Liam Nolan and Mark Power are alongside each other at seven-under-par as they hunt an Irish Open place and if they can get hot they will fancy a crack at the Irish Challenge title at just five shots behind going into the final day at Killeen Castle.
Nolan had a sensational seven birdies in nine holes on his way to a 66 as he rocketed up the leaderboard into 20th alongside Power who had a solid 69. Both players will be battling it out for the Christ O’Connor Jnr Trophy which will give them a place in next month’s Amgen Irish Open as the low Irish player.
Nolan scraped into the weekend on the number but burst into life with back to back birdies. Annoyingly he gave those shots back on the third and fourth despite only having wedges for his approach but then the caught fire in spectacular fashion with five successive birdies to the turn.
After a bogey on 10 his first par of the day came on the par-4 11th. He got back on the birdie train on the 13th and 15th and safely navigated the tough finishing stretch with three pars.
“The two bogeys are annoyingly what I remember of the front nine, everything else was pretty good,” the Galway man said of his round. “I either hit it really good and the two bogeys were with wedges. After birdieing the first two I was like ‘here we go’ then level par through four I was like ‘great’. Started hitting it good again.
“First par on eleven was a weird one then I made two and got bored so it was time to make more birdies!”
The 26-year-old admits he was free wheeling it on the front nine.
“It’s really interesting. I don’t really know you just stop thinking then one nine I tested how good I was swinging it. Usually I wouldn’t go for that pin but hit it to two feet so I was on. It’s really fun it’s nice when it happens because it doesn’t happen as much as you would like it to.”
Nolan isn’t getting carried away with his position and insists he is just looking forward to a few hours extra in bed with an 11:05 start time on Sunday.
“I’m more buzzing about my lie in tomorrow. I had a 4.45am alarm this morning so that was the goal to get a later start. Bit of added pressure in Ireland with family coming to support. It makes it nice if you are able to play well.”
Gary Hurley is T48 on three-under after a 73 while Max Kennedy and Ronan Mullarney will play together in the final round after they remained on one-under with 72s.
At the top South African duo Justin Harding and Louis Albertse hold one shot leads on 12-under after rounds of 69 and 72 respectively.
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