Conor Purcell is on the cusp of a second Challenge Tour victory and certain promotion to the DP World Tour after a moving day 66 brings him to within two of the lead at the Italian Challenge.
The Portmarnock man made five birdies and kept his card blemish-free at Argentario Golf Club, and he feels that a more aggressive mindset towards the business end of a tournament is paying dividends.
“I think I’ve sometimes approached weekends trying not to make mistakes,” he said, “and I think you just need to keep the pedal down, keep making birdies and see where it leaves you.
“It’s fairly soft out there, so you can go after pins. And I actually felt like my game was a little bit poorer than yesterday, but just kept mistakes off it. And then made a couple of birdies coming in, which is good.”
England’s John Parry is the only man ahead of Purcell on the leaderboard, not that he was aware of it while he was going round. It’s a strategy he’s only recently adopted and it’s served him well, nowhere better than at the Black Desert NI Open at Galgorm where he collected his maiden Challenge Tour victory.
“It’s something I’ve done since back in Abu Dhabi this year,” he explained. “I haven’t haven’t looked at one on the course, so I don’t know what anyone’s doing. It’s actually it’s quite freeing for me. It shouldn’t change what I have to do, still have to go out there and make birdie.
“So yeah, we’ll do the same when we head out there tomorrow. Go out there, try to make some birdies, limit mistakes.
“Nothing miraculous needed, but plenty of birdies.”
While it was another impressive round from Purcell, he was the only one of the four Irish to make the cut that made any forward progress in round three.
Gary Hurley had two holes to complete of round two and birdied one of them to get to -6 and inside the top 10, and made a bright start to the third round as well, covering the opening six in two-under. Three bogeys and two birdies would follow, and he was still inside the top 20 standing on the 17th tee, but a horror double bogey, bogey finish saw him slip back to -4 and tied for 42nd.
Ronan Mullarney had five holes left in his second round and managed to birdie one of them to give himself a shot to spare from the cut line, and he shot a level-par 71 in round three and ends the day on -2 overall and tied for 51st, two clear of Conor O’Rourke who double bogeyed his penultimate hole.
Parry matched Purcell’s moving day 65 to catapult himself to 15-under-par for the week and two strokes clear of the Irishman who occupies solo second.
The Englishman would seal automatic promotion to the DP World Tour with victory in Tuscany tomorrow and join Dane Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen as the second three-time winner on the Challenge Tour this season.
Parry is the Road to Mallorca Number Two and has all but guaranteed promotion to golf’s Global Tour at the end of the year, but is excited by the prospect of securing a third win tomorrow.
“I think it makes me a lot more relaxed for tomorrow, knowing that I’ve got my card for next year already, but I would obviously like to get my third win,” he said.
“It would be great to do it, but I know it’s going to be a challenge. I’m looking forward to it though.
“I just need to keep playing how I’m playing. There are some low rounds out there and I think someone will do that tomorrow, so it depends if it’s anyone near me, but I’ll go out and try to shoot four or five under and see what happens.”