Dane Thorbjørn Olesen doubled his lead with a birdie at the long second in the third round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.
The pressure was on the 22 year old with so many big names behind him. He has yet to win on The European Tour, but was a runner-up three times in his rookie season last year.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy set off again by sinking ten foot birdie putts and were part of a huge group in second place on six under par.
World Number One Luke Donald had hopes of getting into contention too when he birdied three of the first four holes to reach four under, but then came a rocky patch.
Donald had to play a shot left-handed from beside a tree on the long eighth and, after bogeying there, he dropped two more on the next to return to one under.
McIlroy's fellow Northern Irishman Gareth Maybin was joint second overnight with Italian teenager Matteo Manassero, but bogeyed the long second.
Olesen did nothing wrong over the opening stretch, but was caught when South African James Kingston - only joint 16th at halfway on three under - had his fifth birdie of the day on the eighth.
McIlroy made a second ten footer on the fourth to tuck in just one behind again and this, of course, after he suffered a two stroke penalty midway through his second round for brushing sand away when not on the green.
Woods followed his initial birdie with four pars in a row and that was enough to drop him back into a tie for eighth.
Kingston, out in 31, led on his own when Olesen bogeyed the fifth, but then was joined by Scot Paul Lawrie, who had three birdies in his first six.
McIlroy three-putted the sixth, but was inches from a hole-in-one on the next and, with Woods also making two from five feet, they were both only one behind.
