Matthew Fitzpatrick held a three-shot lead midway through the final round of the Nordea Masters as he went in search of a second European Tour title at Bro Hof Slott Golf Club.
The Englishman entered day four with a five-shot lead and turned in 34 to get to 17 under, but Nicolas Colsaerts was chasing him down with an eagle on the ninth getting him to the turn in 33.
Denmark's Lasse Jensen was then at ten under, with a strong home pack of Bjorn Hellgren, Rikard Karlberg, Alex Noren and Henrik Stenson all at nine under.
Fitzpatrick had ten top ten finishes last season including his maiden win at the British Masters supported by Sky Sports and secured another impressive finish this term as he claimed seventh place at the Masters Tournament.
Colsaerts is searching for his first win since 2012 but has made his last five cuts as he comes back into form, with a third-placed finish at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open.
Fitzpatrick showed no signs of nerves on the first as he left himself a tricky 12-footer for par but rolled it in with the confidence he has displayed all week on the greens.
And when he rolled in another from slightly further out on the next, his lead was up to six shots.
Jensen holed a seven iron from 152 yards on the sixth for an eagle to join the group six shots adrift and playing partner Colsaerts birdied the same hole to get to 11 under and cut the gap to five.
The Belgian then used his immense power to get on the green at the par five ninth in two and he rolled in the eagle putt to move to within three of Fitzpatrick, with Jensen picking up a birdie.
Fitzpatrick went for the green in two on the same hole and while he found the greenside bunker, he played an excellent shot from the sand to get up and down for a birdie.
Colsaerts was heating up, though, and he made a birdie on the tenth with Jensen dropping a shot.
World Number Six Stenson was level par for his round after seven holes but then picked up five birdies in his next eight to surge up the leaderboard, with Hellgren making five birdies in a row from the eighth.
Karlberg was two under for his round with two-time champion Noren making the turn in 37.
