A strong moving day from Jonathan Caldwell saw the Clandeboye man move inside the top-30 at the Mallorca Golf Open heading into the final round.
After a promising second round got him into the weekend, the 38-year-old carded five birdies and one bogey in a four-under 67 at Son Muntaner in Palma to climb the leaderboard on the DP World Tour.
At six-under-par, Caldwell is in a share for 30th and is primed to potentially secure a best finish of the season, having not finished better than 28th in a so far rough campaign.
He will hope to maintain that third round form on Sunday after he kept the mistakes off the scorecard for the most part, picking up three birdies on his front nine with a succession of exceptional approaches.
Caldwell followed a fourth birdie at the par-five 11th with his only dropped shot of the day at the 12th, but he took advantage of the par-five 17th for a closing birdie to break into the top-30.
Currently projected to move up to 197th in the Race to Dubai rankings, another big round on Sunday would renew optimism that the Clandeboye ace could yet rescue his card for next season, although potentially winning in Mallorca is likely out of the question.
That is because he starts the final round ten shots adrift of leaders Yannik Paul and Ryan Fox, who will take a two-shot advantage into the final round at 16-under-par.
Overnight leader Fox ensured he would stay at the top with a six-under 65 on Saturday, but Germany’s Paul was the story of the third round as he played an eight-hole stretch starting at the fourth in nine-under to put everyone on 59 watch but eventually had to settle for a 62.
The pair are two strokes ahead of English duo Marcus Armitage and Dale Whitnell, who share third at 14-under-par, while Richard Mansell actually had a better round than Paul as he fired eight birdies on his back nine on his way to a 10-under 61, taking him into solo fifth at 13-under.
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