Adri Arnaus matched the lowest round of his DP World Tour career to put himself right in contention for a maiden victory at the 2022 MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood.
After graduating from the European Challenge Tour in 2018, the Spaniard finished runner-up three times in his rookie season and added another second place as he lost out in a play-off on home soil to Rafa Cabrera Bello at last season's Acciona Open de España presented by Madrid.
It did not look like he would have a chance to break his duck this week as he started 70-65 over a very low-scoring first two rounds at Pecanwood Golf and Country Club but a third-round 64 has put him right in the mix.
"We knew we had to go for a low one, especially around here, sometimes making a par feels like a bogey so definitely from the get-go we were ready for that and we performed so I'm happy," he said.
"I played a very complete round overall, I took advantage of hitting it far, out here once you hit it in the air my ball goes quite a long way.
"Once I'm in a good position I tried to stick them close and I rolled a few nice ones so quite good.
"It's been a different week, usually I like a bit more of a tougher challenge but at the end it's a bit more relaxed and you just go out there and try and go as deep as you can. It's been fun."
Arnaus was one of three Spaniards two shots off the lead with Nacho Elvira and Pablo Larrazábal also at 17 under.
Elvira was just one shot back but bogeyed the last for a 71 after a 62-66 start to the week.
"I don't think I played as well as I played the first two rounds, obviously the score shows that, but I didn't hit it as well off the tee as the first two days so I wasn't in the best spots to hit at the pins. The pins were tucked in tricky so the key was that I wasn't on line off the tee.
"I might hit a couple of balls to find a little bit of momentum going but I'm looking forward to it."
Larrazábal joined Elvira in carding a 71 and felt his third round was a chance missed in a low-scoring week.
"I had a decent start, made a couple of decent saves on the first three and birdied the fourth and the fifth and suddenly I made a couple of bad shots, a couple of bad swings to the end of the front nine.
"It feels like I left half of the tournament there. Today it was obviously playing a lot harder, the greens were a lot firmer today and some of the pins were very tight so it was tough to make as many birdies as yesterday.
"I feel like if I played good today I would have some advantage going into Sunday. Today was one of those days to play decent, to shoot decent: five, six, seven under and to be 22 or 23 under going into tomorrow a few ahead."
