PER LANFORS, PAUL Dunne and Thomas Pieters were among eight players to secure a bye through the first round of Sunday’s six-hole match play knockout at the World Super 6 Perth.

With the top eight players after Saturday’s third round skipping the first stage of the following day’s altered 24-man tournament, Langfors surged clear with an eight-under 64 to top the leaderboard.

The Swede, starting from the 10th, was brilliant over his first nine holes, responding to his only bogey of the day at the 13th with an eagle at the short par-four 14th.

Langfors was playing in the third round of a European Tour event for the first time in his career, having made a maiden cut with a pair of 71s.

He closed the stroke play section on 10 under, unseating early leader Dunne, who himself carded an eagle at the 14th in a six-under 66.

Pieters had shared top spot coming into the weekend, but neither he nor his co-leaders impressed on Saturday, even as the Belgian and Ryan Fox finished in the top eight.

Both men played even-par rounds, with Pieters suffering a third double-bogey of the week early on, yet they fared better than Matthew Griffin and Panuphol Pittayarat.

Griffin collapsed completely with a four-over 76 to miss the cut, while Pittayarat’s two over took him into a play-off for a place in the final 24.

The Thai star came through, though, as Tom Murray was the sole player to miss out in the 11-man tussle at the 18th after a remarkable recovery from Wade Ormsby.

Meanwhile, Kristoffer Reitan’s incredible seesaw week continued. The Norwegian led after Thursday, scraped into the weekend with a five-over second round and then rallied again, carding a seven-under 65 to move to nine under and clinch a bye in joint-second.

Brad Kennedy, alongside Dunne and Reitan in second, was joined by Yuta Ikeda and Gareth Paddison in also receiving a bye.

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