Ireland’s Gavin Moynihan fired a brilliant bogey-free round of 64 to sit in a tie for fourth heading into the final day of the Scandanavian Invitational, three shots behind leader Erik van Rooyen who is 13 under.
Moynihan is on course for his best finish in his professional career to date and it would be a much-needed boost as he currently sits 156th in the Race to Dubai standings with the top 110 after the Portugal Masters in October keeping their cards.
The Donabate golfer is at 10 under after birdies at the second, third and fifth on the way out at the Hills Golf Club in Gothenburg before he matched that tally on the back nine, picking up shots at the 12th, 14th and 17th.
However, the man to catch is South African van Rooyen who also shot a 64 to go to the top of the leaderboard in his quest for a first European Tour win.
Matthew Fitzpatrick made an eagle on his final hole to sit just one shot back heading into the final round.
The Englishman started round three with a two shot lead and looked in control before he dropped three shots in as many holes from the 14th to slip back.
He was leapfrogged by van Rooyen — who birdied five of his last six holes in a 64 that left him 13 under — and trailed by three as he stood on the 18th tee.
But the 2016 Ryder Cup star holed a long putt from off the green at the closing par five to get back within one of the leader, alongside Australian Wade Ormsby and China’s Wu Ashun.
“When I hit it (the putt on 18), I thought it was a good pace to have a chance distance wise and it got about three quarters of the way and was actually on line and I thought, ‘This has got a really good chance’,” he told europeantour.com.
“Fortunately, I nailed it right in the middle.
“I always want to win. If I win now or later this year it will be winning five years in a row, so that is a goal for me to keep that up, but I will be going out there tomorrow trying to win.”
Major champion Henrik Stenson, Welshman Jamie Donaldson and Ireland’s Moynihan are in a group at 10 under, a shot clear of England’s Matthew Southgate.
Collated third round scores & totals in the European Tour Scandinavian Invitation(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 70):
(a) denotes amateurs
197 Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 65 68 64
198 Ashun Wu (Chn) 67 64 67, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 62 71 65, Matthew Fitzpatrick 64 65 69
200 Gavin Moynihan 69 67 64, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 66 72 62, Jamie Donaldson 69 68 63, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 62 69, Alexander Levy (Fra) 63 71 66
201 John Catlin (USA) 66 69 66, Matthew Southgate 65 72 64, Thomas Detry (Bel) 72 66 63
202 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 69 63 70, Sihwan Kim (Kor) 66 68 68, Victor Perez (Fra) 68 65 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 70 68 64
203 Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Spa) 69 66 68, Andrew Johnston 70 70 63, Robert Rock 68 66 69, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 69 64, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 63 69 71
204 Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 67 67, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 74 66 64, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 68 71 65, Stephen Gallacher 70 67 67, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 67 69 68, Austin Connelly (Can) 67 73 64, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 69 69 66, Gavin Green (Mal) 66 67 71
205 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 68 69, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 70 66 69, Paul Waring 68 71 66, Matthew Nixon 70 69 66, Jack Singh Brar 71 68 66, James Morrison 66 68 71, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 70 69 66, Andy Sullivan 74 65 66, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 74 64 67, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 68 72 65, Per Langfors (Swe) 69 69 67, Borja Virto (Spa) 69 70 66, Bradley Dredge 68 70 67
206 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 69 71 66, Chris Wood 72 68 66, Alex Noren (Swe) 72 67 67, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 67 67 72, Zheng kai Bai (Chn) 73 64 69, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 67 71 68, Paul Peterson (USA) 70 67 69, Renato Paratore (Ita) 72 67 67, Lee Slattery 69 70 67, Aaron Rai 70 70 66, Jeff Winther (Den) 73 65 68, David Nyfjall (a) (Swe) 67 72 67, Sam Horsfield 69 70 67, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 67 70 69, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 67 70 69
207 Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 68 69 70, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 68 72, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 70 67 70, Henric Sturehed (Swe) 72 67 68
208 Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 68 70, Ben Evans 73 67 68, Hyo-won Park (Kor) 67 71 70, Ryan Evans 71 68 69, Tom Lewis 69 71 68, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 70 70 68, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 69 71 68
209 Adrien Saddier (Fra) 67 73 69, Max Schmitt (Ger) 69 69 71, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 72 67 70, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 71 69 69, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 68 70, Max Orrin 71 69 69
The following players did not make the cut:
210 Adam Bland (Aus) 70 69 71, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 73 67 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 70 70
211 Anton Karlsson (Swe) 71 68 72, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 68 71, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 70 71
212 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 68 70 74
213 Nick Cullen (Aus) 71 67 75
214 Min Woo Lee (Aus) 67 72 75
217 Oliver Wilson 71 69 77
