Daniel Young fired a seven under par third round of 64 to take a four-stroke lead into the final day of the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A at SCHLOSS Roxburghe.
The Scot made nine birdies and two bogeys to move to 18 under par for the week, four shots ahead of Frenchman Julien Quesne, who also posted 64 to move to 14 under.
Four birdies in his first five holes saw Young get his round off to a fast start before he dropped shots on the sixth and eighth. After picking up another shot around the turn, the 33-year-old made gains on 11 and 12 before adding two further birdies before the close of his round.
“It’s been a good day,” he said. “The putter was really hot and that was probably the key to making as many birdies as I did and that’s why I end the day out in front.
“I could do with another nine birdies tomorrow, that would be nice.”
Young arrived in Scotland fresh off competing at The 153rd Open and had previously pieced together an impressive run of form on the HotelPlanner Tour, including a third place finish at the BlotPlay9 and a tied second at the Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge.
The Scot, once again in contention at the top of the leaderboard, is looking to remain grounded despite being in a strong position heading into the final round.
“I will just be keeping my head down tomorrow and try and repeat what I’ve been doing well over the first three days," he added. "There’s still a lot of golf left, and the scoring was pretty low today.
“It’s a course where someone could come from nowhere and shoot maybe seven, eight or nine under.
“I will be going out there with the same mindset and look to make as many birdies as the course will give me and see where I end up this time tomorrow.”
Young was cheered on by a strong crowd at Roxburghe and the Scot admitted the home support helped during his third round charge.
“The home support helps so much and it’s nice to have family and friends here supporting me,” he said.
“Playing good golf helps and you feed off the applause and the guys I played with were playing nicely so you are just trying to feed off each other at times.”
Belgian James Meyer de Beco, German Marc Hammer, Scots David Law and Euan Walker and Denmark’s Jonathan Gøth-Rasmussen are five shots back on 13 under par, one stroke clear of Italian Filippo Celli who sits in solo eighth.
The final round of the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge supported by The R&A gets underway at 7:15am with Young teeing off alongside Quesne and De Beco at 11:40am.
