From Challenge Tour
Robin Williams will take a three-stroke lead into the final round of the Kaskáda Golf Challenge, as he moved a step closer to securing a maiden Challenge Tour title on Saturday.
The South African battled testing conditions to reach 14-under-par for the week after recording a three under par round of 68 on moving day.
The 22-year-old will go into the final day three shots clear of Englishman Ben Schmidt who fired a bogey-free six under par round of 65 to catapult himself into contention.
Williams made birdies at the sixth, seventh and ninth holes to move into the lead, and despite making his only bogey of the day on the 12th, he responded with a birdie at hole 15 to regain his three-shot cushion, and he was delighted with how he managed his game as the wind swirled in Brno.
“It was really tough today with the wind,” he said. “I knew I just had to keep it in play and stay patient out there, which I managed to do.”
“The first two days didn’t have much wind and the course was soft so I think that’s why you saw a lot of the low scores, but today, when I woke up, I was surprised with the wind and thought it was going to be a challenge.
“I’ve played enough in these conditions growing up in the UK, playing some of the tough links golf courses, so I just used my experience of that. I said to myself at the start of the round that anything under par I would’ve taken.”
Williams, who came into the week in 23rd position on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings after making a strong start to the year, is looking forward to the challenge of earning a maiden win when play gets under way tomorrow.
“This is what you practice for, to put yourself in this position on Sunday in order to win a golf tournament,” he added.
“I know there’s a lot of golf still to play and there’s a lot of guys that are going to try to catch me tomorrow. I’m playing some good golf though, so as long as I keep my head down, we’ll see where we end up.”
Irishman Conor Purcell posted a sensational bogey-free seven under par round of 64 to climb into a share of third place on ten under par alongside Dane Hamish Brown and overnight leader Jannik de Bruyn from Germany.
Dane Lucas Bjerregaard, Spaniard David Borda and Tomas Gouveia from Portugal are one shot further back in sixth.
On six-under in a share of 20th was Wilco Nienaber who had a level-par 71 in the third round. Bryce Easton had a 74 and was in a share of 34th on four-under, with Dylan Mostert a shot further back after a 74 of his own. Deon Germishuys was on one-under in a share of 54th after a 73, Oliver Bekker was on level-par after a 74 and Tristen Strydom was on three-over after a 76.
