A six under par 66 from Luis Claverie early on Saturday morning propelled the Spaniard up the third round leaderboard and showed the later starters that there was still excellent scoring to be had as the D+D Real Czech Challenge Open continued.
After the start of day three was delayed by two hours due to a persistent fog hanging over Golf & Spa Kuneticka Hora on Saturday morning, the 41 year old Tenerife native, who made the cut on the mark at three under par on Friday, was bogey-free in what was the low round of the day as play progressed.
Claverie fired four birdies in a front nine 32 – including three on the spin before the turn – before a further two gains followed at the 14th and closing 18th, where he holed a 35-footer to finish in style and reach nine under par for the tournament.
“I actually hit the ball better in the first two days but didn’t make any putts,” said Claverie, who finished in a tie for second at last week’s Fred Olsen Challenge de Espana.
“But today I didn’t make any mistakes and managed to hole a couple of long putts so I’m happy with my progress and will try to go as low as possible tomorrow to get right up there.
“It’s very calm and no wind out there. The conditions are perfect so I expect very low rounds today.”
Elsewhere, Matt Ford was going along nicely as he reached the turn in 31 thanks to five unblemished birdies on the front nine, taking the Englishman to ten under par for the tournament and within two of the top with the leaders to tee off shortly.
Switzerland's Damian Ulrich had started brightly, too, finding two birdies in his first three holes to also get to ten under par.
Of the five-man share for the lead, England’s Francis McGuirk was off first at 1442 local time, followed by Spain’s Adrian Otaegui and Italy’s Andrea Pavan at 1451, while friends and compatriots Adam Gee and Robert Dinwiddie are the last out on the Graham Marsh designed course at 1500.
Following the early weather disruption, there were blue skies and temperatures in the low to mid twenties as the day picked up pace.
