Cedric Gugler believes the support from the home crowds can help him produce "even better" performances as the Swiss golfer remained in contention at the Omega European Masters.
The 24-year-old is a member of the European Challenge Tour, but he is in 161st place in the Road To Mallorca Rankings where the top 20 earn their card for the next season's DP World Tour.
The local player failed to make the cut at last week's Rosa Challenge Tour in Poland, however, he has stormed past any expectation at Crans Montana by sitting six shots off leader Matt Wallace in a tie for fifth with 18 holes to play.
Gugler produced one of the best rounds of Moving Day, where only three players carded under par rounds in brutal windy conditions, mixing three bogeys and two birdies in a 71 to slip down to five under alongside Alex Fitzpatrick, Italian Edoardo Molinari and Australia's Jason Scrivener.
The strong winds in the Swiss Alps even surprised Gugler, who revealed he had played Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club on more than 30 occasions, as he targets the biggest cheque of his career, which currently stands at €7,625 after last year's 57th placed finish at this event.
"It was a fight, it was tough," the home favourite, who goes out in the penultimate group on Sunday, said. "I think I handled the wind quite well, but obviously with the greens being that so fast and the fairways being pretty firm as well it was almost like a links style course.
"I did great, I stayed patient the whole day. Me and my caddie were saying we just had to stay patient the whole time and good things will happen. That's what I've told myself the whole tournament already, so yeah, very tough and played well.
"No chance (experienced weather like this at Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club). I've seen snow, I've seen a lot of rain, I've seen a load of low temperatures but I've never seen wind like that before. It was very, very tough.
"That's what I practice for. It is good to see that all these people are behind my back and supporting me, and I love that. I love playing in front of crowds and I feel like I can perform even better with a lot of people watching so it is a great feeling."
