Hugo Townsend will take a commanding five-stroke lead into the final round of the GAC Rosa Challenge Tour at Rosa Golf Club, as he closed in on a maiden HotelPlanner Tour title in Poland.
The Swede impressed in testing conditions on day three to sign for a six under par round of 64 and reach 14 under par for the week, five clear of Scotland’s Calum Fyfe, Italian Stefano Mazzoli and German Anton Albers who share second on nine under.
Townsend, who started the day one off the lead, moved into a share of the lead by the turn after mixing two birdies with one bogey.
The 26-year-old then raced clear on the back nine, eagling the tenth, making back-to-back birdies on the 12th and 13th, before a final gain of the day on 16, saw him extend his advantage to five.
“It started out tough, it was windy and blowing a lot so just trying to stay in the round,” he said.
“The round was pretty boring until the tenth hole, and then I went driver-driver to the middle of the green and holed a mega putt to kick-start the rest of the round.
“The par on 11 was big too. I bladed a wedge from the fairway and made a good par and then went birdie-birdie.
“It could’ve gone the other way pretty easily. Those momentum switches are huge and today it went my way.
“I’ve been playing solid. It helps holing a long putt here or there, but I’ve been good off the tee, keeping it in play, hitting it on the greens, good lag putting and occasionally a long one drops.”
Townsend has been in consistent form throughout the 2025 Road to Mallorca and arrived in Poland 42nd in the season-long Rankings thanks to three top ten finishes in 12 starts.
The Swede, who is the son of former Great Britain and Ireland Ryder Cup player Peter Townsend, is going to continue his aggressive approach on the final day, in the hope of taking a big step towards the top 20 and promotion to the DP World Tour.
“It would be massive to win,” he added. “Everyone wants to play well at the end of the year. It’s crunch time for everyone, so obviously it would be huge.
“A win would get me in the race for grabbing one of those 20 DP World Tour cards. I’ll try to go out tomorrow and shoot six or seven under again.”
Road to Mallorca Number Two, Oihan Guillamoundeguy from France, shares fifth place alongside countryman Romain Wattel on eight under par. Four players are one shot further back in seventh, including Englishman David Horsey, South African Jovan Rebula, Tobias Jonsson from Sweden and Welshman Toby Hunt.
The final round of the GAC Rosa Challenge Tour gets under way tomorrow at 8:00am local time, with Townsend teeing off alongside Fyfe and Mazzoli at 11:44am.
