From HotelPlanner Tour
South Africa’s JC Ritchie produced a sensational back-nine birdie blitz on Saturday to move five shots clear with one round to play of the German Challenge powered by VcG at Wittelsbacher Golfclub.
Ritchie, who began the day with a one-shot lead, extended that to five after signing for a seven-under-par round of 65 with 10 birdies on his card for the second successive day. He leads by five in Bavaria from Denmark’s Jeppe Kristian Andersen who occupies solo second on 13-under-par.
Ritchie is now in pole position to win a fifth HotelPlanner Tour title, the last of which came in the Jonsson Workwear Open in 2022.
The 31-year-old mixed one birdie with two bogeys over his opening seven holes on day three but responded emphatically by firing nine birdies and a bogey over the next 11 holes to race clear, and he’s excited by the prospect of leading on Sunday.
“You can never complain with any lead, let alone a five-shot lead,” he said. “I’m unbelievably pleased. I don’t think I could’ve asked for much more.
“I made a nice little putt on the eighth hole and that was it. Yesterday the front nine was just a stripe show. I ripped it yesterday and I was sort of questioning where that went on the front nine today.
“It was always there, but I just needed to get comfortable, make a putt and get some momentum. From the eighth hole, where I made a nice little downhill putt, it settled me down and then a few easy birdies on eight and nine.
“I made a nice putt on 10 with an unsettling bogey on 11 but then from 12 I just told my caddie, let’s run ahead a little bit and it was nice to make some putts coming in.”
Ritchie sits sixth on the 2025 Road to Mallorca Rankings thanks to three top-10 finishes in 11 starts, with a win this week all-but securing a return to the DP World Tour at the end of the season.
The 31-year-old is looking to win for the first time outside of his native South Africa and admits finding a way to compete away from home has been years of hard work in the making.
“For a long time I’ve questioned if I’ve got the game to play out here,” he added. “All of my wins have come in South Africa and I’ve had hardly any good performances out in Europe.
“The start of the season was a little rough for me, trying to commit to playing out here because I hadn’t ever been able to put it all together.
“I had a lot of solid finishes at the start of the season, again in South Africa, and luckily when I came out here, I was starting to look at the top half of the leaderboard in most of my events. That built some confidence.
“A good result in Austria helped my mindset. I felt like my old self as I could see myself at the top of the leaderboard again. I’m glad to see it there this week.”
Six players share third place on 12-under-par, including Italian pair Enrico di Nitto and Filippo Celli, Frenchmen Romain Wattel and Julien Quesne, and England’s Joshua Berry.
