Jeev Milkha Singh shot a four-under 68 to enter the final round with a share of the lead in the 120 million yen Sammy Sega Cup on the Japan Golf Tour.
Jeev is now nine-under 207 after three days and in joint lead with Japan Tour veteran Shingo Katayama and K C Lin of Taiwan.
The three will tee off together in the final group on the final day at the par-72 North Country Golf Club.
Jeev, tied 14th after first round, moved to tied fourth after second and is now tied for the lead.
The Indian opened very well with birdies on the first and third holes and then added a third on the ninth to be three-under at the turn. And when he birdied the 11th, he went into shared lead with K C Lin.
Another birdie on the 13th saw Jeev take solo lead. He was, however, soon joined by Lin. Katayama, who was tied fourth with Jeev after two rounds, also joined the duo in lead with a birdie on the par-five 13th.
Katayama dropped back with a bogey on the par-three 16th, but on the very next hole, both Jeev and Lin dropped a shot and then Katayama picked up a birdie on 18th to make it to nine-under for a three-way lead. The bogey on the par-four 17th was Jeev's only dropped shot.
Jeev putted brilliantly with just 12 putts for his back nine and that included six single putts. While his putter did his bidding, he found the fairways only 50 per cent and then had to work hard to get to the greens in regulation, which he managed only on 78 per cent occasion.
Jeev sacrificed distance to achieve more accuracy but even that paid only partial dividends. However, his putter has been the real star club for past two days.
With 82 putts for three rounds, he has the best putting average, and that despite 31 putts on first day.
This is the second time this year, Jeev goes into the final round with at least a share of the lead. In the season's opening event, the Asia-Okinawa, he had sole lead but then lost out to end tied second. His only other top-10 this year had been in the very next event, the Token Homemate, where he was tied for seventh in an event cut to three days.
The biggest move among top players came from IJ Chang, who shot a flawless seven-under to come to seven-under after two par rounds on first two days. Chang is in a four-way tie for fourth place with Scott Laycock, the leader after two rounds, Dinesh Chand and IJ Chang.
Nine other players including Prayad Marksaeng are at six-under 210.
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