Home favourite Andy Sullivan will take a commanding five-shot lead into the final round of the English Championship after a stunning 64 left him on the brink of a first win in almost five years.
The 33-year-old won three times in 2015 as he finished in Europe’s top 10 and secured a Ryder Cup debut, but he has not lifted a trophy since the Portugal Masters in October of that year.
Meanwhile Cormac Sharvin will have his eyes on a top-10 finish after he carded a two under par round of 69 on Saturday.
Sharvin is one of eight players sharing 20th place on 11 under par for the tournament, and a strong finish could see him climb a congested leaderboard.
Sullivan entered the third day at Hanbury Manor with a one-shot advantage and carded two eagles, five birdies and two bogeys to move to 21 under, five shots clear of countryman Steven Brown.
“My strategy will be the same as today,” he told europeantour.com. “Just control what I can do. I can’t control anyone that is going to come up behind me.
“This golf course does offer a lot of birdies so I’m sure at some point someone is going to have a run at me. All I can do is control what I can do and see where we are at the end of it.
“As I was swinging it well a lot of shots came off today and I gave myself a lot of chances. It was good fun out there.”
Sullivan set the tone with a remarkable drive to two feet on the par-four first for an eagle but he needed another eagle on the ninth to reclaim the lead from a charging Brandon Stone, who had six birdies before the turn.
As the South African faltered on the back nine, Brown became the nearest challenger, signing for a 66 that included him hitting the pin to be denied a hole in one on the sixth.
But Sullivan was in no mood to be caught and picked up four birdies in six holes from the 12th, with a three-putt on the 13th his only blemish on the back nine.
Stone was alongside countryman Dean Burmester and Spaniard Adrian Otaegui at 15 under, a shot clear of a group including England's Laurie Canter.
Collated Third round scores and totals in the European Tour English Championship (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
192 Andy Sullivan 66 62 64
197 Steven Brown 66 65 66
198 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 66 63 69, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 65 66 67, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 65 66 67
199 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 64 69 66, Laurie Canter 64 65 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 65 66 68, Martin Simonsen (Den) 65 68 66
200 Marcus Armitage 68 69 63, Jamie Donaldson 67 64 69, Dave Coupland 69 65 66, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 67 67 66, Jordan Smith 68 65 67, Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 68 65 67
201 Ben Stow 70 67 64, Oscar Lengden (Swe) 65 66 70, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 65 67 69, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 64 67 70
202 Andrew Johnston 66 65 71, Cormac Sharvin 63 70 69, Connor Syme 65 69 68, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 69 64 69, Thomas Detry (Bel) 64 72 66, Sean Crocker (USA) 69 67 66, Louis De Jager (Rsa) 69 66 67, Scott Vincent (Zim) 64 70 68
203 Richie Ramsay 66 68 69, Marc Warren 68 68 67, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 68 68 67, Chris Paisley 68 65 70, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 67 68 68, Lee Westwood 66 69 68
204 Richard Bland 65 66 73, Sihwan Kim (Kor) 67 65 72, Robin Roussel (Fra) 67 69 68, Callum Shinkwin 68 67 69, Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 67 68 69, Oliver Fisher 67 68 69
205 Romain Langasque (Fra) 65 70 70, Matthew Southgate 67 69 69, Renato Paratore (Ita) 69 67 69, Scott Jamieson 74 63 68, Aaron Rai 68 69 68, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 69 66 70, David Drysdale 65 70 70, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 67 69 69, Jack Senior 65 72 68, Ricardo Santos (Por) 68 68 69,
206 Justin Harding (Rsa) 67 65 74, Toby Tree 67 67 72, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 66 69 71, Richard McEvoy 70 66 70, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 70 67 69, Romain Wattel (Fra) 65 71 70, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 66 70 70, Johannes Veerman (USA) 67 69 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 68 69 69, Ewan Ferguson 67 70 69, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 67 70 69
207 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 67 70, Scott Hend (Aus) 71 66 70, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 66 69 72, Lee Slattery 69 67 71
208 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 70 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 66 68 74, David Howell 64 71 73, Rhys Enoch 66 70 72
210 Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 67 74, Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Spa) 71 66 73
211 Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 69 65 77
212 David Law 68 68 76, Wil Besseling (Ned) 70 67 75
