Zander Lombard recovered from an early bogey to put one hand on a European Tour playing card ahead of Friday’s final round of Q-School in Tarragona, Spain.

Lombard, who began the day in a tie for tenth place on 14 under par, dropped a shot on his opening hole but rebounded with a birdie on the next and seven more as he marched towards a 64 and a share of the lead with Kurt Kitayama and Romain Langasque.

The trio have a six-shot buffer with 25 tour cards on offer following the sixth and final round on Friday.

‘It was just very solid. I had a sloppy little bogey on the first hole but from there I just stayed really patient and like any low round you don’t really plan it you just stick to your processes,’ said the South African, who lost his card after finishing 133rd in the Race to Dubai in 2018.

‘I felt that I was just short of making the line so many times this year. Every time I seemed to have a good round I would go on to shoot an average one which would then kill the momentum and I’d miss the cut.

‘It has been a building season for me, I have changed a lot of things in my game and it has been a learning curve for me because I realised that I can’t make it alone on raw talent.’

Fellow South Africans Louis de Jager, winner of the Sun Sibaya Challenge before departing for Spain, and Bryce Easton are three shots short of the top 25 with 18 to play.