Erik Van Rooyen carded three late birdies to take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Hassan Trophy in Morocco.
The South African started day three two shots off the lead but fired a 68 in Rabat to move to eight under as he looks for a first European Tour win.
Spaniard Jorge Campillo is still looking for a first professional victory at the age of 32 and he was Van Rooyen’s nearest challenger, one shot clear of American Sean Crocker.
Scot Grant Forrest and England’s Lee Slattery were then at five under alongside Australian Wade Ormsby and American Julian Suri.
Gavin Moynihan is the best of the Irish after a two under par round of 71 which saw him move up to level par for the tournament. Michael Hoey is two shots further back after a 74 while Paul Dunne endured a day to forget with a 77 to drop back to six over.
Van Rooyen took a four-shot lead into the final round of the Irish Open last summer only to finish fourth after a closing 74 and is hoping that experience will stand him in good stead.
“I was quite nervous last year,” he told europeantour.com. “I think I’ve been in this position a bunch of of times now. The nerves will be there again tomorrow but I love to be in this position.”
Joint overnight leader Crocker quickly found himself three ahead with two opening birdies, but Van Rooyen set about reeling him in, recovering from a dropped shot on the second with gains on the seventh and ninth.
The 29-year-old picked up further shots on the 12th and 13th and recovered from a bogey on the 14th with birdies on the 16th, 17th and last.
Forrest carded a 69 and Slattery signed for a 72 to sit a shot ahead of England’s Jordan Smith.
Collated third round scores & totals in the European Tour Trophee Hassan II, Royal Golf Dar Spa Salam, Morocco (British unless stated, Irish in bold, par 73):
211 Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 74 69 68
212 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 72 71 69
213 Sean Crocker (USA) 67 74 72
214 Julian Suri (USA) 71 71 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 74 70 70, Grant Forrest 75 70 69, Lee Slattery 70 72 72
215 David Lipsky (USA) 71 70 74, Jordan Smith 66 76 73, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 75 69 71
216 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 75 74 67, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 72 76 68, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 76 69
217 Jake McLeod (Aus) 72 78 67, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 70 73 74
218 Tom Lewis 72 75 71, Jeff Winther (Den) 74 72 72, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 74 71 73, Thomas Detry (Bel) 73 76 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73 72 73
219 David Law 75 71 73, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 73 74 72, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 76 70, Joost Luiten (Ned) 73 75 71, Ashley Chesters 72 73 74, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 72 76 71, James Morrison 72 75 72, Gavin Moynihan (Irl) 74 74 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 74 73, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 74 70 75, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 75 71 73
220 Andy Sullivan 74 73 73, Clement Sordet (Fra) 76 70 74, Guido Migliozzi (Spa) 72 71 77, Chris Paisley 75 72 73, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 70 72 78
221 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 75 70 76, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 70 73 78, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 76 78, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 73 74 74, Michael Hoey (NIrl) 74 73 74
222 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 75 74 73, Paul Waring 73 77 72, Callum Shinkwin 74 76 72, Romain Langasque (Fra) 74 75 73, Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 78 72, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 75 74 73, Jack Senior 70 77 75, Justin Walters (Rsa) 74 72 76, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 73 77 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 78 75
223 Lasse Jensen (Den) 73 76 74, Oliver Wilson 74 75 74, Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 73 76, Kim Koivu (Fin) 74 76 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 77 73
224 Hyo-won Park (Kor) 75 74 75, Marc Warren 72 73 79, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 72 78 74, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 78 78, David Horsey 73 75 76
225 Steven Brown 76 74 75, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 72 78 75, Paul Dunne (Irl) 73 75 77, Joel Girrbach (Swi) 74 75 76, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 79 76
226 Tom Murray 77 69 80, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 74 80
227 Richie Ramsay 77 72 78, Stephen Gallacher 68 82 77
230 Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 76 74 80
