The leaders had not even arrived at Penati Golf Resort for the final round of the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge as Garrick Porteous was walking off the 18thgreen having smashed the course record.
The Englishman, out in the second match of the day, fired a stunning 61 to sign for an 11 under par round and beat his compatriot Ben Stow’s mark of 63 – set only two days earlier – by two shots.
COURSE RECORD: @gaz_porteous's incredible 61 this morning at the #SlovakiaChallenge pic.twitter.com/I1CXi4sq28
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) July 10, 2016
The 26 year old former Amateur Champion has suffered from inconsistency this season, mixing two top ten finishes with three missed cuts, but he is confident such a good round can give him the confidence to contend for the rest of the year.
“It feels pretty good,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t playing badly but that the score didn’t really reflect that over the last few days.
“I just told myself when I got to five under through nine that I might have a chance of putting a decent score on the board, but I never thought I’d get to 11 under.
“I had a nice up-and-down on nine to keep the momentum going, then I stiffed it on ten, made a nice 40ft putt on 15 for eagle, then I birdied 16 and 17 too, and was a bit unfortunate to find the rough off the tee on 18.
“I actually shot a 58 round my home course about a month ago, but that was only ten under so I beat it by one – of course it’s slightly different when you’re with your mates though, so to do it in competition is nice.
“I had a good start to the year but have been a bit patchy in between. Hopefully this can be a springboard for the rest of the year, and I’ll try to get to the top of the leaderboard a bit earlier in the week in future.”
