Ryder Cup winner Tyrrell Hatton fired a 66 at St Andrews to put himself on course for a third consecutive victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Just six says after being part of Europe's thumping victory over the USA at Le Golf National, the Englishman stood on the brink of making more history as he looked to become just the second Englishman after Nick Faldo to win the same European Tour event three years in succession.
Faldo achieved the feat at the Irish Open between 1991 and 1993, while the last player to do it was Tiger Woods, who won the WGC-Invitational and WGC-Championship events from 2005 to 2007.
Hatton will enter the final day at St Andrews on 14 under par, one shot clear of Australian Marcus Fraser and three ahead of countryman and fellow Ryder Cup winner Tommy Fleetwood and Scottish 2004 champion Stephen Gallacher.
“I’m certainly going to go out there tomorrow and give it my best,” Hatton told europeantour.com. “To join that club would be so special.
“We’re in a good position going into the final day and that’s all we can ask for.”
Hatton led by three at the turn after he birdied the second, eagled the par-five fifth and then made another eagle on the par-four ninth after driving the green.
When he bogeyed the 12th, his lead was cut to one by Fleetwood, who had made gains on the first, second, third, fifth and eighth, but Hatton birdied the 13th and 14th to lead by three again.
Fleetwood birdied the 10th and 12th and a Hatton bogey on the 17th saw him caught, but he birdied the last before Fleetwood three-putted the 16th and 17th from distance to slip back.
Fraser recovered from a bogey on the second with six birdies in a 67 at Kingsbarns, while Gallacher birdied the 10th, 12th, 16th, sixth, seventh and ninth at St Andrews.
Dane Lucas Bjerregaard and Italian Andrea Pavan were at 10 under, a shot clear of a group of five players containing reigning US Open and US PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka.
Pádraig Harrington made an eagle three at the par-five fifth at St Andrews and birdied the 18th to card a three-under 69 to move to six under and a share of 20th position.
Robin Dawson missed the cut by one shot despite carding a two-under 70 at Carnoustie, the hardest of the three courses played in the event.
The Tramore golfer will be in action on Sunday in the final of the team event alongside former Ireland rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll.
Between them the pair shot a net 11-under 61 at this year’s British Open course, with O’Driscoll contributing net eagles on the second and 14th and also coming in with four net birdies.
Dawson and O’Driscoll are in a group of five teams on 23 under, one off the pace.
The rest of the Irish contingent missed the third-round cut.
THIRD ROUND SCORES
(British and Irish unless stated, par 72)
KINGSBARNS:
203 Marcus Fraser (Aus) 68 68 67
207 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 69 67 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 73 66 68
209 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 74 67 68
210 Matthew Jordan 77 67 66
211 Clement Sordet (Fra) 74 70 67, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 75 67 69
212 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 68 72, Robert Rock 76 69 67, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 63 75, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 74 70 68, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 74 70 68, James Morrison 73 70 69
213 Adrien Saddier (Fra) 75 71 67, Deyen Lawson (Aus) 76 69 68, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 77 63 73
Missed cut
214 Richard Bland 72 69 73, Sam Horsfield 74 70 70, Aaron Rai 78 68 68, Paul Peterson (USA) 76 71 67
215 Harry Ellis 76 73 66, Jordan Zunic (Aus) 73 71 71, James Marchesani (USA) 75 67 73, Norman Xiong (USA) 76 69 70, Richard McEvoy 76 66 73, Kim Koivu (Fin) 74 74 67
216 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 75 70 71, Ken Duke (USA) 73 75 68, Scott Jamieson 76 71 69
217 Romain Wattel (Fra) 78 70 69, Callum Shinkwin 78 67 72, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 73 74 70
218 Jason Norris (Aus) 76 72 70, Kyle McClatchie (Rsa) 76 70 72, Sebastien Gros (Fra) 73 74 71, Austin Connelly (Can) 80 69 69, Soomin Lee (Kor) 77 67 74
219 Jaco Ahlers (Rsa) 77 70 72, Richard T Lee (Can) 77 69 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 72 74, Pedro Oriol (Esp) 76 72 71, Bradley Dredge 79 73 67
220 Daniel Brooks 79 72 69, Simon Dyson 76 71 73, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 78 73 69
221 Ryan Evans 78 69 74, Gavin Green (Mal) 77 72 72, Gregory Havret (Fra) 74 72 75
222 Jorge Campillo (Esp) 74 76 72, Oliver Farr 72 75 75
223 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 79 69 75
224 Adam Bland (Aus) 75 71 78
225 Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 81 72 72
226 Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 82 71 73
228 Liam Johnston 77 72 79
229 Pelle Edberg (Swe) 84 75 70
ST ANDREWS (OLD COURSE)
202 Tyrrell Hatton 70 66 66
205 Stephen Gallacher 71 68 66, Tommy Fleetwood 71 67 67
207 Brooks Koepka (USA) 70 72 65, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 71 65
208 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 72 72 64
209 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 70 70 69, Tom Lewis 71 71 67, Ross Fisher 75 68 66
210 Tony Finau (USA) 73 66 71, Andrew Sullivan 72 71 67, Matt Kuchar (USA) 73 68 69, Pádraig Harrington 69 72 69
211 Peter Hanson (Swe) 70 71 70, Pep Angles (Esp) 75 69 67
212 Haotong Li (Chn) 75 69 68, Jake McLeod (Aus) 74 70 68, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 71 69, Branden Grace (Rsa) 73 74 65, Jordan Smith 73 71 68, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 73 71 68
213 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 71 72 70, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 74 71 68, Eddie Pepperell 75 71 67, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 74 69 70
Missed cut
214 Richie Ramsay 73 70 71, Scott Hend (Aus) 74 72 68, Luke Donald 75 71 68, Sam Brazel (Aus) 74 72 68
215 Chase Koepka (USA) 79 67 69, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 74 72 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 75 71 69, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 70 77 68
216 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 77 71 68, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 75 69, Sam Locke 73 72 71, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 77 72 67, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 74 76 66, Matthew Fitzpatrick 76 69 71
217 Lasse Jensen (Den) 72 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Esp) 72 73 72, Paul McGinley 69 73 75
218 Shane Lowry 72 75 71, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 74 73 71, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 69 74 75
219 Oliver Gillberg (Swe) 76 74 69
220 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 74 71 75, Louis Ger Jager (Rsa) 74 74 72
221 Ockie Strydom (Rsa) 73 76 72
222 Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 77 74 71
223 Graeme McDowell 77 72 74
224 Paul Dunne 78 73 73, Zac Blair (USA) 73 81 70, Jean-Paul Strydom (Rsa) 78 79 67
226 David Howell 77 75 74
230 Ulrich Van Den Berg (Rsa) 81 75 74
CARNOUSTIE
206 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 70 65 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 63 71
207 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 76 67 64
209 Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 70 69, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 70 67, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 71 67 71
210 Oliver Bekker (Rsa) 71 68 71, Peter Karmis (Rsa) 71 67 72
211 Ashley Chesters 73 64 74, Oliver Fisher 73 69 69, Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 68 72, Lee Slattery 71 67 73
212 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 75 69 68, Thomas Detry (Bel) 72 71 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 72 69 71
213 Matt Wallace 68 71 74, Chris Paisley 72 70 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 75 69 69, Renato Paratore (Ita) 72 68 73
Missed cut
214 Laurie Canter 76 69 69, Robin Dawson 74 70 70, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 70 71, Doug Ghim (USA) 74 69 71
215 Steven Brown 75 70 70, Chris Wood 76 70 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 77 68 70, Scott Fernandez (Esp) 77 67 71, Matthew Southgate 73 68 74, Freddie Jacobson (Swe) 76 67 72, David Lipsky (USA) 73 69 73, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 77 69 69
216 Phachara Khongwatmai (Tha) 69 76 71
217 David Drysdale 73 71 73, Connor Syme 72 75 70, Jonathan Thomson 75 69 73, Michael Hoey 74 72 71
218 Chris Hanson 79 68 71
219 Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 77 72 70
220 Wade Ormsby (Aus) 75 68 77, George Coetzee (Rsa) 76 72 72
221 Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 75 72
222 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 80 73 69, Marc Warren 75 72 75, Daniel Im (USA) 75 78 69, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 73 78 71
223 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 74 74 75, JC Ritchie (Rsa) 76 72 75, Jamie Donaldson 76 67 80, Carlos Pigem (Esp) 78 69 76, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 81 71 71
225 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 83 66 76
226 Matteo Manassero (Ita) 78 75 73
227 Brett Rumford (Aus) 76 72 79, David Horsey 77 75 75
228 Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 74 77 77
231 Bradley Neil 75 78 78
TEAM LEADERBOARD
192 Nacho Elvira and John Van Wyk* 64 60 68; Haotong Li and Allen Zhang 67 64 61
193 Robin Dawson and Brian O'Driscoll 66 66 61; Thongchai Jaidee and Scott Desano 64 65 64; Tommy Fleetwood and Ogden Phipps 69 62 62; Alvaro Quiros and Paul Harris* 70 67 56; Tapio Pulkkanen and Robert Hissom* 69 61 63.
