Patrick Reed was ready to hunt down leading pair Calum Hill and Freddy Schott after moving into contention at the 2026 Bapco Energies Bahrain Championship.
The American shared the honours for the best round of Moving Day with a 66 to leave him 12 under par, four behind overnight leader Hill and two behind Schott.
Five birdies and an eagle helped him on his way, with a bogey at the 16th the only blemish on his card.
“Hit a lot of quality iron shots early on," he said. "Made a couple of putts and just kind of gave myself that confidence going on that back nine. It's always nice to steal one there on 13 with an eagle.
“Just need to work a little bit on the chipping. Every time I seem to miss the green and I'm having to chip, I'm kind of struggling which is not normal for me. So just dial that in a little bit, we should be good for tomorrow.”
Reed matched Sweden's Mikael Lindberg for the round of the day and said: “It couldn't have been more perfect out there for scoring. The greens were still receptive but at the same time, it was warm, so the ball's traveling a little bit, and then also there's very little wind.
“So if you're able to kind of go shoot a number, today was the day to do it. Hopefully just get myself back in this tournament and, we'll see what the lead's at but hopefully go out and put some pressure on them tomorrow.
“You'd always love the lead going into Sunday. But I've won golf tournaments leading, I've won golf tournaments chasing so for me, just as long as we're close enough to the lead to be able to have a chance tomorrow, it's all I could really do today.
“It just depends, are you going to be the hunted or the hunter? So it looks like I'm going to be the hunter tomorrow.”
Another former Masters Champion, Sergio Garcia, was on the prowl alongside him after a round of 68 to share third place with Reed and Grant Forrest, who shot 67.
Garcia birdied the second then had three in a row from the ninth, with another at the 13th before his only dropped shot also came at the 16th.
Despite following Friday's 66 with a 68, he said. "Today I played better than yesterday. I felt like I hit the ball better, got off to a nice start, solid start, and then in the middle of the round I started getting hot, which was nice.
“And unfortunately, the last five holes, I felt like I played quite well and hit a lot of good putts. Unfortunately they would all kind of burn the edge or lip out or something like that.
“But, you know, it was a good, solid day and I'm happy with it, for sure. I felt good and I felt like I hit a lot of good shots.”
Garcia is a 16-time winner on the DP World Tour and another this week would take his win total to a number with huge personal significance.
“Obviously, yeah, 17 would be really nice," he said. "I'm going to have to play really well.
“A lot of good things with the number 17 for me, with getting married in '17, winning the Masters in '17 and all those things.
“So hopefully we'll be able to get the 17th, but if not this week, hopefully soon.”
