Casey Jarvis will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the ISPS HANDA – CHAMPIONSHIP after an adventurous bogey-free 64 on day three at the Taiheiyo Club Gotemba Course.
The South African was three shots behind after completing his second round early in the morning, but shared the lead at the turn after making four birdies on the front nine.
He got lucky at times on the way back, but two more wins brought him back to 13 under and gave him a slight advantage over Germany’s Yannik Paul, who signed for a 68.
The local duo Ryosuke Kinoshita and Keita Nakajima, the Chinese Li Haotong, the Swede Sebastian Söderberg and the French Tom Vaillant were then at 11 under, with 16 players three shots from the lead.
European Challenge Tour graduate Jarvis is enjoying a consistent debut season on the DP World Tour, sitting inside the top 50 in the Race to Dubai rankings in partnership with Rolex after making 11 of 13 cuts this week with a top ten finish at the Alfred Dunhill. Championship.
He won last season’s Euram Bank Open on the Challenge Tour, but the 20-year-old now holds the 54-hole lead at a DP World Tour event for the first time, with plenty at stake ahead -last event of the Asian Swing.
The player who finishes at the top of the leaderboard will win $200,000 and gain access to Back Nine events and the leading DP World Tour member (otherwise non-exempt) will also qualify for the Genesis Scottish Open. Those who finish in positions one through three will also be exempt from the US PGA Championship.
“That would mean the world would win,” he said. “I worked pretty hard for this, so I’m going to go out tomorrow, stay patient and play each hole as it comes.”
He added: “It’s been quite tricky, I don’t find it very easy to get close to these flags, so I played smart and managed my game well on the course.
“I putted well this week so I made some good putts. My goal at the start of the day was to not have a bogey, I did it yesterday and again today, which doesn’t happen very often for me. I’m happy.”
Just like in the second round, joint overnight leaders Paul and Söderberg made fast starts, with Paul holed from 12 feet on the second and then a long putt to make a smart back-and-forth on the third by five.
His playing partner Söderberg joined him in the lead as he holed a spectacular second from 287 yards to six feet to set up an eagle at the third and led alone with a 12-foot putt at the fourth.
Jarvis, meanwhile, had birdied the first to six feet and two-putted on the third before placing his tee shot to seven feet on the par-three seventh to double the numbers.
A 15-footer at the ninth saw him turn in 31 and he quickly found himself in the lead after Söderberg found the water at the sixth to surrender a double bogey.
Jarvis had a chance to come out of the trees on the 11th to save par and an even luckier one on the 14th after finding the cart path, taking full advantage to give himself a spot to take the solo lead.
A poor chip at the sixth and his inability to get up and down at the eighth had Paul falling back before breaking through from 15 feet at the 12th, while Söderberg was in the trees at the 12th but regained the shot with an excellent approach on the 14th.
This left both men one behind, but they were soon two behind as Jarvis, after an excellent save on the sand on the 17th, birdied two putts on the last to take two leads, with Paul then rising to his feet. and on the par five to apply additional pressure before Sunday.
Söderberg carded a 69, five shots more than Li who birdied two putts on the last in a 64 that contained seven more gains and two bogeys.
Nakajima started his round with a dropped shot but recovered with four birdies in his final five holes for a 65, while his compatriot Kinoshita was bogey-free with four birdies in a 66.
Vaillant held a share of the lead after making a third birdie of the day at the eighth, but did not progress further in the rankings by posting a 67.
The local quartet Yuto Katsuragawa, Masahiro Kawamura, Taihei Sato and Yuta Sugiura, the Spaniard Ivan Cantero, the Swiss Joel Girrbach, the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, the German Marcel Schneider and the Englishman Matthew Southgate were at ten under.
