next three holes undid all his good work the previous day.

Davis shot a double-bogey on the 14th, a bogey on the 15th and another double-bogey on the pretty but unpredictable par-three 16th to lose ground on the leader.

Another British player, Barry Lane, moved from eighth to second place after his three-under 68, while Spain’s Miguel Ángel Martín and Ben Polland, of the United States, are very much in contention after rounds of 69.

Lane’s top round of the tournament — and best for the day — contained three birdies, holes 7, 11 and 13 while Lytle had two birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey on 9.

Defending champion Justin Regier, of the United States, is one of five players on 217, six strokes behind the leader, including Bermudian Michael Sims who shot a 72.

However, six strokes may be too much to make up on the final day and the winner will likely come from the top three or four which contains Martín, a three-times winner on the European Tour, who has also signed up to play in this weekend’s Grey Goose World Par 3 Championship.

Martín, who has represented Spain on several occasions at the World Cup and Alfred Dunhill Cup, winning the event in 2000 alongside Miguel Ángel Jiménez and José María Olazábal, is beginning to hit form in the Bermuda Open at the right time, his best round of the three days containing four birdies. He also had two bogeys.

Polland had a double-bogey on hole 1 but recovered to post his best round of 69, leaving him four strokes behind in fourth place. Polland carded four birdies, an eagle, two bogeys and a double-bogey in his round.

Yesterday’s third round was played in much calmer conditions than the day before and also last year’s third round which was hit by gale force winds, forcing the golfers to complete 36 holes on the final day when Regier pipped Sims to the title. They are level now at four-over-par and with a top-three finish still within their reach.

Camiko Smith is the next Bermudian in the field, eighteenth overall, after his second round of 73 put him on 225, one of four players at 12-over par for the tournament.

Three Bermuda players head the Amateur Division where Damian Palanyandi moved into a two-way tie with Mark Phillips after his even-par 71 wiped out Phillips’s seven-stroke lead.

Phillips carded a 78 while Joshua Cabrera, also of Bermuda, shot an 80 and is ten strokes back in third place.

Results, page 18