Matt Wallace produced a brilliant battling round of 70 to share the lead with the in-form Shubhankar Sharma heading into the final round of the Hero Indian Open.
On a day when just nine players fired under-par rounds in Delhi, Wallace’s two-under effort moved him to seven under and a position to continue his rapid rise through the ranks.
The Englishman won six times on the Alps Tour in 2016 – including five in as many starts – to earn a place on the Challenge Tour and wasted no time in winning the Open de Portugal to gain his European Tour card.
“I’m very happy,” he told europeantour.com. “There are some brilliant players up there.
“You know there is going to be a charge tomorrow and someone is going to play well. I just have to go out there and try to execute like I did today and see how it goes.
“Every hole is a test. Every hole is a double bogey waiting to happen. I just took every hole as it came and played it as well as possible. That eagle on nine was probably the highlight of my week – and year – so far.”
After three birdies and a bogey in his first five holes on Saturday, he led for the first time when he drove the ninth green with an iron and holed a tricky double-breaker for an eagle.
He made three bogeys to a single birdie on the way home but that was good enough to leave him alongside Sharma in top spot.
The Indian has already won twice this season to lead the Race to Dubai and held the 54-hole lead at last week’s WGC-Mexico Championship as his stock continues to rise.
The 21-year-old had made four birdies and three bogeys before dropping two shots on the 17th, but a birdie on the last put him back in the lead.
“I’m just looking forward to playing out there again,” he said. “I just want to have fun.
“It’s the second week in the row I’m in the leading group. I’m going to draw from my experiences last week. I know it’s going to be a battle out there tomorrow and I’ll be ready for it.
Scotland's Stephen Gallacher produced the lowest round of the day with a 67 to sit a shot off the lead as the 2014 Ryder Cup winner looks for a first individual victory in four years.
England's Andrew Johnston was at five under alongside Argentinian Emiliano Grillo – who entered the day with a four-shot lead but battled to a 78 – and Austrian Matthias Schwab.
Darren Clarke endured a nightmare after making the cut in Delhi, carding an 11-over 83.
Clare started with a birdie but eight bogeys and a nine at the par-five 18th saw the former Ryder Cup captain fall back down the leaderboard.
Collated third round scores in the Indian Open, DLF Golf and Country Club, India (Britain and Ireland unless stated, par 72):
209 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 64 72, Matt Wallace 69 70 70
210 Stephen Gallacher 72 71 67
211 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 65 68 78, Andrew Johnston 72 66 73, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 72 68
212 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 70 70 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 67 71 74
213 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 69 73 71, Paul Peterson (USA) 67 73 73, Aaron Rai 71 73 69
214 Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 69 74, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 74 68 72
215 Steven Brown 74 71 70, Panuphol Pittayarat (Tha) 69 70 76, Clement Sordet (Fra) 72 72 71, Jamie Donaldson 71 70 74, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 72 71 72
216 Anthony Wall 71 73 72, Jarin Todd (USA) 72 74 70, Sebastien Gros (Fra) 69 71 76
217 Shih-Chang Chan (Tpe) 71 71 75, Casey O'Toole (USA) 74 66 77, Gavin Green (Mal) 69 73 75, Danthai Boonma (Tha) 71 76 70
218 Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 69 71 78, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 68 76 74, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 69 70 79, Gregory Havret (Fra) 73 72 73
219 Keith Horne (Rsa) 66 73 80, James Morrison 70 72 77
220 Robert Rock 73 73 74, Natipong Srithong (Tha) 76 70 74, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 72 73 75, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 71 72 77, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 72 72 76
221 Chris Wood 77 69 75, Khalin Joshi (Ind) 72 68 81, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 72 79, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 71 72 78, Ashley Chesters 74 71 76
222 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 73 74 75, Nicholas Fung (Mal) 69 73 80, David Gleeson (Aus) 75 70 77, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 75 72 75, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 75 72 75, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 73 76
223 Karandeep Kochhar (Ind) 75 72 76, Micah Lauren Shin (USA) 73 73 77, (a) Kshitij Naveed Kaul (Ind) 70 76 77, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 73 72 78, Scott Fernandez (Esp) 73 73 77
224 Prom Meesawat (Tha) 72 73 79, Ryan Evans 76 71 77, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 67 79 78
226 Adrien Saddier (Fra) 67 78 81, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 72 71 83, Udayan Mane (Ind) 72 75 79, Marc Warren 68 72 86
227 Graeme Storm 79 68 80
228 Darren Clarke 72 73 83
229 Ashun Wu (Chn) 72 74 83, Soomin Lee (Kor) 71 75 83
230 Suradit Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 75 71 84
231 Lionel Weber (Fra) 73 74 84, Angelo Que (Phi) 76 71 84
