Anne van Dam was happy to make it a trio of female players on the first page of the leaderboard as she carded the lowest women's round in the history of the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed at Ullna Golf and Country Club.
The innovative event sees 78 men and 78 women play the same course for one trophy and one prize fund and after 36 holes, it was the men who were dominating proceedings in Stockholm but that all changed on day three.
Van Dam led the way with a 63 that bettered the closing 64 by last year's champion Linn Grant, with Gabriella Cowley and Madelene Sagstrom both matching Grant's mark.
That left three women in the top ten and Dutchwoman Van Dam was delighted to leapfrog some of her male counterparts.
"The course, it’s fun playing with the guys and it gives you a little bit of motivation," she said.
"This morning I was looking and there were only four girls in front of me and 24 guys, so I knew I had a lot of catching up to do.
“It was a nice day to go out there and play aggressive. That’s really what I tried to do today is go for some more pins if I had good numbers instead of playing at three or four right of the pin, to just go straight at it and that paid off.
"I played well and those days you also have to take advantage of it and I kept on going today which was nice and I never looked back.”
Van Dam made a fast start with a tee-shot to four feet at the second but gave the shot straight back before almost holing her second and making an eagle at the fourth.
A pair of excellent iron shots brought birdies at the ninth and tenth and were followed by a birdie at the par-five 12th and a 20-foot putt at the 13th.
A birdie at the 15th and a 40-footer at the 16th made it six birdies in eight holes and Van Dam left herself a tap-in at the last to be the leading female player at 12 under.
“It was just a very good day, overall," she said.
"I didn’t really miss a shot, I maybe had one bad shot. My lay-up caught a tree on the third hole but other than that I played really good. I hit a bunch of fairways and greens. I think I missed one green, so I had a lot of chances and hit a couple really close and holed a couple of nice putts. Overall, very happy with my game today.
“I just love tough golf courses like this. It’s such a good set-up, they did a phenomenal job this week with how everything is set up."
