Filippo Celli is closing in on securing a DP World Tour card after extending his lead to three strokes after four rounds of Final Stage Qualifying School at INFINITUM.
The Italian carded a five under par round of 66 to go with rounds of 68-65-66 to reach 21 under par for the week, three clear of Sebastian Friedrichsen who occupies solo second on 18 under par after the Dane eagled the final hole.
The 23-year-old birdied his opening three holes, before adding two more gains either side of the turn. A bogey on the 11th was his only dropped shot of the day but he added a closing birdie to put himself into a commanding position with two rounds to play.
Celli was pleased with how he managed his game on a windy day on the Lakes course in Tarragona.
“Today I played very solid golf,” he said. “It was a little bit windy, but I’m happy because from the tee when it was windy, I handled it well with the driver. My putter today was very good like it has been all week.
“I started with three birdies in a row. In the middle of the round, I struggled a little bit to put the ball close to the hole with my irons but then I had a good finish, almost making an eagle at the last, so it was a solid round.”
Celli is in a strong position to secure playing privileges on the DP World Tour with the leading 25 players and ties at the end of six rounds at INFINITUM securing a card on Golf’s Global Tour.
“I really like this course and this place,” he added. “I’m in contention. I’m leading and tomorrow I have another round before the last day. The goal is to be in contention after tomorrow and then we’ll see.
“I’ll keep being patient, try to be play solid golf and make plenty of putts and we’ll see. I’m just trying to be patient like I’m doing and playing my golf and try to make as many putts as possible, and then we’ll see how it’s going to go. I’m pretty confident.”
Welshman Jack Davidson birdied four of his closing six holes to reach 17 under par and is third, one stroke ahead of Spaniard Sebastian Garcia in fourth.
Denmark’s Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen and South African Pieter Moolman share fifth on 15 under par, with Belgian Matthis Besard, New Zealand’s Sam Jones, German Freddy Schott, English amateur Joshua Berry and Dutchman Darius van Driel in sixth on 14 under par.
On a day where the leading 70 players and ties made the 72-hole cut, three-time DP World Tour winner Tom Lewis carded the round of the day, firing ten birdies without a blemish to climb from outside the cut mark into a share of 17th.
Round five gets under way at 9:00am local time with Celli teeing off alongside Friedrichsen and Davidson at 11:17am.
