Early starter Nick Flanagan tied the men's course record at RACV Royal Pines Resort on day three of the Australian PGA Championship to catapult himself into contention.
The Australian produced nine birdies and no bogeys in a sparkling 63 to move to eight under and join Englishman Ross McGowan in the host course's record books.
That saw Flanagan head into the final round just two shots behind leader Adam Scott.
Flanagan went out in the second group of the morning on day three after posting scores of 72 and 73 on Thursday and Friday respectively to make the cut with nothing to spare.
But he soon set about moving up the leaderboard, kicking off his third round with four straight birdies before making further gains at the seventh and eighth to turn in 30.
The 35-year-old continued to make the most of perfect scoring conditions on Saturday, picking up shots at the tenth and 12th and making his ninth birdie of the day on the long 15th from around four feet after his eagle putt had narrowly evaded the hole.
Flanagan said: "It was kind of out of the blue. The first two days I was really struggling, especially the first day.
"I found something a little bit on the back nine for my second nine yesterday and actually played really well, just had a couple of three putts that kind of kept me on the cut line.
"I wasn't trying to make a ton of birdies, I was just trying to get it on the greens and kind of give myself putts today, and I tended to hit it closer than I had the last two days and I made all the putts.
"Obviously shooting a really good number in the morning and going home, now I can just sit around and kind of get ready for tomorrow.
"If somebody told me I was going to have nine under at the start of the round, I definitely would have taken it. It puts me in a good spot for tomorrow and I'll hopefully go out there and just kind of play similar golf."
Ties the course record. 63 ✍️#AUSPGA pic.twitter.com/QyEBDdrQ6x
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) December 21, 2019
Spaniard Alejandro Cañizares also made big strides on Moving Day, posting an eight under par 64 to jump to seven under.
After carding an eagle, eight birdies and two bogeys, he said: "After the finish yesterday, I felt pretty good.
"All week I felt like I was hitting the ball well, I just wasn’t scoring in the beginning.
"Yesterday I went double and then bogey and I was four over with four to go – I said 'let’s try and make four birdies to come in'.
"I made three birdies on the last four and made the cut on the number with a birdie on the last.
"Today was one of those days where there was no wind, I was first off and the golf course was perfect and I started hitting great shots with my irons.
"It was one of those days that I was putting well and hitting good shots, I thought I could get up there and keep it going.
"It was a shame having a couple of bogeys. I had a bad tee shot on the par five, but then I had two birdies to fix it."
