England's John Parry will take a one shot lead into the final round of the Vivendi Cup 2010 in Paris.
Parry, joint leader at halfway with Sweden's Jarmo Sandelin, carded a third round of 70 at Golf de Joyenval to finish 15 under par.
Denmark's Mark Haastrup fired a 66, the lowest round of the day, to move into a share of second place on 14 under alongside Sweden's Johan Edfors, who was round in 67.
Sandelin briefly led on his own after birdies at the eighth and ninth, but the former Ryder Cup player bogeyed the last two holes to fall back into a four-way tie for fourth on 13 under.
Parry, a team-mate of Rory McIlroy at the 2007 Walker Cup, led after 36 holes in Austria last week but slipped back to 20th.
The Challenge Tour graduate, who is in his first full year on The European Tour, was confident he would have learnt from that experience and certainly kept his nerve after a stumble on the back nine to stay at the top of the leaderboard.
After going to the turn in 34 with three birdies and one bogey, Parry dropped shots at the tenth and 12th but regrouped superbly with birdies at the next two holes.
At 116th on The Race to Dubai he needs a good end to the season in order to avoid Qualifying School in November, but a win on Sunday to complement his Challenge Tour victory in Toulouse last year, would secure him an exemption.
"Obviously I'm going to try and win, but I'm just going to try to play the right shots, if it's good enough to win," said Parry, when asked about the prospect of keeping his card. "If I hit the shots, it will be good enough to win. That's all I can do really is concentrate on my own game.
"Whatever shot I saw today, I tried to play it. I didn't second guess, I just went for it.
"I think that getting used to the pressure, as well, in that position, I think the more and more you do it, the more you get used to it, so that helps."
Edfors, who recovered from a bogey at the second with four birdies and an eagle at the par five ninth after holing a 20 foot putt, said: "I think I have a good chance. Definitely I have a good chance this week.
"I was hitting the ball pretty nicely but didn't get it really close, 12 and 15 footers, and hit some good putts but they didn't fall. I'm still happy with the way I played after yesterday, and roll a few putts tomorrow, who knows."
Haastrup is enjoying his first season on The European Tour after coming through last November's Qualifying School.
At 123rd on The Race to Dubai, a good performance in the final round could propel him into the all-important top 115 that keep their cards at the end of the season.
He birdied five holes out of six from the ninth, and after a three-putt bogey at the 15th, nailed his approach on the 16th before closing with his eighth birdie of the day for a 66.
"I played really, really good," he said. "A little shaky tee shot on the first, but then really played good from there. I hit a lot of good shots, and made a little bit of putts in the end and happy days."
Sandelin, Australian left-hander Richard Green, Dutchman Robert-Jan Derksen and home favourite François Delamontagne are tied for fourth on 13 under.
Meanwhile Ireland's Padraig Harrington climbed into a tie for 40th with a three under par 69.
The three-time Major winner looked to be rediscovering his best form ahead of next week's Ryder Cup after producing eight birdies in his round.
"Eight birdies would be nice to have in any round of golf," said Harrington. "I four putted the fourth hole, three putt from two feet, so that didn't help me.
"But it was nice to come back with plenty of birdies after that and created plenty of chances. I played nicely from that onwards, so it was a little bit like yesterday, I seemed to play a little bit better when I had to."
