Golf: South Africans Charl Schwartzel, Thomas Aiken and Garth Mulroy all overcame nervous round threes to share the lead heading into the final day of the Joburg Open.

The trio all had similar efforts on Saturday, with defending champion Schwartzel and Mulroy - two men that were part of a three-way tie for the lead at the halfway stage - going around the par-71 east course of the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club in two under 69s.

Aiken, who was a shot behind on Friday, managed the best round of the trio, a 68, as the leaders ended on 15 under overall.

Their closest challenge was coming from Scotland's David Drysdale after his four under 67 put him a shot further back, while English pair Ben Evans (67) and Jamie Elson (71) were tied on 13 under - the latter amongst the top trio after three rounds.

Jean-Baptiste Gonnet from France was tied with them to sit two shots of the leaders, with Welshman Jamie Donaldson recording the round of the day score of 65 to move onto 11 under.

Four other players were with him - Swede Oscar Floren (66), Antti Ahokas (68) of Finland and South African duo Allan Versfeld (70) and Branden Grace (71).

The big battle, though, looks set to take place at the top of the leaderboard as the co-sanctioned European and Sunshine Tour event reaches its climax.

But Aiken, whose round today included four birdies and a bogey on the par-three 16, believes someone outside the leading trio could produce a sting in the tail.

"Golf's a funny game, you can get someone shooting a 62 to come from behind, so you never know," he said. "You need to concentrate on what you need to do, go out there and whatever happens out there happens."

Trying to explain why low scoring was hard to come by today, the 27-year-old, a seven-time winner on the Sunshine Tour, added: "There were two difficult things out there today. One was the wind and the other thing was the pin placements, which were in some really nasty positions.

"I did what I needed to do, didn't do anything ridiculously bad, but it just didn't want to go in the hole. Hopefully tomorrow it will go the other way."

Schwartzel missed several putts along the way as he ended with his worst score of the week so far - he shot 68 and 61 previously.

The 26-year-old also felt that the wind was responsible for a lack of low scores.

"It was a tough day out there today," he said. "The wind blew a lot and this course is not in one direction, it's in different ones, so it makes things difficult. It always swirls and makes it difficult to choose clubs."

The world number 32, who is the highest ranked player in the field, also lamented his putting, adding: "I know I hit the ball well, but I left a few putts out there.

"I missed a few short ones, which weren't really bad ones, but just misread. Then I three-putted 15 and all of a sudden I knew I'm now on the back foot when I could have had quite a bit of momentum going my way. But no one really got away and I'm right in it for tomorrow."

Darren Clarke managed only a level-par 71 in round three to remain on four under in total, one ahead of Colm Moriarty (73). Best of the Irish, however, is Gareth Maybin on eight under after he followed up yesterday's 64 with a level par 72.

Collated third round scores & totals

(Irish in bold, GBR unless stated, par 71):

198 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 64 66 68, Garth Mulroy (Rsa) 65 64 69, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 61 69

199 David Drysdale 67 65 67

200 Jamie Elson 65 64 71, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 67 66 67, Ben Evans 66 67 67

202 Allan Versfeld (Rsa) 66 66 70, Antti Ahokas (Fin) 69 65 68, Jamie Donaldson 66 71 65, Branden Grace (Rsa) 63 68 71, Oscar Floren (Swe) 68 68 66

203 James Kingston (Rsa) 68 62 73, Paul Waring 66 67 70, Carlos Del Morral (Spa) 70 65 68, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 62 69 72

205 Alexander Noren (Swe) 66 69 70, Floris De Vries (Ned) 65 70 70, Gareth Maybin 69 64 72, Bradford Vaughan (Rsa) 67 70 68, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 65 70

206 Tyrone Mordt (Rsa) 62 68 76, Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 68 70 68, Marc Warren 67 66 73, Tyrone Ferreira (Rsa) 69 69 68, Keith Horne (Rsa) 69 66 71, Stuart Manley 65 68 73, Lloyd Saltman 71 66 69

207 Danny Willett 72 66 69, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 67 69 71, Tjaart Van Der Walt (Rsa) 69 68 70, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 69 69 69, Robert Rock 66 68 73, Lee Slattery 71 66 70, Richard Finch 70 67 70, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 64 70, Deane Pappas (Rsa) 67 71 69

208 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 72 64 72, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 70 67 71, Robert Dinwiddie 65 72 71, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 71 66 71, Scott Jamieson 70 66 72, Theunis Spangenberg (Rsa) 69 68 71, Thomas Norret (Den) 69 69 70, Andrew Marshall 68 70 70, Ryan Tipping (Rsa) 69 69 70, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 67 71 70

209 Merrick Bremner (Rsa) 71 64 74, Josh Cunliffe (Rsa) 68 68 73, Darren Clarke 70 68 71, Kenneth Ferrie 69 68 72, Alexandre Kaleka (Fra) 64 69 76, Albert Pistorius (Rsa) 70 64 75, Ross McGowan 67 69 73

210 Colm Moriarty 67 70 73, Steve Lewton 71 67 72, Roope Kakko (Fin) 68 70 72, Jan Are Larsen (Nor) 69 69 72, Johan Du buisson (Rsa) 69 69 72, Matthew Southgate 72 66 72, Warren Abery (Rsa) 68 70 72, Neil Schietekat (Rsa) 72 64 74, Sebi Garcia (Spa) 70 68 72

211 Neil Cheetham 66 70 75, Peter- Henric McIntyre (Rsa) 65 69 77, Anders Sjostrand (Swe) 68 69 74

212 Michiel Bothma (Rsa) 69 69 74, Sam Little 70 67 75, Steven O'Hara 70 67 75, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 68 70 74

213 Divan Van Den Heever (Rsa) 65 72 76, Ben Mannix 66 72 75