Marcel Schneider continued his dominance over the field at the Swiss Challenge presented by Association Suisse de Golf as he expanded his lead to five shots on Day Three.
Any doubts about how the German would handle the pressure of following up consecutive sub-65 scores were quickly eliminated as he opened with three steady pars before birdieing the fourth hole.
From there, he was relentless, and despite a bogey-free round from his nearest competitor, Norway’s Kristian Krogh Johannessen, Schneider himself did not drop a shot for the second straight day.
Through 54 holes, the 28 year old has made only one bogey, and agreed with the notion that he was playing the best golf of his life.
“I would say so, yeah” said Schneider. “It has been really, really good. My long game has been fantastic and the first two days my putter was really hot.”
“I had many, many birdie chances inside five metres and I’ll take it — I’m quite happy.”
Marcel Schneider is in total control of his golf ball at the #SwissChallenge. Watch him set up a birdie with this exquisite distance control to a back pin 🤩 pic.twitter.com/m8EoEBAr4B
— Challenge Tour (@Challenge_Tour) June 2, 2018
Johannessen, who himself holds a two-stroke advantage over third place, knows that his work is cut out for him in the final round.
“Marcel is playing really well,” said the Norwegian. “I’ve got to hit it closer and give myself more birdie opportunities and continue to hit it good off the tee, because if you don’t out here you can almost lose your ball in the thick rough.”
For the most part, scoring was tempered at the top of leaderboard on Day Three, which allowed some players to make a big leap on moving day.
Ireland’s Stuart Grehan tore up the front nine, going six under par on a five hole stretch and getting to nine under with the help of two eagles, however he was forced to settle for a 64 after a double bogey on his final hole. England’s Matthew Nixon also signed for a seven under par 64 and shares fifth place with Grehan and three others.
The two biggest movers on Day Three were Ruaidhri McGee of Ireland and Denmark’s Jeppe Pape Huldhal, both of whom fired six under par 65s to ascend 33 places on the leaderboard.
Lucca Galliano made a significant move of his own at Golf Sempachersee, and sits as the low-Swiss player following a four under par 67.
The final round of the Swiss Challenge presented by ASG begins Sunday at 7:05 am local time, with the final grouping of Schneider, Johannessen and England’s Garrick Porteous set to tee off at 11:00.
