A stunning start to the third round of the Rotterdam International Open left the man who made it – Sweden’s Per G Nyman – the most surprised man in Holland as he set off on what would become a third round of six under par 66 to move into a commanding five shot lead going into the last day at the Golfclub Broekpolder.
Nyman leads the Welsh duo of Kyron Sullivan and Craig Williams by five and six shots respectively, with Marcus Higley of England and Finland’s Toni Karjalainen tied together in fourth place on seven under par.
Sullivan put together a third round of three under 69 to move into second spot on nine under, while his compatriot Williams posted a 68 to climb to third place on the leaderboard with an eight under aggregate.
But it was Nyman, who has led the tournament since the first round, who was making the headlines for the third day in succession after a sensational start to the third round.
After what can only be described as a terrible warm up session on the practice range, the 31 year old birdied five out of his opening six holes to pull away from the chasing pack. He followed up that brilliant start with a solid performance to consolidate his winning position.
“The start was a total surprise considering I was standing on the driving range this morning wondering how on earth I was going to get through this day!” said Nyman, who won the Challenge Tour’s NCC Open in 1999.
“Then I had eight putts after eight holes and it doesn’t get much better than that. I got off to a great start today.
“I certainly didn’t expect to be going onto the final round with a five shot lead, but it’s still not going to be easy and I fell that I am still going to have low score tomorrow if I want to win because I played with Kyron and Craig today and those guys played very well.
“It could be easily be one of them who has a 66 or something tomorrow and if the putts don’t drop for me then they will have every chance.
“I have never had a five shot lead going into the final round so I don’t really know how I am going to play it, but if it is meant to be my week then it’s meant to be, we will just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.”
