Riyadh: England’s Luke Joy fired a course-record 64 to join Gabriel Canizares atop the leaderboard heading into the final round of the Mena Golf Tour’s American Express Dirab Golf Championship on Tuesday.
Starting the day a good six shots behind, Joy rattled off one eagle and seven birdies, including five on the front nine, against a lone bogey to reach nine-under for the tournament along with joint overnight leader Gabriel Canizares of Spain, who carded a second round 70.
England’s Craig Hinton, who shared the opening day’s lead with Canizares, sits alone in second place a further shot adrift as Spain’s Mariano Ochoa and Thriston Arthur Lawrence of South Africa moved into a tie for the fourth at six-under, one shot ahead of England’s talented amateur James Allan.
Joy, a two-time winner on the Mena Golf Tour who made the biggest charge of the day, putting himself in pole position for a shot at the title. A change of putter did the trick for the Englishman as he started with a great birdie at the first which kind of set the tone for his almost a flawless round.
“Of all the seven birdies, the one on the first was quite pleasing as I holed a nice putt from 20 feet,” said Joy, who bettered the previous course record of a 66 jointly held by Pakistan Shafiq Masih, Craig Smith of Wales and Ian Keenan of England.
“I think I need to replicate this performance in the final round if I were to go the full distance,” said the Englishman, who played the first two rounds in the company of Prince Khaled Saud Al Faisal.
Spain’s Canizares, who is a son of European Tour veteran Jose Maria, made a solid start, rolling in three birdies to make the turn at three under. He picked up another shot at the 14th, but a bogey each on the 14th and 18th prevented him from taking the solo lead.
Elsewhere, Spain’s Carlos Balmaseda, who is Mena Golf Tour ambassador, shot a 64 to move to four under along with compatriots Xavier Puig and Sixto Casabona-navarro.
