Rising to the challenge of playing in front of his home fans, Swede Peter Hanson takes a two-stroke lead into the final round of the SAS Masters in Stockholm, but a day that promised so much for Nick Dougherty and Chris Wood did not turn out as well as they hoped.
Ryder Cup hopeful Dougherty shared the halfway pace with Hanson — but a level par 70 dropped him into a five-way share for second with Scot Gary Orr, Dane Soren Kjeldsen and two more Swedish players in Daniel Chopra and Pelle Edberg.
Wood, making his professional debut four weeks after his fabulous fifth place in The Open at Royal Birkdale, holed his pitch to the first for an eagle two — and when he turned in a five-under 29, he was only one off the lead.
But the back nine brought a double-bogey six on the 12th — and a closing bogey, gave him a 68 and left him joint ninth on five under, five behind.
"I can't be disappointed, given how I felt," said the 20-year-old from Bristol. "I had some food poisoning yesterday, was sick in the night and didn't sleep much.
"I feel all right now, but I've not eaten anything and didn't feel comfortable with my swing."
Hanson, who added a 68 to his two opening 66s, has won only one of 174 European Tour events in his career — but at 24th in the Ryder Cup standings, he cannot quite be ruled out of the equation yet.
"I think I've put myself a little bit too far back, but if I win tomorrow I'll change my mind about taking next week off," said the 30-year-old, whose only victory was the 2005 Spanish Open.
"I want to give myself every chance.
"Of course you can feel pressure playing at home, but I think it's more inspirational."
He bogeyed the third, while Dougherty birdied it — but came back with birdies on the fifth, seventh and 16th.
The last of them was the decisive one of the round, Dougherty missing the green and then failing to sink his three-foot par putt.
The 26-year-old Liverpudlian, 15th in the cup race, said: "Both my wins have come from the front, but I will take where I am right now.
"It's just lovely to be in contention going into the final round."
A 67 has Paul McGinley leading the Irish challenge on four-under-par, while both Damien McGrane and Gary Murphy are two under after a 68 and 69 respectively.
Fluctuating fortunes does not even come close to describing the week Swedish amateur David Palm has had at the SAS Masters in Stockholm.
Last but one of the 156-man field after an opening 79, Palm improved an incredible 17 shots in his second round and but for placing being allowed on the wet fairways would have broken the course record and equalled the lowest round by an amateur on the European Tour.
His eighth and final birdie enabled him to survive the halfway cut by the skin of his teeth, but this morning the Arlandastad lay-out became a bit of a struggle again with Palm falling back to four-over par and 70th of the 72 players left thanks to a 73.
