Frederik Kjettrup will take a one-stroke lead into the final day of the English Trophy after he reached 16 under par for the week at the conclusion of round three.
The Dane, who started the day one-stroke behind joint leaders Aron Zemmer, Kristian Hjort Bressum and Collin Adams, carded a five under 67 to reach the summit with 18 holes to play.
The 26-year-old mixed seven birdies with two bogeys on moving day and was pleased with his effort.
“I'm just trying to play into the right spot,” he said. “Pick my right targets and hit the right shots.
“Luckily, the putter has been working well this week, so it makes it a little bit easier to connect myself, just get on the right side of the flag, give myself a couple of 15-20 footers.
“Sometimes you can get dragged into being a bit too aggressive and trying to force some of it.”
Kjettrup went bogey free on the opening day, before dropping just one shot on day two in his seven under 65, which put him into a good position heading into the weekend.
He made his first dropped shot of moving day at the par three eighth before back-to-back gains around the turn. A run of three birdies in a row was swiftly halted on the back nine when he made just his third bogey of the week at the 16th. With just three dropped shots across the opening three rounds, he is happy with how he has managed to avoid too many mistakes this week.
“I’m really proud,” he added. “I mean, kind of goes with the strategy, I call it boring golf. I find sometimes I play my best golf when it’s boring when you hit it to10-15 feet, you roll in a few and don't make that many bogeys or mistakes.
“So it seems a bit boring sometimes, but it's the right thing to do.”
Kjettrup will be looking to go one better than his season-best second placed finish at the Blot Play9 in June, which was his only made cut in his eight HotelPlanner Tour starts in 2026. The Dane fell two shots short of Englishman John Gough but reflects on a difficult few months of results.
“It's been the frustrating past couple of months, for sure. I feel like I'm always trying to force it a bit too much.
“That’s why this week I’m just trying to play quite boring golf. I don't really know what else to say. It's just nice to make the cut this week and also being up there in contention.
“I'll try and do the same thing as I have so far this week. Every week you try and win, so it would mean everything. It's ultimately what we’re out here trying to do every week, so it'd be really cool.”
Italian Zemmer, Spaniard Joseba Torres and Scotland’s Calum Fyfe share third place on 15 under par, one-stroke ahead of German Jannick De Bruyn, American Alex Goff and Englishman Bailey Gill.
The final round of the English Trophy gets under way at 7:20am on Sunday, with Kjettrup teeing off alongside Fyfe and Torres at 12:14pm.
