Moritz Lampert hopes that his score of 66, a season-equalling best, in the third round of the Turkish Airlines Challenge can kick-start his year on the European Challenge Tour.
The German thought he had missed the cut after close of play on Friday but, due to a number of amateur players making the weekend, his score of one under par was good enough.
Despite the confusion, the 23 year old held his nerve and started the third day in superb fashion, making birdies on six holes on the front nine.
“After my round yesterday, I was just happy to make the weekend,” he said. “I didn’t know that I had made it.
“This year, amateurs count in the Rankings, so I assumed they would also count for the cut. But, fortunately for me, they don’t. My birdie on the final hole yesterday meant that I would make the cut.
“I got off to a great start today. I played really solid and my irons were close. I didn’t make anything long with my putting but that didn’t matter because my irons were playing so close to the pin.
“It was a shame that I bogeyed the last hole after hitting my four iron into the water, but I went six under and that matches my best round of the season so far. It’s a really good step in the right direction.
“For the first two days, my irons weren’t good. I left myself with 15 or 20 feet for birdie and didn’t really make anything.
“Today I felt like I could go for the par fives in two, and it makes it quite easy. There are five par fives on this course, and they are almost reachable. That sets you up for a good score.”
After rounds of 73 and 70, Lampert surged up the leaderboard in Belek after carding a six under par round, matching his best round of the year at the Barclays Kenya Open where he finished in the top 30.
“I sat down with my coach after the second round said that I didn’t feel as though anything in my game was bad. But nothing was really good either.
“I had been getting scores of one over or one under. Decent scores, but nothing special.
“So today could really kick-start my season and I’ll go on from there.”
