Australian Masters defending champion Ian Poulter has surged into the outright lead, with Australia’s top-ranked golfer Adam Scott also mounting a challenge at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath.
Scott started Saturday’s third round three shots adrift of fellow Queenslander Matthew Guyatt, the overnight leader on 10-under, while Poulter was five shots off the pace.
But after 10 holes, Poulter had climbed to 11-under-par, Scott had reached 10-under and Guyatt, one hole behind them, had slipped back to nine-under.
Englishman Poulter produced some stunning golf to go through the first 10 holes at six-under-par.
After a tap-in birdie on the first, he rolled in sizeable birdie putts on the third and fifth, then played a top second shot out of a fairway bunker on the sixth to set up another birdie.
The Englishman topped that on the seventh by sinking an enormous birdie putt from off the front of the green.
Minutes later, he was in a share of the lead with Guyatt, after the Queenslander, who had reached 11-under with a birdie at the first, missed a short par putt on the sixth to fall to 10-under-par.
Scott rolled in a nice birdie putt on the eighth green soon after to create a three-way tie for the lead.
It was his third birdie in succession, with the Australian’s ball-striking the key to his charge.
Guyatt then bogeyed the ninth – with the belly putter that had proved so reliable on the first two days again failing him – to leave Scott and Poulter alone on top, before another birdie to Poulter at the 10th lifted him to the outright lead.
New Zealand’s Michael Hendry, who started the day in second place on eight-under fell back with a bogey on the par-four fifth then a double-bogey on the sixth, to be six shots from the lead.
Earlier, Irish drawcard Graeme McDowell salvaged some pride with a five-under-par round of 67 to move to one-under, after he had ended the second round on four-over to just scrape through the cut.