Ashley Hall and Mark Brown raced up the third round leaderboard at the Volvo China Open as they set a new course record at Beijing CBD International GC with superb matching seven under par 65s.
Australian Hall eagled the 18th to move to five under for the week and take the clubhouse lead with a score that matched New Zealander Brown’s new course record from earlier in the day.
Starting the day four over, Brown's third round gathered momentum with birdies at the fourth and fifth before another at the ninth saw him reach the turn in 32.
The 34 year old picked up further shots at the tenth, 11th, 14th and 17th to move within three strokes of overnight leader Choi Ho-sung at three under following his bogey-free effort.
“I guess going out this morning I was just fortunate to be playing,” admitted Brown. “I thought I’d miss the cut yesterday afternoon.
“The goal was to try to somehow get back into the tournament and that was going to take something pretty low, so to shoot a course record was a great result and I actually played really nicely so the signs are good.
“The course is there for the taking this morning for sure. There were no winds, the greens were a little bit softer and played a bit better which helps, but you won’t get better scoring conditions than that and I was just trying to take advantage of it as much as I could.”
Choi and Ireland’s Paul McGinley were both five under for the week approaching the turn, with Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño, Austrian Markus Brier and Thailand’s Chapchai Nirat a shot further back.
