Patrick Reed made the early move in round three of the UBS Hong Kong Open as four birdies in his first seven holes catapulted him up the leaderboard.
The World Number 20 came into the week as one of the favourites but could not find his very best form over the first two days with rounds of 68-69 leaving him six shots behind leader Justin Rose coming into the weekend.
But he picked up birdies on the third, fifth, sixth and seventh on Saturday to move to seven under and cut the gap to two shots.
Leader Rose will tee off in the afternoon with a one shot lead over Lucas Bjerregaard but he admitted on Friday he was looking a further shot down the leaderboard at Ryder Cup team-mate Ian Poulter.
Poulter was a late entry at Hong Kong Golf Club as he seeks to play the 13 events required to keep his European Tour membership for 2016 but, despite not arriving until Wednesday night and not having his usual caddie, the 2010 champion here started 67-66 to sit just two shots off the lead.
"Poulter is a past champion and he's on the leaderboard," said Rose. "He's always good when he's got something to prove, and he's probably a dangerous guy now that he's outside the Top 50 in the world, and I know that he'll be desperate to get back in it.
"He always plays well when he has motivation, so he's obviously going to be tough to beat too."
Thongchai Jaidee is aiming for a second consecutive European Tour win following his victory at the Porsche European Open last month and he got himself up to six under after four birdies in his first 12 holes.
South Korea's Soomin Lee had set the early clubhouse target with an unblemished 66 that got him to five under.
Chan Shih-chang, Ben Evans, Carlos Pigem and Peter Uihlein all also posted 66s to get to four under for the week with Evans and Pigem both needing to do something special on Sunday to keep their cards for next season.
