Dylan Frittelli opened up a one-shot lead in the third round of the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai as the battle for the Race to Dubai title remained on a knife edge at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
The South African picked up seven shots in his first 15 holes to get to 12 under but that was just one shot ahead of Justin Rose who is aiming to be crowned Europe's Number One for the second time.
Rose arrived at the eighth Rolex Series event of the season trailing Tommy Fleetwood by 256,737 points in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex and knowing he needed a top five finish to have a chance of taking the season-long honours.
He seized the initiative to top the projected Rankings after day one but a bogey on the last in his second round meant Fleetwood was back in the ascendancy heading into the weekend.
Three birdies in his first ten holes, however, moved Rose to 11 under with Fleetwood two shots further back.
Dean Burmester, Jon Rahm, Julian Suri and Peter Uihlein were alongside Rose in second, a shot clear of clubhouse leader David Lipsky and defending champion Matthew Fitzpatrick with 31 players within five of the lead.
Rose put his approach on the first to ten feet and when he put his second at the third to tap-in range he joined the lead, with Fleetwood bogeying the fifth after trouble off the tee.
Lipsky soon joined that group at ten under as he set the clubhouse target with the round of the day so far.
The American birdied his first four holes and added another at the seventh to turn in 31. Back-to-back birdies on the 13th and 14th then had him at nine under and when he birdied the par four 15th - shortened to 282 yards with the tee moved up 92 yards on Saturday - he was in a share of the lead.
He dropped back with a bogey on the 16th but a birdie on the last had him back in double figures and in top spot.
That would not last for long, however, as Rose holed from 14 feet to birdie the seventh for the third day in a row and jump out to 11 under.
Fleetwood was certainly not giving up the season-long battle a few groups ahead and the 26 year old made a hat-trick of gains from the eighth to get within three of his rival.
Overnight leader Fitzpatrick had started his round with six pars but a neat pitch to five feet on the seventh helped move him back into a share of top spot.
Rahm had bogeyed the first but came surging back, making gains on the third, fifth, sixth and seventh and when he holed a 25-foot putt on the ninth to turn in 32, he was at 11 under.
That group then swelled to four, with Suri holing a long putt on the eighth to add to birdies on the second and fifth and soon, for the second time on Saturday, there was a five-way tie.
Frittelli had turned in 32 with a starting hat-trick of birdies and another on the seventh before he joined the lead for the first time on the tenth. Another gain on the 14th moved him to 11 under but the leading group just kept growing.
Uihlein had also turned in 32 before adding birdies on the 12th and 14th, while Burmester had gains on the first, third, seventh, 11th and 13th.
Frittelli was the first of the leading contenders to have a look at the driveable 15th and while he missed the green he got up and down beautifully to hit the front at 12 under.
Fleetwood had found something around the turn and he made a fourth birdie of the day after a smart tee-shot on the par three 13th to get within three of the lead.
Fitzpatrick then dropped a shot on the ninth to sit two off the lead.
