Day three digest: 2021 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters

Everything you need to know from day three at Real Club Valderrama.

Canter galloped ahead, Fitz was loving life near the top of the leaderboard, Lipsky went low and JB was dropping bombs in round three of the 2021 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.

Here is everything you need to know from Saturday in Sotogrande.

Laurie leaps into lead

Laurie Canter broke 70 for the first time at Valderrama on Friday, five years after he carded an 89 at the 1997 Ryder Cup venue. On Saturday he followed up his second round 65 with a 67 to get to seven under and lead by three shots heading into the final round. "The golf course doesn’t give you loads," he said. "Although, as we all know, there’s opportunities to drop shots here. I think what it means is I can go out tomorrow and play how I have these last couple of days. The score I end up on will be competitive, I think. That gives me a lot of confidence going in." The last five players to lead by two shots or more after 54 holes at Valderrama have gone on to win. Canter could be lifting his first European Tour trophy on Sunday.

Fitz loving life at Valderrama

Matt Fitzpatrick said after round two that he had been itching to play in his two weeks off since the Ryder Cup and we can understand why. The Englishman carded a 70 on day three and is Canter's nearest challenger as he looks to make it seven wins in as many seasons on the European Tour. "I’m excited to be in the final group," he said. "The aim at the start of the week is to be up there. It doesn’t get better than having a chance to win on Sunday. I’ll go out there and enjoy it. The most important thing around here is patience. You can’t chase anything. You can’t just get driver out and try and be aggressive. You’ve got to be sensible and it’s more important to not drop shots than it is to make birdies."

Lipsky enjoying European return

Before this week, David Lipsky had not played an event on European soil since the 2019 Open de France but on Saturday it looked like he had never been away. The American shook off an opening bogey with eight birdies to card a 64 which matches the lowest ever round at this event. The key to his success? A change of putter. "I’ve been hitting it pretty well all week, my putter was just really cold the first two days," he said. "I sent some videos to my putting coach last night, he gave me a few tips and I switched out my putter. I just needed to change something and apparently it worked. I’ve never done that before (changed equipment between rounds). I was terrible the last couple of days and I needed to do something. So I switched it up. I have a couple of putters I brought with me, I put the Scotty in play and today was great." He enters the final round at three under.

Fitz being Fitz

In round two he was holing out from the sand and in round three he was dong it off the grass. The man is a wizard with a wedge.

JB makes a monster

48 feet from the pin, big right to left break, greens rolling at nearly 13 feet on the stimpmeter. Not a problem for Joachim B. Hansen.