Golf:Alexander Noren was simply in a class of his own on home soil as no player could keep pace with him on the third day of the Nordea Masters in Stockholm.
The Swede blazed the difficult Bro Hof Slott layout in just 63 blows to improve the previous course record by two shots.
At 20 under par the 29-year-old opened-up a staggering 11 shot lead heading into the final round. It would appear his name is all but on the title.
The Stockholm native also enjoyed the joint second largest 54-hole lead in European Tour history. Only Retief Goosen, who was 13 shots clear at the 2002 Johnnie Walker Classic, has been further ahead with one round left to play.
And the history books will have to be rewritten again if anyone is to deny Noren his second title of the season - he won in Wales earlier in the year. Nobody has ever come from more than ten behind to win in the final round of a tour event.
For the second consecutive day Noren covered the water-prominent layout without dropping a single shot.
Today's round included seven birdies and an eagle at the par five ninth. It left the Swede 11 ahead of American Bubba Watson (69) and 12 ahead of compatriot Christian Nilsson (66) and South Africa's Jaco Van Zyl (70).
Ireland's Damien McGrane was still inside the top 25 after 70 left the Meath professional on four under.
Nilsson compared the feats of Noren to that of Rory McIlroy when winning last month's US Open. "When a guy is playing that well you can only keep going and do your best," said Nilsson. "He's playing so well right now, like McIlroy in the States at the US Open.
"I was just thinking one shot at a time. I played really well, but I just lost focus on the back nine and couldn't recover from it. One bad swing on 18 cost me a double."
Collated scores and totals after the third round of the Nordea Masters
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
196Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 66 63
207Bubba Watson (USA) 71 67 69
208Christian Nilsson (Swe) 73 69 66, Jaco Van Zyl (Rsa) 67 71 70
210Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 70 71 69, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 70 71, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 73 68 69, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 68 72 70, Scott Strange (Aus) 71 71 68, Jamie Donaldson 73 70 67, Pablo Martin (Spa) 69 72 69
211Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 70 72, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 73 68 70, John Parry 68 73 70, Scott Jamieson 73 71 67, Anthony Wall 69 70 72, Dustin Johnson (USA) 73 71 67, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 73 68, Richard Finch 69 72 70, Tano Goya (Arg) 71 70 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 68 73 70
212Robert Karlsson (Swe) 67 75 70, Damien McGrane 72 70 70, Thomas Norret (Den) 72 71 69, Fredrik Henge (Swe) 71 69 72, Anders Sjostrand (Swe) 70 73 69, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 73 68 71, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 74 69 69
213Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 72 72 69, Alastair Forsyth 72 72 69, Alexandre Kaleka (Fra) 73 70 70
214Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 74 71 69, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 70 66 78, James Kingston (Rsa) 75 70 69, Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 68 74 72, Jin Jeong (Kor) 74 65 75, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 74 70, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 73 71 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 71 71
215Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 72 70, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 69 76 70, Richard McEvoy 71 74 70, Scott Pinckney (USA) 73 72 70, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 72 72 71, Kenneth Ferrie 75 70 70, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 69 74 72, Jamie Elson 74 70 71, Romain Wattel (Fra) 72 71 72, Bradley Dredge 74 69 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 71 74 70
216Sam Walker 74 68 74, Oliver Wilson 74 68 74, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 75 69 72, Johan Edfors (Swe) 76 68 72
217Steve Webster 76 69 72, David Howell 71 74 72, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 74 69 74, Oliver Fisher 72 70 75
218Mark Tullo (Chi) 77 68 73
219Rhys Davies 72 73 74
220Ross McGowan 72 70 78
221Leif Westerberg (Swe) 71 74 76, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 72 73 76
222Lee Slattery 70 73 79 Floris De Vries (Ned) 73 72 79, Marius Thorp (Nor) 75 69 80
