Steven Alderson carded a brilliant round of 67 to take a two-shot lead into the final round of the G4D Tour @ Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
The Australian, making his G4D Tour debut this week, registered just a single bogey and six birdies to get to five under, two shots clear of another G4D Tour debutant in France's Mathieu Lebon.
It looks like the final round could well turn into a two-horse race, with Italian Davide Fasci nine shots behind Lebon in third.
Alderson, who is autistic and in sport class Intellectual 2, plays off a golf handicap of 1.4 and arrived at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande full of confidence having won the South Australian All Abilities Championship by three shots over the field at Kooyonga in late September.
"Today was really, really good," he said. "I just felt really relaxed out there. Where I come from the golf course is really narrow so here it feels a bit easier off the tee.
"It's the best course I've played ever.
"We had a game-plan to keep the ball in play and just manoeuvre your shots around, to play to your strengths and make pars."
Caddie Trent Bulcher added: "I'm very proud of him, he played really well.
"My role is to help him out and keep him calm, if that's helping him find food or an umbrella or whatever then he just has to play his golf and if he plays his golf he'll have a great day and if he has a great day, we might have some extra luggage."
Alderson has been collecting some great wins in recent times, announcing himself to a wider golf audience with victory in the 2020 South Australian Mid Amateur Men's Championship, and last year winning the Webex Players Series South Australia.
"My dream is always to play all over the world," he said. "It would be good to jump up to professional level at some stage so you can travel the world, make enough money and go from tournament to tournament. That would be the ultimate goal."
The 44-year-old birdied the second and third and while he made his only bogey of the day on the fifth, he recovered with a birdie on the sixth and also picked up shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th.
Lebon made a blistering birdie-eagle start, dropping a shot on the third but making another eagle on the sixth and a birdie on the seventh.
His roller coaster continued but he was six under after a gain on the 12th before dropping shots on the 15th, 16th and 18th.
