Lars van der Vight will take a three-stroke lead into the final day of the German Challenge powered by VcG after battling to a level-par round of 72 at Wittelsbacher Golfclub.
The Dutchman, who became the fourth player in HotelPlanner Tour history to shoot 59 during Friday’s second round, mixed a birdie and an eagle with three dropped shots to remain 15 under par for the week, three clear of Denmark’s Jeppe Kristian Andersen, who holds solo second.
Despite recording 13 more strokes than his Friday effort in Neuburg an der Donau, Van der Vight was still pleased with what he produced.
“Obviously after yesterday it was hard dealing with the expectations,” he said.
“I felt like I played some good golf but just got some bad bounces and bad breaks at times. My game was good today so if 72 is the best I can produce, that’s fine.”
Having played the front nine in eight under par on Friday, the 23-year-old endured a less eventful start on moving day, with nine consecutive pars before he made the turn.
The back nine, however, proved far more testing, with bogeys on on ten and eleven dropping him to within two of the chasing pack. Van der Vight responded, though, with an eagle on the par four 12th seeing him pull four clear at the top.
A third dropped shot of the day on 15 was cancelled out by an impressive birdie on the difficult 17th before a par on the last saw the Dutchman remain in the driving seat with 18 to play.
“I felt like I had a lot of chances on the front nine today,” Van der Vight added.
“I had some testing putts for pars that I did make and then on the back nine it was different with some putts I missed and good shots that were rewarded.”
Van der Vight is chasing his maiden HotelPlanner Tour victory after graduating from the Pro Golf Tour last year. The 23-year-old currently sits 66th on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings and would significantly boost his aspirations of back-to-back promotions with a victory this weekend.
“I learnt a lot today, as you do with every single round,” Van der Vight added. “I’m going to try and relax now ahead of tomorrow and see what happens.”
Belgian Matthis Besard fired the low-round-of-day (65) to hold a share of third alongside Slovakian Tadeáš Tetak, Dutchman Wouter de Vries and Swede Charlie Lindh.
Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand and Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia share seventh position on ten under par, one shot ahead of England’s Chris Wood, German Tiger Christensen, Brazil’s Frederico Biondi Figueiredo, Frenchman Julien Sale and Czech Filip Mruzek.
The final round of the German Challenge powered by VcG gets under way at 8:00am local time with Van der Vight teeing off alongside Besard and Andersen and 10:05am.
