Defending champion Pablo Larrazábal is happy to be playing catch-up as he heads into the weekend at the BMW International Open at Golf Club Gut Laerchenhof.
The Spaniard's one-shot victory over Henrik Stenson last year was his second in this event after he beat Sergio Garcia in a play-off in 2011 and on both those occasions he had to claw back a deficit on the final day.
He heads into round three four shots behind Stenson, Raphaël Jacquelin and Kiradech Aphibarnrat, and is happy to be chasing rather than a target at the top of the leaderboard.
"The times I led this tournament, I never won it," he said. "So in the times I was coming from behind, I was able to win once and go again to a play-off. Two years ago, I was leading by three, one round to go, and I finished eighth.
"This year, I'm four back, 36 to go, so we'll see what happens.
"If you're hitting in the short grass from the tee, everything is a lot easier. Hitting the fairway and then the fairway, green, fairway, green, try to put myself in some chances to make some birdies; some dropped, some didn't.
I'm four shots off the lead, and ready to rock and roll over the weekend - Pablo Larrazábal
Dane Thorbjørn Olesen sat three shots ahead of Larrazábal after a second consecutive 67 which saw him rocket himself right into contention with two closing birdies.
"I played better today," he said. "A few bad drives on the last nine holes, the front nine, but besides that, I played nicely. It's a great way to finish with two birdies and get me right up there in contention."
Garcia sits five under after a 68 which included a hole-in-one with an eight iron from 158 yards on the 12th. That won the Spaniard a free week's stay at any Hilton hotel in the world, while 25 lucky fans in attendance at the tournament who took part in Hilton's promotional campaign will share between them 1,000,000 Hilton HHonors Points.
"I hit a really nice eight iron, straight at the pin and it looked really good in the air but you never know," he said. "It pitched about four inches short of the hole and second bounce in it went. It was really good.
"I'll enjoy my stay at the Hilton somewhere and it's nice for the fans to also get some of those points so I hope they enjoy it."
