Evans strikes the front in Turkey
RYAN EVANS opened up a two-shot lead going into the final round of the Turkish Airlines Challenge as the scoring at Gloria Golf Club remained relentlessly impressive for the third day in a row.
The Englishman’s sublime eight-under-par round of 64 took him to 20-under-par overall – which, for context, was Clément Sordet’s fourround aggregate when he won around the New Course in Belek 12 months ago.
The 30-year-old bookended his round with birdies, picking up shots on the first two and the last three holes as he overtook halfway leader Tapio Pulkkanen to end the day at the top of the leaderboard as he bids for a maiden European Challenge Tour title.
“I’m delighted,” he said. “I just set a goal to go out and play as well as I have over the first couple of days and I think I played the best today out of the three rounds.
“I only missed one shot out there, which in golf is very pleasing – it cost me a bogey, unfortunately, but apart from that I hit the ball really well tee to green and rolled in a lot of putts.
“I didn’t really feel I had to attack. If you drive it well the greens are good and you can hole a lot of putts.”