Richard Mansell well and truly banished the memory of his first-round quadruple bogey as he fired eight birdies on the back nine in a flawless Saturday 61 to storm into contention at the 2022 Mallorca Golf Open.
The Englishman had to show every ounce of his fighting spirit on Thursday after running up an eight on the par-four eighth, repairing the damage with five birdies and no bogeys in the ten holes that followed.
And just two days later he broke the course record at Son Muntaner Golf Club by two shots courtesy of ten birdies and no bogeys, and heads into the final round on 13 under par.
Mansell entered day three eight shots off the lead and made relatively slow progress on the front nine, notching two birdies and pulling off a series of par saves as he turned in 33 shots.
But he caught fire from the tenth onwards, birdieing every hole on the back nine apart from the par-three 14th to sign for a stunning 61 and smash the course record set by countrymen Dale Whitnell and Marcus Armitage earlier in the week.
Mansell, who is searching for his maiden DP World Tour title, having gone close at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship a few weeks ago, is very much in contention heading into the final round on Mallorca.
Eight birdies on his back nine ✍️
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 22, 2022
What a round @richardmansel14!#MallorcaGolfOpen
He was delighted with his third round, saying: "I made a really good up-and-down at the first and then on the front nine I shot two under.
"I was probably doing well to be two under. I made a couple of good up-and-downs on eight and nine - hole eight has just had me all week, I haven't seemed to have figured that one out yet.
"And then on the back nine I just caught fire, shot eight under on the back nine. You don't often get into a flow, in the zone in golf, but on the back nine I just was today."
When asked whether he had much confidence going into the rest of the week after Thursday's quadruple bogey, Mansell added: "It depends when you ask me. If you'd asked me coming off the eighth green I wanted to walk in!
"I've been working hard with my psychologist recently and that first round was one of those where I was very proud of it because I think in the past I might have gone the other way, I don't know.
"Yesterday I didn't play great either and we kind of stuck in there, and to get rewarded today and play a really good round of golf felt good so it's nice to see the work I've been doing has paid off.
"The final round of the Dunhill took a little bit of time to get over, I guess, but I kind of went back to him (psychologist) after that because I felt I was getting myself into positions a lot and I just hadn't really got the processes in place to deal with being in that position.
"I know my golf game is there to do it. So I've been working hard recently and it's more just about making Richard Mansell outside of golf a little bit happier and so on. I'm not just a golfer.
"I've been really enjoying the work and this week so far, there's not a lot to not be happy about."
