SSP Chawrasia will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the UBS Hong Kong Open but the Indian has an impressive chasing pack behind him in Fanling.
The 39 year old entered day three at Hong Kong Golf Club two shots ahead and while he was caught around the turn, a 69 was good enough to hand him a slender advantage as he looks to go wire-to-wire in the opening event of the 2018 Race to Dubai.
Chawrasia moved to ten under as he looks for a first European Tour win outside of his home country but Ryder Cup star Rafa Cabrera Bello and Australian Wade Ormsby were just a shot back.
Newly-crowned Race to Dubai champion Tommy Fleetwood was then at eight under alongside Swede Alexander Björk and Belgian Thomas Detry.
A win on Sunday would be Chawrasia's fifth on the European Tour but he will be up against some players with course pedigree as Spaniard Cabrera Bello and Englishman Fleetwood finished second and tied third respectively here last season.
"I'm missing a couple of putts but still one under, I'm happy," said Chawrasia. "Still one more round so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
"It's a little bit of added pressure but I can manage that a little bit. That's why sometimes I think I'm missing a couple of putts but I will think tomorrow, 'I can do something'.
"If I feel nervous the other players also will be nervous but I'm okay. I'm playing many times in the same conditions so I'm all right."
There was a host of players jostling for position in the early stages but when Chawrasia birdied the the par five third after laying up he had manged to extend his lead to three shots.
I'm looking forward to tomorrow - SSP Chawrasia
A run of seven pars allowed the chasing pack to close the gap, with a failure to get up and down from the sand on the ninth meaning that Chawrasia shared the lead with Björk and Ormsby at the turn.
Cabrera Bello had taken advantage of the par five third and birdied the seventh and, when he rolled a slippery eight-footer down the hill on the eighth, he was six under.
He bogeyed the ninth but an eagle on the tenth - where the tee had been brought forward - smart tee-shot on the 12th and birdie on the par five 13th for the third day in a row put him right in the mix.
A bogey was to come on the 17th but a birdie on the last saw him set the clubhouse target and join the lead at nine under.
Chawrasia looked like he was making a mess of the 13th after a tee-shot into the trees and second into a bunker but he got up and down for a birdie and a solo lead which he would not surrender in the closing five holes.
Ormsby had birdied the third, sixth and tenth and when he put his tee-shot to ten feet on the 12th and made the most of the par five 13th, he was nine under with a bogey-free 65.
Fleetwood turned in 33 with a birdie on the third but when he drove the tenth green and holed a long putt from the back of the putting surface, he was on the move. He birdied the 13th but got in sand trouble on the 15th before a sensational second from the trees on the last set up a closing birdie.
A tee-shot to tap-in range on the par three second had helped Björk to a birdie-birdie-birdie start and while he bogeyed the next, excellent approaches to the seventh and tenth had him in a share of the lead. A bogey on the 11th was followed by a birdie on the next before he dropped a shot on the last.
Detry made birdies on the second, fourth and sixth but bogeyed the tenth before eagling the 13th after getting on in two.
American Paul Peterson was at seven under after a 65, a shot clear of countrymen Micah Lauren Shin and Julian Suri, South African Dylan Frittelli, England's Chris Hanson and Swede Marcus Kinhult.
