Tiger Christensen posted a third round nine under par 63 to take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge supported by Finnish Golf Union.
The German made seven birdies and an eagle on Saturday to reach 19 under par and build a cushion over 36-hole leader Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen, who could only manage a two under 70 on a low scoring day.
Christensen said he had been hitting the ball excellently all week, but was delighted that he was able to get the putter working in the third round.
“Today was very solid,” he said. “I got off to a good start and just kept things going, putted really nicely and hit the ball great, just like the last two days.
“I just made a few more putts and took advantage of pretty much all the opportunities I got today.”
Starting the day five shots off the pace, Christensen made the perfect start, opening his round with an eagle before making consecutive birdies on two and three.
He would pick up two more gains on the front nine, before finding three more on the back, capping off a flawless display by holing a 25-footer for a closing four on the par five 18th.
The 23-year-old said that the perfect start settled him into the round, allowing him to continue to hunt down the leaders, but he was especially pleased to keep the card clean.
“Hole one was playing a little different today, the wind was helping so I just had a seven iron into the green and hit a really nice one. I knocked it to six feet and had a pretty straight uphill putt.
“On the next two holes, again, I just put myself in a good position, short of the green and pitched it in pretty close and had a tap in on three, so that was definitely helpful to get eased into the round.
“I was proud of myself to keep the bogeys off the scorecard today, which is not easy to do, especially with the amount of slope they have on these greens. If you miss it in one wrong spot, you’re going to be in a tough up and down situation so just being in the right spots today was important, but I just tried to execute every shot the way I wanted to and just went from there.”
Despite the low scoring, adverse weather conditions are expected on Sunday, which could make Vierumäki’s Cooke Course a much sterner test than the first three days.
But Christensen says he will try to keep a similar mentality heading into the final round.
“I think tomorrow I’m just going to see what the conditions bring in and then try and shoot the best possible score I can and see where that puts me at the end of the day. I really can’t control anything else so whatever conditions we’ll have tomorrow, I’ll just try and play whatever score I can and that’s it.
“I’ll just be doing the same things I’ve been doing. I think if I continue to hit the ball how I did these last three days then everything should be fine and we’ll see where that puts us at the end of the week.”
Compatriot Dominic Foos and Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand ended the day in a share of third, a shot further back of Gøth-Rasmussen at 16 under par. In a share of fifth is Slovakia’s Tadeas Tetak, Norway’s Alexander Settemsdal, South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber and Sweden’s Adam Blomme.
The final round of the Vierumäki Finnish Challenge supported by Finnish Golf Union begins at 7:10am local time on Sunday, with Christensen teeing off alongside Foos and Gøth-Rasmussen at 11:21am.
