Darius van Driel took a step closer to claiming his second European Challenge Tour title after posting a five under par round of 67 on day three of the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge at Penati Golf Resort.
The Dutchman leads by two on 16 under par, ahead of Rhys Enoch, as he bids to go one better than his second place finish at the Belgian Knockout on the European Tour last month.
The 2018 Euram Bank Open champion, who was temporarily knocked off top spot for the first time since Thursday morning after carding two consecutive bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes, fired an eagle and two birdies over his closing four holes in Senica to reassert his dominance at the top of the leaderboard.
‘’I got off to a great start,” he said. “The middle was a little bit messy, but I managed to finish really strong.
“I’ve been aggressive off the tee this week and have been hitting my short irons really well, so I’m just going to go out there and try and do the same thing tomorrow.
‘’Getting an eagle on 15 was important for my momentum. I wasn’t really looking at the leaderboard but all of a sudden on the back nine I realised that the guys were going low today and at that point, I was only one or two under par, so it was important that I turned it around.
‘’There’s a lot of guys near me on the leaderboard who can go low, so I’m going to need to bring my A-game if I’m going to get the win tomorrow.’’
Enoch, who has missed two consecutive cuts since his standout performance at the U.S. Open last month, catapulted his way into contention with a seven under par round of 65, as he bids to clinch his first Challenge Tour title.
The 31-year-old sits one shot ahead of Lars van Meijel, who fired a six under par round of 66 to reach 13 under par, with Spaniard Sebastian Garcia Rodriquez and America’s Chase Koepka one shot further back on 12 under par after each carding four under par rounds of 68.
Koepka, who has carded three consecutive sub-70 rounds for the first time since the 2017 Kazakhstan Open, looked set to propel himself to the summit after firing three birdies in his opening four holes but bogeys on the eighth and 16th holes means he goes into the final day in the mix, but four shots off the lead.
Van Driel will begin his final round at 9.00am local time, alongside the chasing pair of Enoch and van Meijel.
Scores after round 3:
200 D Van Driel (Ned) 64 69 67,
202 R Enoch (Wal) 68 69 65,
203 L Van Meijel (Ned) 68 69 66,
204 S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 69 67 68, C Koepka (USA) 69 67 68,
205 J Geary (Nzl) 68 68 69, R Højgaard (Den) 70 68 67,
206 S Fernandez (Esp) 67 68 71, G Porteous (Eng) 74 65 67, B Ritthammer (Ger) 70 69 67,
207 D Whitnell (Eng) 71 69 67, J Senior (Eng) 66 70 71, J Sjöholm (Swe) 68 73 66, F Laporta (Ita) 67 70 70, M Wiegele (Aut) 69 71 67, N Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 68 67 72, M Kim (Kor) 69 69 69, L Nemecz (Aut) 68 72 67,
208 S Matus (Cze) 69 70 69, C Pigem (Esp) 70 68 70, B Neil (Sco) 67 72 69,
209 R Santos (Por) 70 69 70, S Del Val (Esp) 66 74 69, J Carlsson (Swe) 71 65 73, D Huizing (Ned) 68 71 70, T Tree (Eng) 71 70 68, B Easton (RSA) 68 69 72, W Besseling (Ned) 70 71 68, A Michael (RSA) 67 73 69, N McCarthy (Eng) 71 70 68, I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 67 68 74, S Tarrio Ben (Esp) 73 68 68,
210 A Meronk (Pol) 72 68 70, J Brun (Fra) 70 70 70, A Cockerill (Can) 70 71 69, D Gavins (Eng) 70 71 69, R Roussel (Fra) 67 71 72,
211 J Quesne (Fra) 68 74 69, D Perrier (Fra) 67 73 71, G Kristjansson (Isl) 74 67 70, M Carlsson (Swe) 68 69 74, O Stark (Swe) 69 70 72,
212 H Ellis (Eng) 69 68 75, M Baldwin (Eng) 70 70 72, D Boote (Wal) 68 69 75, J Thomson (Eng) 69 72 71, G Havret (Fra) 72 69 71,
213 J Lima (Por) 74 68 71, V Riu (Fra) 67 75 71, O Farr (Wal) 68 73 72, N Tinning (Den) 72 70 71, L Scalise (Ita) 72 68 73, R Kakko (Fin) 69 73 71, J Cafourek (Cze) 72 70 71,
214 H Sturehed (Swe) 70 71 73, S Piaget (Mon) 69 72 73, R Bland (Eng) 70 71 73, B Virto (Esp) 69 71 74, N Højgaard (Den) 70 67 77,
215 J Kunzenbacher (Ger) 71 71 73, F Fritsch (Ger) 72 70 73,
217 A Daydou (Fra) 69 71 77,
218 C Howie (Sco) 68 74 76,
221 L Canter (Eng) 71 71 79,
143 D Im (USA) 69 74 0, C Gloet (Den) 71 72 0, C Braeunig (Ger) 70 73 0, J Grenville-Wood (Eng) 69 74 0, P Widegren (Swe) 69 74 0, R De Sousa (Sui) 69 74 0, A Rozner (Fra) 70 73 0, O Lindell (Fin) 75 68 0, F Mruzek (Cze) 71 72 0, C Casalegno (Ita) 75 68 0, R Caron (Ned) 71 72 0, B Spooner (Eng) 74 69 0, P Angles (Esp) 74 69 0, E Cuartero Blanco (Esp) 71 72 0, J Glennemo (Swe) 73 70 0, E Dubois (Fra) 73 70 0, C Del Moral (Esp) 69 74 0, M Eriksson (Swe) 70 73 0, N Johansson (Swe) 74 69 0, E Holmes (Can) 72 71 0, M Gradecki (Pol) 71 72 0, B Stow (Eng) 73 70 0, P Mach (am) (Svk) 70 73 0,
144 J Wrisdale (Eng) 69 75 0, J Girrbach (Sui) 70 74 0, C Mivis (Bel) 74 70 0, M Lampert (Ger) 72 72 0, T Murray (Eng) 74 70 0,
145 S Tiley (Eng) 74 71 0, M Helligkilde (Den) 70 75 0, H Joannes (Bel) 72 73 0, M Simonsen (Den) 71 74 0, C Gane (Eng) 74 71 0,
146 J Kölbing (Ger) 71 75 0, F Aguilar (Chi) 70 76 0, L Cohen-Boyer (Fra) 76 70 0, R Cho (Kor) 71 75 0,
147 A Puchmelter (Svk) 74 73 0, A Olsen (Nor) 75 72 0, A Saracino (Ita) 72 75 0, C Ross (Sco) 72 75 0, M Siem (Ger) 72 75 0, M Albertus (Ned) 75 72 0, S Gros (Fra) 75 72 0, M Keyser (RSA) 75 72 0,
148 M Galiano Aguilar (Esp) 73 75 0, M Young (Eng) 75 73 0, J Vecchi Fossa (Ita) 71 77 0, P Maddy (Eng) 73 75 0, J Doherty (Sco) 71 77 0, M Brezovsky (Svk) 75 73 0,
149 D Coupland (Eng) 73 76 0, M Cea (Ita) 74 75 0, J Carlota (Por) 72 77 0, D Papadatos (Aus) 72 77 0,
150 C Robb (Sco) 72 78 0, A Leitmannstetter (Ger) 76 74 0,
151 B Eccles (Aus) 74 77 0, J Munro (Aus) 79 72 0, L Galliano (Sui) 79 72 0,
152 J Zunic (Aus) 76 76 0, A Korinek (Cze) 78 74 0, S Wittmann (Aut) 76 76 0, T Beck (Cze) 79 73 0, D Berna Manzanares (Esp) 74 78 0, L Renolds (Can) 79 73 0, A Ahokas (Fin) 71 81 0, P Valasek (Svk) 75 77 0, G Brixi (am) (Cze) 74 78 0,
153 D Suchan (Cze) 77 76 0, T Clements (Eng) 77 76 0,
154 J Huldahl (Den) 80 74 0, T Yamac (am) (Tur) 80 74 0,
156 M Mohr (Eng) 75 81 0, M Murray (USA) 80 76 0, L Robinson (Eng) 76 80 0, L Acikalin (am) (Tur) 77 79 0, Š Zach (am) (Cze) 80 76 0,
159 S Danek (Cze) 76 83 0, M Decottignies-Lafon (Fra) 80 79 0,
160 P Mruzek (Cze) 78 82 0, D Siwy (am) (Cze) 82 78 0,
162 L Zustak (am) (Svk) 73 89 0,
163 B Lucansky (am) (Svk) 83 80 0,
173 S Vida (am) (Svk) 90 83 0,
** C Ford (Eng) 79 RT 0, P Gal (Cze) 76 WD 0, J Friesz (Svk) 86 RT 0, P Mejow (Ger) 73 RT 0, N Geyger (Chi) 75 WD 0, R Saxton (Ned) 73 WD 0, C Blomstrand (Swe) RT 0 0,
