Calum Hill was happy after a third round of 66 at the 2026 Qatar Masters continued his strong response to last week's play-off disappointment in Bahrain.
Hill led after the second and third rounds of the Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship but was hauled in by Patrick Reed and eventual champion Freddy Schott, who won at the second play-off hole after Hill sent his first shot out of bounds and his fourth into the water.
At nine under par following a fine Moving Day performance, Hill has an outside chance of challenging Reed once again on Sunday in Doha with the American leading on 14 under.
Hill made three birdies in the first five holes, including a 20-foot putt at the first, and after dropping a shot at the sixth he responded with back-to-back gains around the turn and two more at the 14th and 16th.
Reflecting on last week's near miss, he said: "It was really good to be in that position Saturday and Sunday, I did a lot of things right and I did a couple of things wrong.
“It’s hard to manage everything to your best when you haven’t been in those situations regularly, I think, so then you’re kind of learning as you go. So I think I did really well. It will prepare me well for the next time I’m in that scenario and hopefully it’s not too far away.
“It’s good (this week), obviously Thursday I had a little bit of a tougher day – it felt really tough to start with to be honest. But a good day yesterday to get into the weekend, a good day today to progress into Sunday, and then one more good day and we’ll have a little week off. So it’s just a good progression from the start of the year.”
Hill's victory at the Joburg Open last year was his first since the 2021 Cazoo Classic and after a solid finish to the season, including a top-ten finish at the Open de España presented by Madrid, he is happy to have continued his momentum.
“Just continued work from the end of last year," he said. "I felt like things took a turn after, maybe, the Irish Open and things have steadily progressed. It’s just nice to come out at the start of this year with a couple of... one good result and one good position going into a Sunday.
“I played really nice (today). Hit a few more fairways to start with on the front nine which gave it a bit more of a chance, because I think that front nine’s really tough.
“Then kind of played the back nine as you want to, scored on the scoring holes and parred the other ones and… yeah, played really good."
