Lucas Bjerregaard equalled the lowest round of the week with a 67 to set the clubhouse target and share the lead on day three of the BMW International Open.
The big-hitting Dane made the most of low winds in the early stages and with the breeze getting up as the day went on, his five under par total was likely to have him right in contention heading into Sunday.
Local favourite Maximilian Kieffer and Australian Scott Hend were alongside Bjerregaard after ten and nine holes respectively, a shot clear of Nico Geyger, Mikko Korhonen, Chris Paisley, Aaron Rai and Henric Sturehed.
Kieffer birdied the first to get within a shot of the lead and when Sturehed left himself just three feet for birdie on the first, the Swede was in a share.
He soon held it on his own as Hend and Geyger both got plugged in the front-right bunker on the first and surrendered bogeys.
Kieffer gave his birdie straight back on the second to drop back to four under alongside Bjerregaard who had picked up shots on the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth to turn in 32.
The Portugal Masters champion then birdied the 11th but a double-bogey on the next saw him slip backwards.
Big-hitting Hend elected to lay-up on the third and the tactic paid off as he holed a ten-footer for birdie to move back into a share of top spot.
The 44 year old was clearly back in the groove and he holed an 18-footer down the hill on the fourth to reclaim top spot on his own.
Kieffer birdied the sixth to move back to five under and that was soon in a share of second as Sturehed found the water on the seventh to hand Hend a two-shot lead.
The leader got into bunker trouble for the second time of the day on the seventh to drop a shot and when he missed the green on the par three next, there was a three-way tie for the lead.
Bjerregaard had gone birdie-bogey-birdie from the 13th and an eighth gain of the day on the penultimate hole had him in a share of top spot.
Sturehed hen dropped a shot on the ninth to slip to four under and that group was growing as Korhonen, after turning in 35, made birdies on the 13th and 16th.
Paisley had turned in 38 but he made four birdies in a row from the tenth and when he added another on the 15th, he was just a shot off the lead.
Rai had been quietly going about his business and he sandwiched birdies on the third and seventh with bogeys on the second and ninth.
Defending champion Andres Romero equalled the lowest round of the week with a 67 to get to three under.
The Argentinian turned in 35 with three birdies and a bogey and while he dropped another shot on the 11th, he rattled off five birdies in a row from the 13th.
Portuguese José-Filipe Lima was also in the clubhouse two shots off the lead alongside local hero Martin Kaymer, Sébastien Gros, Scott Jamieson and Wade Ormsby.
