One of the best things about Victorian teen golfer Lucas Herbert’s course record at the Australian Masters – he gets to sleep in.

The 18-year-old amateur fired a seven-under 65 at Metropolitan Golf Club to put himself in contention heading into Sunday’s final round.

He’s at six-under for the tournament.

After opening rounds of 75 and 70, Herbert took advantage of some perfect morning conditions with eight birdies in 10 holes en route to his record 65.

It’s not even his best score, having carded 10-under at Neangar Park in his home town of Bendigo.

Now among the tournament front-runners, Herbert will be among the late starters on the final day.

“I’m pretty happy I’ll probably get three hours extra sleep tonight. I might stay up a little later watching TV,” Herbert said.

The rising star is among of trio of young Victorian amateurs to impress at the Masters.

Ryan Ruffels, 16, matched defending champion Adam Scott’s four-under 68 in the third round, while Todd Sinnott, 22, had a third round 67.

Herbert has played plenty of junior golf with Ruffels and said they were “great friends”.

“We have so much competitive drive with each other and we both want to beat each other as bad as the other one,” Herbert said.

“I might be one over him today but I’m sure if he beats me tomorrow he will let me know about it.”

As one of the amateurs Herbert said there was no burden of expectation because no-one expected them to win.

And unable to claim prizemoney, that didn’t come between friends.

“We’re obviously not stealing each other’s money, because we are all amateurs, so we like seeing everybody else playing well,” he said.