Jeff Winther carded his second 62 of the week to take a two shot lead into the final round of the 2021 Mallorca Golf Open.
The Dane had started the week with an eight under par effort but took nine more blows on day two as high winds made scoring far more difficult at Golf Santa Ponsa.
Favourable conditions returned for the third round and while there were seven players tied for the lead midway through the day, Winther finished with three birdies in a back nine of 30 to match his opening score and move to 15 under.
Home favourite Jorge Campillo was his nearest challenger after a 64, with another Spaniard in Alvaro Quiros and Swede Sebastian Soderberg at 12 under.
Pep Angles was four shots off the lead, with Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez making it four Spaniards in the top eight at ten under alongside South African Bryce Easton and German Matti Schmid.
Winther has now carded three 62s - his lowest European Tour score - on Spanish islands on the 2021 Race to Dubai after an opening 62 at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open.
He has shot five of his eight lowest European Tour rounds in Spain and will take a lead into the final 18 holes of a European Tour event for the first time in his career.
"Going home to the place we're staying with the kids will definitely remove every focus on golf there is," he said. "It's more the nerves on the course tomorrow I'll have to try and keep in check."
A 2015 European Challenge Tour graduate who came through the Qualifying School in 2016, 2017 and 2018, the 33-year-old has been inside the top 100 on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex the past two seasons, and is on course for his best finish in 2021.
"I was a little more controlled from the tee to the green so that was lovely compared to yesterday where I was literally left, left and more left," he added.
"I just thought forget yesterday and swing like you normally do. It's been alright, I've actually been a little bit on the right side today so tomorrow hopefully it will be straight and in the middle.
It was lovely today, Jorge and I putted really well and just kept making birdies and birdies, it was almost a little competition between us
"It was lovely today, Jorge and I putted really well and just kept making birdies and birdies, it was almost a little competition between us."
Soderberg bogeyed the third to give back a shot he had picked up on the second but then made four birdies in a row, hitting the top of the leadeboard with a tee shot to ten feet at the par three seventh.
Winther had birdied the par five second and he holed from 18 feet on the fifth and similar range on the seventh to join the lead.
Campillo started his round with a bogey but he put a tee shot to 12 feet on the third and repeated the trick on the seventh, sandwiching gains at the fourth and sixth to join the leading group, which soon swelled to seven.
Soderberg broke out of that logjam with an approach to three feet at the 11th but Winther laid up at the long tenth and left himself six feet to also sit at 11 under.
Another Soderberg approach to three feet on the 13th edged him back ahead and Winther joined him from ten feet at the 12th, following in Campillo who had holed from almost twice that distance.
Campillo then put an approach to ten feet at the 13th and the leading trio were two ahead.
Winther left himself seven feet at the 16th to take the lead on his own and was two ahead when he holed a 20 footer on the 17th but Campillo got up and down on the driveable par four to cut the advantage to one before Winther made another 20 footer on the last.
Soderberg carded a 64 while Quiros signed for a 65, with the seven time European Tour winner making six birdies and a bogey.
His iron game was in fine fettle, with shots to inside ten feet bringing birdies at the first, fourth, eighth, tenth and 14th before he made a gain on the driveable 17th, with a single dropped shot on the 11th.
Angles made a run of five birdies from the second and added three more in a 64, while Schmid carded a 66, Garcia Rodriguez signed for a 67 and Easton battled to a 70.
