Manuel Elvira will take a one stroke lead into the weekend of the Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos after carding a second successive six under par round of 66.
The Spaniard, who started his round on the tenth, birdied two of his opening three holes before his only blemish of the round came on the 15th. Three birdies in four holes around the turn and two more on holes seven and nine saw him reach 12 under par for the week, one clear of Englishman Marco Penge who occupies solo second.
The 27-year-old, who is seven under par on the par fives alone this week, has been pleased with his ball striking since he arrived in Portugal.
“I spent a lot of time on the range on Tuesday and Wednesday and it looks like it's working out very nicely,” he said.
“My ball striking was great. I hit a lot of good shots into the greens, particularly with my wedges, which meant I left myself some short putts for birdie. Obviously, you still have to make them after that, but my ball striking was on point throughout.
“There's five par fives on the golf course and it's important to take advantage of them. Some of them are quite scoreable I would say as well, but overall you have to be in the fairway and hit your approach shots well. They are really big greens on this course which have many slopes, so you have to be in the right place.”
Elvira has been in fine form throughout 2023, registering three second place finishes and four other top tens, and now sits in fifth place in the Road to Mallorca Rankings having all but secured his promotion to the DP World Tour at the end of the year.
The Spaniard will go in search of a first European Challenge Tour win this weekend and will do so with his family by his side.
“My parents told me they were going to come here at the beginning of the year so I had this tournament on my calendar,” he said. “It's really nice to have the support over here. Today they were celebrating the birdies and obviously trying to cheer me up after any bogeys.
“A win in front of them would mean a lot. I've been chasing it pretty much the whole year. I've been close many times, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'll go out and enjoy myself over the weekend and whatever will be will be.”
Frenchman Frederic Lacroix and Italian Gregorio de Leo share third place on nine under par, with Englishman Andrew Wilson and Welshman David Boote, who earlier posted a bogey-free eight under par round of 64, are one shot further back in fifth.
Round three gets under way at 9:00am local time with Elvira teeing off alongside Penge and Lacroix at 11:00am.
