England’s Denny Lucas fired a superb eight under par 64 to move into a share of the lead with Scotland’s Marc Warren at the Rolex Trophy, and in doing so gave himself the perfect opportunity to exorcise the ghost of three years ago when he lead the same tournament going into the final round but missed out on the chance to secure his maiden European Challenge Tour victory.
Back in 2002, Lucas was new to the Challenge Tour scene and admits that he did not handle the pressure of leading a prestigious event well, but he now feels far more comfortable to be back in contention going into the final round at the at the Golf Club de Genève.
The 28 year old was in brilliant form during round three, putting together four birdies and four pars on both the front and back nines to join Warren at the top of the leaderboard on 15 under par 201.
Like Warren, Lucas has been in great form of late and came close to catching the Scotsman at the Ireland Ryder Cup Challenge three weeks ago when he finished in third place.
Now he is hoping to overtake the Scot atop the leaderboard, but will meet strong resistance from the 24 year old Scot, who posted a third round 69 to remain in contention for a second Challenge Tour title in three weeks.
Lucas said: “It was nice to get a low round on the board today. I have been playing great lately, but just not able to put everything together at the same time. That happened today for me and I putted especially well.
“It feels good to be in this position. The last time I was leading going into the final round was actually here three years ago, but I didn’t play well on the last day and Simon Hurd came through to win.
“I think back then I was very new to the Challenge Tour scene and I just got a little bit daunted by the whole situation. I think it will be different tomorrow though because I am a lot more experienced now and I have also won on the Europro tour and I think that will help me out there.”
Lucas and Warren are being closely pursued by Sweden’s Steven Jepessen, who is 13 under par after a third round 69, with the Argentine pair of Ariel Canete and Daniel Vanscik alongside Paraguay’s Marco Ruiz on 12 under after respective rounds of 65, 68 and 65.
