DP World Tour : Crown Australian Open Leaderboard Tee Times
Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Crown Australian Open after producing a big finish on Saturday.
The Dane closed his third-round 66 with a hat-trick of birdies, holing some lengthy putts along the way, to reach -14 and sit two strokes ahead of a world-class chasing pack consisting of home favourite Cam Smith, South Korea's Si Woo Kim and Mexican Carlos Ortiz all -12.
Spain's Jose Luis Ballester was alone in fifth another shot further back -11 after firing a flawless 65.
Also in the hunt at -10, Adam Scott 68, Min Woo Lee 69 will all be chasing the Dane on Sunday.
Neergaard-Petersen, who is searching for his maiden DP World Tour title, shared the lead at the halfway stage and hit the front on his own when he holed a long-range birdie putt at the second.
After starting the back nine with a bogey, the 26-year-old birdied the long 14th before knocking in his 12-foot birdie effort at the 16th to join Smith at the top of the leaderboard.
He followed that up with another birdie from around 15 feet on the 17th before a 32-foot birdie at the last handed Neergaard-Petersen a two-shot advantage at the summit.
Neergaard-Petersen is riding high on confidence after earning dual membership with the PGA TOUR at the end of last season and he could be in for another life-changing day on Sunday as he bids to secure a first win on the DP World Tour.
He said: "I felt like I stayed true to my plan all week, which has been to stay patient. I'm really happy with the finish. I've been able to finish well here over the last couple of events, even in rounds, so it's nice to finish off well today.
"I was able to roll in a couple of putts in the last three."
Rory McIlroy feels he has what it takes to shoot a low final round at the Crown Australian Open but does not know whether that will be enough to trouble the leader. The World Number Two finished his roller-coaster -4 68 with back-to-back birdies at Royal Melbourne on Saturday to reach -5
That leaves Northern Irishman McIlroy nine shots off the lead held by Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen heading into the final round and he suspects the gap may be too big to close with just 18 holes left to play.
He said: "With the lead at -14, I think I'll be a bit too far back.
EDIT>>> Canada's Aaron Cockerill continues to improve after an opening 74 he shot 68 to make the cut on the number, then added 3 birdies and a hole out eagle 2 for -4 67, T29th.
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Bryan Angus
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