Sergio Garcia and Callum Shinkwin could not be separated as they head into the final round of the KLM Open.
The two players were placed in the penultimate group together, beginning the third round at nine under par, and they will be in the final pair on Sunday after carding six-under-par 66s.
Garcia, who has 15 European Tour victories to his name, will go into Sunday’s final round as favourite after carding just one dropped shot through 54 holes to reach 15 under at The International in Amsterdam.
Rising Danish star Nicolai Hojgaard, playing in just his third European Tour event, is in third at 13 under, with James Morrison one shot further back.
Matt Wallace set the clubhouse target with a stunning course record of 63 on Saturday morning, courtesy of 10 birdies and one bogey to shoot up to 11 under and was later joined by fellow Englishmen Steven Brown and Matthew Southgate.
“I’m really pleased,” Garcia told europeantour.com. “It helps when you are swinging nicely, but it’s not easy. It is never easy. Sometimes we make it look like that but it was tricky.
“I made a great up and down at 10 to keep my run going and then another good finish with a birdie at 17th and 18th.”
Garcia and Shinkwin did not look back once they moved to 12 under following birdies at the sixth.
Morrison joined the pair after a four-foot birdie putt at the eighth, but Shinkwin holed out a stunning bunker shot to card an unlikely gain and become the first player to reach 13 under.
Shinkwin missed a birdie attempt at the 10th but when he bogeyed the 11th and Garcia picked up a shot from eight feet, the Spaniard took the outright lead.
Morrison bogeyed the ninth but moved alongside the Spaniard at 13 under with birdies at the 11th and 13th before Shinkwin picked up shots at the 13th and 14th to regain the lead and move one stroke ahead.
Garcia and Shinkwin both dialled in their tee-shots to within six feet to make birdies at the par-three 17th before the Spaniard narrowly missed an eagle putt at the last, which would have sent him one clear after Shinkwin could only muster a par.
Gavin Moynihan and Pádraig Harrington made moves up the leaderboard on Saturday after both carded rounds of four-under 68.
Moynihan carded five birdies and a lone bogey to get to seven under, while Harrington did likewise to sit a shot further back on six under. Paul Dunne slipped down through the field after a one-over 73 and is three under for the tournament.
LEADERBOARD
British and Irish unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur
201 Sergio Garcia (Esp) 68 67 66, Callum Shinkwin 66 69 66
203 Nicolai Hojgaard (Den) 67 69 67
204 James Morrison 68 67 69
205 Steven Brown 69 68 68, Matt Wallace 75 67 63, Matthew Southgate 67 68 70
206 Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 71 66 69
207 Wil Besseling (Ned) 72 66 69, Hugo Leon (Chi) 70 69 68, Jeff Winther (Den) 71 69 67, Eduardo De La Riva (Esp) 69 68 70, George Coetzee (Rsa) 71 69 67, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 71 66 70
208 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 69 67, Joost Luiten (Ned) 69 69 70, Ashley Chesters 71 68 69, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 70 68 70, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 70 68 70, Rowin Caron (Ned) 68 69 71, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 70 67 71, Sean Crocker (USA) 70 72 66
209 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 69 70 70, Gavin Moynihan 70 71 68, Andres Romero (Arg) 70 69 70, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 72 70 67, Romain Langasque (Fra) 68 71 70, Scott Jamieson 68 65 76, Bradley Dredge 72 65 72
210 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 69 68 73, Euan Walker 72 69 69, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 69 71 70, Harrison Endycott (Aus) 75 67 68, Liam Johnston 70 68 72, Sam Horsfield 67 69 74, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 68 70, Jamie Donaldson 70 70 70, Yusaku Miyazato (Jpn) 74 65 71, Pádraig Harrington 71 71 68, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 71 69
211 Marc Warren 67 74 70, Jake McLeod (Aus) 70 68 73, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 70 70 71, Max Orrin 68 69 74, Chris Paisley 67 73 71, Thomas Detry (Bel) 71 70 70, Patrick Reed (USA) 72 69 70
212 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70 72, Chris Wood 72 70 70, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 70 72 70, Gavin Green (Mal) 67 73 72, Lee Slattery 74 67 71
213 Paul Dunne 71 69 73, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 68 72 73, (a) Koen Kouwenaar (Ned) 68 70 75, Reinier Saxton (Ned) 69 73 71, Troy Merritt (USA) 73 65 75, Daniel Gavins 70 71 72
214 Richie Ramsay 73 69 72, Nick McCarthy 74 68 72, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 73 69 72, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 72 73, Johannes Veerman (USA) 69 73 72
215 David Law 72 70 73, Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 74 67 74, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 69 73, Per Langfors (Swe) 67 73 75, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 69 76
216 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 75 67 74, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 71 68 77
217 Anton Karlsson (Swe) 70 69 78, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 72 69 76, Stuart Manley 73 69 75
218 Sven Maurits (Ned) 71 71 76
