Kim Koivu and Marcel Schneider will take a six-shot lead into the final round of the Rolex Trophy at Golf Club de Genève.
Koivu’s five-shot overnight lead disappeared after he carded a round of 72, level par, while Schneider joined the two-time European Challenge Tour winner at the top of the leaderboard, signing for a round of 67, five under par, on Day Three in Switzerland.
The Finn, who carded opening rounds of 62 and 65, could not extend his advantage as he made one birdie and a bogey amongst 16 pars, on a windy afternoon.
While Schneider, who won the Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf in June, showed his guile to close the gap as the 27 year old stalled. He was one under par through his opening nine holes before he returned to the clubhouse bogey-free with a birdie on the 11thbefore three successive gains on 15, 16 and 17 to join Koivu at the top.
With 18 holes left of the historic event, Koivu is pleased with his position and his chance to succeed, even after a testing afternoon in Geneva.
“I hung on and I would still say it’s a decent round,” he said. “It was tricky conditions with the wind, compared to the morning when it was quite calm, so it was completely different.
“I’m only thinking of the positives going into tomorrow and I’m ready to grind it out and see who comes out on top at the end.
“I started the day hitting good tee shots, but my wedges weren’t dialled in today. I was too far from the pin during the front nine and was unable to hole long putts. On the back nine I didn’t hit many fairways, so that made it difficult to make birdies.
“I’ll stick to the game plan again and I’ll probably hit the same clubs off the tee like I have done over the first three days. It’s going to be a good battle tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it.”
Chasing the leading duo are Pedro Figueiredo, Joel Girrbach and Minkyu Kim, who all shot sub-70 rounds to move up the leaderboard but remain six shots shy of the leaders. The round of the day came from Italian Lorenzo Gagli who carded for a round of 64, eight under par, and is one of five players on tied tenth on ten under par.
