Gary Hurley shot a bogey-free eight-under 64 to shoot up the leaderboard and get to within three of the lead going into the final round of the HotelPlanner Tour’s Challenge de Catalunya.
The Waterford man bogeyed his opening two holes on Thursday but turned things around to card a 70 which he followed with a five-under 67 to climb into the top 20 going into the weekend, and he continued his upward trajectory on moving day.
A birdie at the par-4 opening hole at Fontanals Golf Club in Girona on day three was the ideal start, and he added three-in-a-row from the fifth which encompassed a par-3, a par-4 and a par-5, and that got him to the turn at -4 for the day and -11 overall.
He kept the foot down on the back, adding further birdies on 10 and 11 and another brace on the par-4 14th and 16th holes to move into solo sixth place with 18 to go.
Max Kennedy shot a 68 to make the cut on the number on Friday, and he matched that tally with six birdies and two bogeys on Saturday to move into a share of 32nd, but Liam Nolan lost ground after a level-par 72 dropped him into a share of 51st.
Despite the very Scottish sounding name, Hamish Brown is actually from Denmark though his father, a PGA Professional, was born in golf’s homeland. Brown takes a two-stroke lead into the final day after signing for a seven-under 65 in Catalunya to move to 18-under, ahead of a chasing pack of four players comprising of Spain’s Pablo Ereno, South African Bryce Easton, France’s Clément Sordet and Sweden’s Adam Wallin.
The 27-year-old started the day with a birdie at the first, before dropping his only shot of the day on the par five second. He made a further seven gains to hit the front.
“It was a nice day out there,” he said. “There wasn’t much wind so there was a lot of opportunities so I took it easy and see what I could do. It was a pretty good round.
“The ball flew really far this afternoon; off the tee it just kept going. It was quite nice, obviously, but you have to adjust a little bit.
“Thursday afternoon was really difficult, and my early round yesterday was a lot like today, there wasn’t too much wind, I don’t really know what the forecast is like for tomorrow, but I don’t mind either way.”
Brown has two HotelPlanner Tour titles to his name, with wins at Kaskada Golf Challenge and the Hainan Open in 2024, and he is looking to add a third in Girona this week at a course he has had success at before.
“I won the second stage of DP World Tour Qualifying School here three years ago, so I have got good memories of this place. I like the golf course, and it’s the old cliché of taking it one shot at a time and just see what I can do.”
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