DP World Tour : Soudal Open final Saturday
Ryan Fox powered his way into pole position on moving day at the Soudal Open as he looks to claim his second DP World Tour title of the 2022 season.
The in-form Kiwi, who has finished no worse than 15th in three starts since winning the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in February, carded a third round of 66 to reach 11 under par, a shot ahead of England's Sam Horsfield.
Germany's Yannik Paul sits alone in third on nine under following a 68, with compatriot Marcel Schneider, Fabrizio Zanotti, Niall Kearney and Oliver Bekker all on eight under.
Zanotti's 65 was the lowest score of the day and lifted the 38-year-old from Paraguay 36 places up the leaderboard.
In glorious conditions at Rinkven International GC, Fox took a while to warm up as he covered the first ten holes in level par after cancelling out a bogey on the third with a birdie on the next.
But the 35 year old's finish was as hot as the weather as he raced home in just 30 strokes to move to the top of the leaderboard in pursuit of his third DP World Tour title.
Fox holed from 15 feet for birdie on the 11th and from similar distances on the 12th and 15th to close within one of Horsfield's lead.
He was not done there and, after laying up on the par-five 17th, pitched to ten feet to set up another gain before rounding off the day in style with a third birdie in four holes on the last.
"I played really solid on the back nine, didn't miss a shot, holed a couple of putts as well," Fox said.
"I hope I've figured something out after a couple of scrappy drives early in the round and felt pretty good from the 10th hole on so hopefully I can take that into tomorrow.
"On this course, regardless of how you're playing you feel like you've got lots of chances, you can always manage to get a couple of irons in the fairways and still give yourself some wedges and the greens are rolling lovely and you can hole some putts.
"You know you're going to make some mistakes, which I've done, but thankfully I've made a few birdies to counteract it.
"I've been in contention the last couple of weeks as well and not really done much on Sunday so I'm looking forward to being in the mix again."
Whitnell and Schmid both dug deep to shoot 73 and remain in contention on seven under par along with Paul Waring, Robin Roussel, Andy Sullivan, Chase Hanna and Jorge Campillo.
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