Lee Westwood laughed off his chances of a Ryder Cup wild card after claiming a one-shot lead in the final qualifying event, despite a late stumble in Silkeborg.
Day three leaders
-16 Lee Westwood
-15 Steven Brown, Thomas Detry, Jonathan Thomson
-14 Matt Wallace
-12 Christian Bezuidenhout, Callum Shinkwin
Lee Westwood laughed off his chances of a Ryder Cup wild card after claiming a one-shot lead in the final qualifying event, despite a late stumble in Silkeborg.
Westwood had surged to the top of the leaderboard in the Made in Denmark event with two birdies on the front nine and five more in succession from the 10th, only to find water off the tee on the 18th to run up a double-bogey six.
The resulting 67 left the 45-year-old on 16 under par and a shot behind compatriot Jonathan Thomson, only for Thomson to then also take six on the last after a wayward drive.
Westwood therefore ended the day a shot in front of Thomson, fellow Englishman Steven Brown and Belgium's Thomas Detry, with England's Matt Wallace another stroke back.
Asked about the possibility of winning his 24th European Tour title on Sunday to earn a wild card from European captain Thomas Bjorn, Westwood - who is one of Bjorn's five vice-captains - said: "He doesn't want an old man like me playing, he wants the young kids in.
"I've played 10 and I know when my game is really on song ready for the Ryder Cup and I think there's more people valuing a pick than me."
Speaking about his round, Westwood added on Sky Sports: "I played great all day. I made one bad swing off the 18th tee but it would be stupid to focus on that as well as I played.
"I had it under control all day and stood over the ball, the wind just puffed up a little bit and I leant on it instead of just swinging past myself and it squirted out right.
"But it was a good round of golf, made five birdies in a row on that back nine and it was good fun. I nearly holed it on 10, then hit two great shots at 11, great tee shot on 12, nice tee shot on 13 and then two big hits up the hill on 14 for me to get it nearly flag-high in two."
Thorbjorn Olesen occupies the only automatic qualifying place still up for grabs and can make certain of a Ryder Cup debut with a top-six finish, while England's Eddie Pepperell and Matt Fitzpatrick need to win to have a chance of dislodging the Dane.
A third round of 66 kept Fitzpatrick in the frame and left him six shots behind Westwood, but Pepperell's slim chance disappeared with a 74 to fall 13 strokes off the pace. Olesen, who made the halfway cut with nothing to spare, is nine shots off the lead after a 67.
Day three report
Lee Westwood laughed off his chances of a Ryder Cup wild card after claiming a one-shot lead in the final qualifying event, despite a late stumble in Silkeborg.
Westwood had surged to the top of the leaderboard in the Made in Denmark event with two birdies on the front nine and five more in succession from the 10th, only to find water off the tee on the 18th to run up a double-bogey six.
The resulting 67 left the 45-year-old on 16 under par and a shot behind compatriot Jonathan Thomson, only for Thomson to then also take six on the last after a wayward drive.
Westwood therefore ended the day a shot in front of Thomson, fellow Englishman Steven Brown and Belgium's Thomas Detry, with England's Matt Wallace another stroke back.
Asked about the possibility of winning his 24th European Tour title on Sunday to earn a wild card from European captain Thomas Bjorn, Westwood - who is one of Bjorn's five vice-captains - said: "He doesn't want an old man like me playing, he wants the young kids in.
"I've played 10 and I know when my game is really on song ready for the Ryder Cup and I think there's more people valuing a pick than me."
Speaking about his round, Westwood added on Sky Sports: "I played great all day. I made one bad swing off the 18th tee but it would be stupid to focus on that as well as I played.
"I had it under control all day and stood over the ball, the wind just puffed up a little bit and I leant on it instead of just swinging past myself and it squirted out right.
"But it was a good round of golf, made five birdies in a row on that back nine and it was good fun. I nearly holed it on 10, then hit two great shots at 11, great tee shot on 12, nice tee shot on 13 and then two big hits up the hill on 14 for me to get it nearly flag-high in two."
Thorbjorn Olesen occupies the only automatic qualifying place still up for grabs and can make certain of a Ryder Cup debut with a top-six finish, while England's Eddie Pepperell and Matt Fitzpatrick need to win to have a chance of dislodging the Dane.
A third round of 66 kept Fitzpatrick in the frame and left him six shots behind Westwood, but Pepperell's slim chance disappeared with a 74 to fall 13 strokes off the pace. Olesen, who made the halfway cut with nothing to spare, is nine shots off the lead after a 67.
Day two report
South Africa's Christiaan Bezuidenhout claimed the halfway lead in the Made in Denmark event as local favourite Thorbjorn Olesen narrowly kept his Ryder Cup destiny in his own hands.
Bezuidenhout added a 65 to his opening 66 for a halfway total of 13 under par, two shots ahead of first-round leader Jonathan Thomson and Lee Westwood, with another Englishman Sam Horsfield another stroke adrift.
Olesen occupies the final automatic Ryder Cup qualifying place and can make certain of a debut with a top-six finish, but had to par the final three holes of his second round of 69 simply to make the cut on the mark of two under par.
England's Eddie Pepperell (69) and Matt Fitzpatrick (68) need to win the event to have a chance of dislodging Olesen and head into the weekend eight and nine shots off the lead respectively.
"I actually feel really comfortable with my swing and my set up, I just seem to lose it just a little bit with the driver and the same with the irons," Olesen told Sky Sports after a 69 compiled alongside Ryder Cup vice-captain Westwood and wild card contender Thomas Pieters.
"I feel like I'm very close to playing good but I'm just missing the little piece. The first three or four holes [on Thursday] there was a little bit too much going on in my mind but today the whole way round I felt comfortable and I feel like I am really close to shooting a good number and start playing well like I've done the last three months."
Westwood laughed off his chances of earning a surprise wild card by winning at Silkeborg on Sunday, but the 45-year-old had some advice for his playing partners over the first two days
"I don't think they should be worrying too much about the Ryder Cup, they should be concentrating on the Made in Denmark tournament and trying to do as good as they can in that, then that reflects on the other," Westwood said after a bogey-free 65.
"You can only focus on the job in hand that's controllable and that's to stand on the first tee tomorrow and hit it straight and close to the flag. Then see what happens over the weekend from there and then see what happens when we sit down early next week."
European captain Thomas Bjorn will name his four wild cards on Wednesday and Pieters is certain to be part of the discussion along with the likes of Paul Casey, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson, Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello.
Pieters, who was handed a wild card in 2016 after winning in Denmark and claimed a record four points in the defeat at Hazeltine, is six shots off the lead after a second round of 68.
"I thought I played really well today, I just could not get the ball in the hole," the 26-year-old Belgian said. "Although I shot 68 I felt like I had way many more chances. Even on TV you can see that the greens are pretty rough but you've got to put a good stroke on it and hope it goes in."
Day one report
Eddie Pepperell fared best of the three players still hoping to qualify for the Ryder Cup on day one of the Made In Denmark.
Pepperell fired an opening 70 to sit on two-under, six back of pace-setting Jonathan Thompson as Thorbjorn Olesen remained in prime position to take the final place in Thomas Bjorn's side.
Olesen currently sits in the all-important eighth spot and will stay there providing neither Pepperell nor Matt Fitzpatrick wins the event and with Fitzpatrick on level-par, the Dane's prospects have strengthened despite shooting a disappointing 71 in the morning.
Sky Bet make Pepperell shortest of the trio at 33/1 to lift the trophy, with Fitzpatrick 50/1 and Olesen 66/1.
Pepperell said he remained focused on his game, adding: "I've got to win this golf tournament so if I want to do that I've got to play better than I have done today, I've got to start to feel more comfortable with my swing and that's were all my focus is really lying."
Playing in drizzly morning conditions, Olesen lost his ball on the fourth hole and made double-bogey as his prospects of qualifying in style took a serious hit before the only remaining dangers to him struggled, with Pepperell faring best despite a dropped shot late on.
"I didn’t play well today, didn’t have a tempo in my swing," said Olesen. "If you play well, there’s a lot of chances out there, but if you don’t play well, it’s a really difficult course and unfortunately I didn’t play well. I was a bit nervous on the first tee, but other than that I felt good out there."
Indeed it was the Ryder Cup management team who outshone those hoping to represent them, captain Bjorn shooting two-under and vice captain Lee Westwood ending with a flourish to register a four-under 68.
Westwood teed off alongside Thomas Pieters, who will need a wild card if he's to feature in Paris, and the Belgian made a blistering start with four birdies in five but failed to find another as he slumped to a round of 69.
At the top of the leaderboard, Thompson leads for the first time in his brief European Tour career and could yet write the story of the week to usurp the Ryder Cup sub-plots.
The Englishman beat leukaemia before earning his card at Qualifying School to become the tallest player on the circuit at just shy of seven feet tall, and it was his trademark power which helped create nine birdies in a scintillating 64.
Thomson has played just 17 events in a shaky start to life on Tour but has made four of his last five cuts as he battles to retain his playing privileges at 216th on the Race to Dubai and he's into 40/1 for a breakthrough success.
"It’s fantastic to get off to a great start for a change," he told europeantour.com. "I have been playing some great golf recently but not scoring, so to get off to a low scoring start today was great.
"I had a good lesson on iron play in Prague last week and it has really tightened up my iron play and given me more opportunities to give myself more birdie chances. Last week I played fantastic and didn’t hole anything, whereas today I played to a similar level and holed some putts.
"It would be great for me to have a positive result this week. I had a terrible start to the season and a really positive result would give me a huge confidence boost going into the rest of the season."
Our 150/1 headline tip Hunter Stewart became just the second player this season to birdie his first five holes of an event and eventually signed for a six-under 66 to sit second in a group which includes home hope Lucas Bjerregaard, the new favourite at 9/1.