Eugenio Chacarra made the most of moving day to share the third-round lead with Sebastian Söderberg on ten under par after a busy Saturday at the 2026 KLM Open.
Söderberg battled with Japan's Yuto Katsuragawa for much of the day but four birdies on the back nine saw Chacarra surge to the top with a round of 65. Marcus Armitage was a shot off the lead with Katsuragawa sharing fourth place.
With the tournament still making up time lost to storms and high winds on day one, the second round was completed in the morning before the 75 players making the cut got through their third round.
Söderberg held a one-shot lead over France's Julien Guerrier on the 36-hole scores, with Katsuragawa a shot further back along with Callum Tarren and Daniel Hillier. Chacarra had been back at four under but began his round with a hat-trick of birdies after hitting all three approaches inside five feet.
Söderberg extended his advantage with a birdie at the third. That matched Katsuragawa, playing in the group in front, who had bogeyed the second but went on to produce a near-identical front nine of 34 to the Swede.
Both players birdied the sixth and bogeyed the seventh before Söderberg birdied the eighth, where Katsuragawa made an eagle to also undo the damage of the second. Chacarra had bogeyed the fourth and sixth but responded with birdies at the ninth and 11th.
Katsuragawa birdied the 11th to take a share of the lead at 10 under after Söderberg had dropped a shot at the previous hole, while Chacarra moved within two strokes of the pair with his sixth birdie of the day at the 14th.
Söderberg was soon alone at the top once more as Katsuragawa bogeyed the 12th, with the former nervelessly holing his own testing par putt a few minutes later.
Chacarra holed a six-foot birdie putt at the 17th to move alongside Katsuragawa in second. Söderberg was showing frustration with some of his approach play but holed another good putt at the 14th to stay ahead.
Armitage climbed to eight under with back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th, the latter after a well-judged skidding approach that shaved the hole to leave a seven-foot putt.
Chacarra's closing birdie secured a share of the lead, with the Spaniard's long eagle attempt skirting the hole before he tapped in.
He said: “Yeah, it was great. Obviously, it started with three birdies in a row, and then I kind of slowed my round, two three-putts on four and six, but I think I did a great job staying patient.
“So, so happy with a good Moving Day but I'm just trying to get better every day and have a chance to win tournaments, and I'm going to have a chance tomorrow.
"I like when it's tough. When I'm playing good, I think I'm one of the best ball strikers out here, and when my swing feels good like it's been feeling the last couple weeks, the tougher, the better.
“There were some hard pins in the last couple of holes. You just need to be smart and not try to attack them, and I think we did a tremendous job with my caddie of just staying patient and getting the birdies when we can, and pars are good out here.”
Katsuragawa briefly made it a three-way tie thanks to a long birdie putt over a ridge at the 16th, only to drop back with a double-bogey at the last after finding thick rough and then water down the left.
Söderberg battled his way home with eight straight pars to hold on to a share of the lead with Chacarra.
He said: “Very happy with the score.
"The first two days I played quite well, gave myself a lot of chances, but I felt into the greens today I was everywhere. Struggling a little bit to judge the wind, so my scrambling and putting today put in a decent score.
“I did a good job of just one shot at a time because it did feel quite tough out there and I don’t think I really had any good chances in the last ten or 11 holes, so just being able to shoot level par the last eight holes, it could have easily have been four or five over.
Söderberg's one previous win on the DP World Tour came at the 2019 Omega European Masters and he said: “I would love to (win again), it has been a long wait. It is going to be a battle tomorrow and we will see.
"I’m just happy playing decent golf again, so just an extra bonus to be in contention like this going into Sunday.”
Armitage was nine under after a 67, with Katsuragawa joining Maximilian Steinlechner and Oliver Lindell on eight under.
Guerrier, Jordan Gumberg and Angel Ayora were a shot further back with Joe Dean, Brandon Robinson Thompson and Calum Hill sharing tenth place on six under.
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