Australian Steven Bowditch has stormed up the leaderboard early in the third round of the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational with a scintillating seven-under 63.

Bowditch produced the best round of the tournament by two shots to shoot from obscurity into a tie for second place at five under, four adrift of runaway leader Jim Furyk.

Furyk sits at nine-under par through just two holes of his third round while Bowditch is tied with Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell (three holes), Kiwi Danny Lee (four holes) and Ireland’s Shane Lowry (two holes) at five under.

Jason Day is the next best Australian, unable to find a birdie in his opening seven holes to remains at two under and tied 16th.

Bowditch birdied three of his opening six holes on Saturday before closing the front nine with a 30-foot bomb for another birdie and a front side 31.

Another birdie on the 11th was tempered by his only bogey on the 13th before he almost holed out from the fairway on the 14th for another birdie.

The Queenslander poured one in from the collar of the green on the 16th and then buried a 12-foot birdie on the last to put up the 63 and stake his claim on the elite 77-man no-cut tournament.

“The front nine was very much a struggle again actually with my golf swing. I felt uncomfortable, and I was stuck in some places,” Bowditch said.

“And then I made a really good swing on 14, hit a really good drive down there and created a feeling that I had the last sort of six, seven weeks.

“From there, I didn’t miss a golf shot. I hit it dead where I wanted to hit it basically. Hopefully, I can carry it into tomorrow.”

Marc Leishman fired an even par 70 to stay two over while Adam Scott’s chances are gone as he sits three over on his round and four over for the week through 15 holes.

Andrew Dodt (+10) and Nick Cullen (+16) remain near the rear of the field.