South Africa’s Wilco Nienaber is two shots behind France’s Martin Couvra going into the weekend at the Turkish Airlines Open.
Nienaber made seven birdies in his best-of-the day 65 to end on nine under.
Couvra, the 22-year-old rookie, started the day in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard but pulled clear of the chasing pack courtesy of a five-under 66 at Regnum Carya.
Couvra graduated from last season’s HotelPlanner Tour and has impressed during his maiden DP World Tour campaign, having already posted four top-10 finishes, including fifth at the Hainan Classic last time out.
China’s Li Haotong is a shot further back in third after firing a flawless 66.
“I’m really happy about my game today – it’s always good to have to have a bogey-free round,” said Couvra, who recorded a hat-trick of birdies from the 7th, with the highlight a tap-in at the ninth after a stunning approach.
“I just try to keep the same mindset on the golf course. My iron game was pretty good today and I made some putts at good moments.
“I’m going to have a good time tonight with some friends and some French players – we won’t talk about golf tonight!”
After turning in 31, Couvra added further gains from three feet at the par-five 12th and 11 feet at the last.
“I think I just played as solid as yesterday but holed a lot of putts compared to yesterday,” said four-time DP World Tour winner Li.
“The greens were rolling super pure this morning compared to yesterday afternoon, so creating a lot of chances.
“I think yesterday afternoon, the grass grew up a little bit, felt like my hair – sometimes it doesn’t go where I want it to. But this morning I rolled some good putts.
“I think that the two weeks in China kind of hurt my confidence a little bit, and I took a week off, like, completely off.
“I wasn’t too sure about my game until I found the last two days that I’ve played really good, and I’m looking forward for a big weekend ahead.”
Overnight co-leaders Tiger Christensen and Robin Williams both signed for rounds of 70 to sit in a four-way tie for fourth on seven under with German Yannik Paul and England’s Todd Clements.
