Sebastian Friedrichsen birdied the last hole to take a one stroke lead into the final round of Final Stage Qualifying School at INFINITUM.
The Dane mixed seven birdies – including five on the front nine – with just two bogeys to sign for a five under par round of 66 and reach 23 under par for the week, one stroke clear of overnight leader Filippo Celli.
The 21-year-old is now in a strong position to guarantee playing privileges on the DP World Tour with the leading 25 players and ties at the end of six rounds at INFINITUM securing a card on Golf’s Global Tour.
Friedrichsen is hoping to realise a life-long dream at the conclusion of 18 holes tomorrow.
“There’s still 18 holes to go, so I’m not taking anything for granted until I hole the last putt on the last hole tomorrow,” he said. “It is very exciting. It has been a dream since I started playing golf to play on the DP World Tour, but there’s still a round to go.
“I played solid golf today. Five under par is never a bad score. I think I’ve just been really good at playing with what I’ve got.
“I’m not trying to hit shots that I don’t feel I have right now, which I think is the best way to explain how I’m playing. I’m picking good targets out there and holing some putts.”
Friedrichsen arrived in Tarragona having teed it up in the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by The R&A last week following an impressive debut season. He finished tied 40th in the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings, and admits it’s been a challenging two weeks to get to this point.
“I had to have a top result last week to get promoted to the DP World Tour,” he added. “I didn’t play that badly but it was a difficult week.
“I came here and just looked at last week as preparation for this. It’s been a very long week but I’ve just tried to spend as little time on the golf course as possible, to make sure I have as much energy for when I’m on the tee, and it seems to be working.”
German Freddy Schott carded a seven under par round of 64 - which included seven birdies in eight holes around the turn – to climb into third place on 21 under par, one stroke ahead of Dutchman Darius van Driel.
Australian Haydn Barron and Welshman Jack Davidson share fifth place on 18 under par, with Norwegian Kristian Krogh Johannessen, Belgian Matthis Besard, Denmark’s Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen and New Zealand’s Sam Jones a shot further back in seventh.
The final round gets under way at 9:00am local time, with Friedrichsen, Celli and Schott teeing off at 11:17am.
