Daniel Rodrigues shot a third-round 68 to share the lead of the 2026 Turkish Airlines Open.
The Portuguese player completed his round shortly before a two-hour stoppage due to lightning in the area, setting the clubhouse lead at seven under par, and then watched as his fellow challengers lost ground upon the resumption.
Mikael Lindberg held firm at seven under, with the pair one stroke clear of a group of six players sharing third place.
Mikael Lindberg needed to birdie his final hole to take the outright lead into tomorrow...#TurkishAirlinesOpen pic.twitter.com/MJB88SAuAc
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 2, 2026
Rodrigues birdied four of the first six holes and, after a dropped shot at the eighth, regained his momentum with a superb approach to the tenth.
That birdie was followed by another at the 14th which briefly gave him the outright lead until he bogeyed the 16th.
The 23-year-old rookie is chasing his first DP World Tour win, with qualification for the US PGA Championship also at stake for the top three finishers on the Asian Swing which concludes with this event.
Leader in the clubhouse 💪
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 2, 2026
Daniel Rodrigues finished his third round before the weather delay to sit in the house at -7.
The 23-year-old from Portugal is playing his debut season on Tour after coming through Q School last year. He finished T16 last week in China and is looking… pic.twitter.com/wC4IS6Txeh
Rodrigues said: “I have it in the back of my mind but I don't like to think about it too much.
“I know what's at stake and it's always nice to play for that stuff but at the end of the day, you've got to hit shots for 18 holes and it's a long time and you've just got to do your best. That's it.”
He proclaimed himself "very pleased" with his round and added: "We didn't know if we were going to get rain or thunder or whatever, so the start of the day was not like the other two days that (have been) nice, but just had to do what I kept doing the last couple of days and it was good. It was really good."
The stoppage came with Ewen Ferguson leading on eight under but about to putt for bogey having found a hazard at the 16th. The Scot's attempt on the resumption slid just by, dropping him to six under.
Gregorio De Leo and Rocco Repetto Taylor also dropped shots late on to fall out of a share of the lead but Lindberg parred every hole on the back nine.
The Swede did his scoring with a run of four straight birdies from the fourth, in between dropped shots at the second and ninth.
Daniel Rodrigues and Mikael Lindberg share the lead heading into Sunday as both players look to win for the first time on the DP World Tour 🤝#TurkishAirlinesOpen pic.twitter.com/fE9DpAS7f2
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) May 2, 2026
Lindberg said: “It was a weird day. It's a very, very tricky course.
“I felt like I played pretty good the front nine. Unfortunately, I had a couple of three-putts to start the day, but I managed to hole a few there in the middle of the front, so it was good.
“I played well last week, so it's good to see that I'm still playing good golf, so hopefully we can play some good golf tomorrow.”
Second-round leader De Leo - whose 73 featured no birdies, but three bogeys and a near 100-foot eagle putt at the 14th - and Repetto Taylor were joined at six under by Wenyi Ding, Ugo Coussaud, Kazuma Kobori and Guido Migliozzi.
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