Swedish rookie Per Langfors will be the top seed heading into the final matchplay round of what looks to be a wide open battle for the ISPS Handa World Super 6.
The innovative event in Perth, Australia, sees the players compete in three rounds of stroke play before the top 24 go head-to-head in six-hole knockout match play on Sunday to determine the winner.
The 24 were decided on Saturday, and it was world number 678 Langfors who finished in the number one spot after shooting an impressive eight-under-par 64 to finish the day with a one-shot lead on 10 under par.
Langfors holed seven birdies and an eagle, with the only blemish on his scorecard being a lone bogey on the 13th hole, to propel himself 36 places up the leaderboard to the summit.
The 24-year-old sits one shot clear of Ireland’s Paul Dunne, Australian Brad Kennedy and Norwegian Kristoffer Reitan. New Zealanders Ryan Fox and Gareth Paddison, Japan’s Yuta Ikeda and Belgian Thomas Pieters followed on eight under to complete the seedings for the final day, meaning those eight players receive a bye for the first round of the match play.
Dunne shot a fine third round of 66 in Perth, including five birdies and an eagle two on the par four 15th. He will play either Australia’s Matt Jager of Andrew Martin.
Michael Hoey, however, missed out on the matchplay after his challenge faded with a third round 66.
Into the first round, all on seven under par, went England’s Ben Evans, Australians Daniel Gale, Matt Jager and Min Woo Lee, Thai Jazz Janewattananond and Frenchman Clement Sordet.
With 11 players on six under par and just 10 spots remaining for the final day’s match play, a play-off was needed to decide who would miss out and England’s Tom Murray was the unlucky loser. Robert MacIntyre, Panuphol Pittayarat, Adrian Otaegui, Ben Campbell, Steven Jeffress, Connor Syme, Gregory Bourdy, Andrew Martin, Wade Ormsby and Scott Vincent all progressed.
Top-ranked player Tom Lewis (two over par) and Jason Scrivener (five under par) are the biggest names to miss out on Sunday from the 66 who made the initial cut on Friday night.
Collated third round scores & totals in the European Tour ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
206 Per Langfors (Swe) 71 71 64
207 Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 65 77 65, Paul Dunne 73 68 66, Brad Kennedy (Aus) 68 70 69
208 Gareth Paddison (Nzl) 70 71 67, Yuta Ikeda (Jpn) 74 68 66, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 68 68 72, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 70 66 72
209 Ben Evans 72 68 69, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 71 70 68, Matt Jager (Aus) 69 68 72, Daniel Gale (Aus) 69 72 68, Clement Sordet (Fra) 71 67 71, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 70 69 70
210 Andrew Martin (Aus) 70 71 69, Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha) 70 66 74, Steven Jeffress (Aus) 70 69 71, Ben Campbell (Nzl) 67 71 72, Tom Murray 71 70 69, Connor Syme 73 67 70, Robert Macintyre 70 67 73, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 69 68, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 69 73 68, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 70 68 72, Scott Vincent (Zim) 70 71 69
211 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 73 68, Jordan Zunic (Aus) 70 71 70, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 69 70 72, Justin Harding (Rsa) 71 69 71, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 70 68, Daniel Fox (Aus) 73 68 70, Berry Henson (USA) 71 67 73, Austin Connelly (Can) 71 70 70
212 Scott Hend (Aus) 74 68 70, Callan O'Reilly (Aus) 72 69 71, Max McCardle (Aus) 73 69 70, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 67 72, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 70 71, Peter Lonard (Aus) 72 71 69, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 69 67 76
213 Zach Murray (Aus) 72 71 70, Sihwan Kim (Kor) 72 68 73, Miguel Tabuena (Phl) 65 78 70, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 70 73 70, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 68 74 71, Nick Flanagan (Aus) 68 75 70
214 Darren Beck (Aus) 72 69 73, Michael Hendry (Nzl) 73 70 71, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 74 68 72, Grant Forrest 74 65 75, Josh Younger (Aus) 74 69 71, Harrison Endycott (Aus) 71 72 71, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 70 70 74, Michael Hoey 68 72 74
215 Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 70 72, Prom Meesawat (Tha) 70 73 72, Richard McEvoy 67 70 78, Peter Fowler (Aus) 73 69 73, Cory Crawford (Aus) 74 68 73
216 Jake McLeod (Aus) 71 72 73, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 70 72 74, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 74 69 73
218 Tom Lewis 73 70 75, Anthony Quayle (Aus) 70 73 75, David Bransdon (Aus) 71 72 75, Daniel Gavins 74 69 75
