George Coetzee closed the gap on halfway leader Julien Guerrier to a single shot after finishing his third round at the 2020 Portugal Masters with an eagle and a birdie to sign for a 66.
South African Coetzee started the day eight shots behind runaway overnight leader Guerrier, but as the Frenchman made two bogeys and no birdies in his first 11 holes to slip back to 12 under par, Coetzee fired an eagle, four birdies and a single bogey to jump to 11 under.
Guerrier still had seven holes left to play though, with a number of birdie chances to come.
Japan's Masahiro Kawamura was alone in third on ten under after birdieing four of the last five holes in his 65.
Coetzee reached the turn in 34 shots after sandwiching a bogey on the seventh between birdies at the fourth and eighth.
After taking advantage of the par four 15th for the third day in a row, Coetzee came agonisingly close to holing his approach into the long 17th for an albatross but had to settle for a tap-in eagle to climb to ten under.
And he finished off with a confident 12 foot birdie putt at the last to set the clubhouse target on 11 under.
Coetzee, who won the Titleist Championship at Pretoria Country Club on the Sunshine Tour last week, said: "I felt like I was in a good space today. I didn't really get going on the front nine and missed a couple of good opportunities on the back nine in the first couple of holes.
"And then when I started finally making them, it was smooth sailing from there but it was a bit of a grind and you have to kind of hold on tight until you get a good opportunity."
Guerrier opened his third round with a stunning up-and-down from a bad lie in the rough at the first before narrowly missing lengthy birdie putts at the second and third to stay on 14 under par.
He was unable to keep a bogey off the card at the fourth despite a lovely bunker shot, with his 12 foot par putt just missing the hole.
Guerrier was battling hard, making important par saves to remain in front rather than creating birdie chances to extend his lead.
He dropped another shot on the ninth after missing his par effort from 26 feet before beginning the back nine with two solid pars.
