Ryan Van Velzen will take a one-stroke lead into the final day of the Challenge de España after equalling the course record during the third round at Isla Canela Links.
The South African, who started the day four strokes back of overnight leader Dan Erickson, made seven birdies, one eagle and dropped just one shot on moving day to sign for 63 and reach 15 under par for the week.
Van Velzen, who held a share of the first round lead, was pleased with how he bounced back from a disappointing end to Friday, where he dropped four shots late in the day.
“I played very well today,” he said. “It was tough yesterday and I shot four over on my back nine yesterday afternoon.
“I came out here and tried to mimic the things I did well the first day. I putted nicely, kept composed and made some good decisions out there.”
The 24-year-old kickstarted the day with three birdies in his first five holes before adding further gains on the seventh and eighth. His only dropped shot came at the ninth but the South African bounced back immediately with a birdie on the drivable par four tenth.
An eagle on the 15th saw Van Velzen move clear at the top of a clustered leaderboard before a routine birdie on the last capped a fine day’s work.
“I like to look at leaderboards and to see where I am lying but I tried to stick to my plan and executed shot after shot and made some good putts,” he added.
“The wind started pumping a bit on the back nine and drives were going far down breeze and you had to hit some proper shots. If I can stick to my gameplan and replicate what I’ve done today, it would be incredible to win tomorrow.
“It would give me some space to play where I want and if I don’t get it done tomorrow, I’m out here for a long time and I’ll be excited to see what’s to come.”
Englishman Jamie Rutherford birdied five of his last six holes to move into a share of second place alongside Erickson on 14 under. Wil Besseling from the Netherlands, Italian Matteo Cristoni and Czech Filip Mruzek are all one shot further back on 13 under.
South African Justin Harding holds solo seventh on 12 under, one shot ahead of Spaniard Pablo Ereno, who had early broken the course record following an impressive Saturday charge.
The final round of the Challenge de España gets under way at 8:05am on Sunday with Van Velzen teeing off alongside Rutherford and Erickson at 10:04am.
