Matt Jones birdied the last four holes on Saturday to rocket into contention at the Arnold Palmer Invitational going into the final round at Bay Hill.

The 34-year-old Australian overcame a slow start to shoot a round of five under, moving him to 13 under for the tournament and three shots off the lead in a tie for third.

Jones, who defends his lone US PGA title in two weeks at the Houston Open, drained a 75-footer at the par-three 17th in his barnstorming finish.

Sweden’s Henrik Stenson leads at 16 under after he went four under on the last four holes to grab a two-stroke advantage over American Morgan Hoffman.

Sydneysider Jones was delighted with his work on the greens and said staying cool after early bogeys was the key to his round.

“Out here you’ve got plenty of birdie chances … you know you’ve got birdies ahead of you. You’ve just got to stay patient and give yourself chances,” said Jones on the PGA Tour website.

“I’m putting really well and that’s going to be the goal tomorrow, just to keep taking my chances.

“We’ve got a couple of things to tighten up on the range. I didn’t strike the ball as good as I would have liked but I’m just going to hit as many greens as I can and give myself as many birdie putts as I can.”

Stenson sank a 13-foot birdie putt at 15, eagled the par-five 16th with a 20-foot putt and dropped his approach inches from the cup at 18 for a tap-in birdie to finish a six-under-par round at the $US6.3 million ($A8.2 million) event.

It was the second day in a row Stenson went four under over the final four holes.

He matched the low 54-hole total at Bay Hill first recorded by Andy Bean in 1981.

Hoffmann, who led after the first and second rounds in quest of his first tour title, fired a one-under 71 to stand second on 202, one stroke ahead of Jones and Americans Jason Kokrak, Ben Martin and defending champion Matt Every.

It was a historic day of shotmaking at Bay Hill as Daniel Berger made the first albatross in tournament history at the par-five sixth, the American holing out from the fairway with a stunning 237-yard shot on his way to shooting 68.

Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat matched the tournament record for the low front nine score with a 30 on his way to a bogey-free seven under, moving him to 10 under.

Kiradech made six birdies in the first nine holes and needed only nine putts on the first nine holes.