English duo Oliver Fisher and Eddie Pepperell will take a share of the lead into the final round of the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in Doha.
The pair have not enjoyed the best of starts to the season, with six missed cuts from 10 combined events, but they found their form impressively in the Qatari capital and will head into Sunday at 16 under, two shots clear of American Sean Crocker.
Pepperell entered the day a shot off the lead but a birdie on the first gave him a share — further gains on the fifth, seventh and 10th had him two ahead.
He chipped in for a remarkable bogey on the 12th after hitting the rocks in front of the green three times but he would soon lose his lead to a sensational finish from Fisher.
The 29-year-old birdied the third, fifth, eighth and 11th and, after a bogey on the 12th, he made further gains on the 15th, 16th, 17th and last to lead by two.
Pepperell bounced back from his bogey with a gain on the 13th and he made two more on the 16th and 18th to get back into a share of top spot.
“I am looking forward to it,” Pepperell told europeantour.com. “Mentally I feel like I’m up for it — I wanted to lead today and I didn’t want to be behind the leader.”
Fisher added: “I gave myself some chances coming in and thankfully I made them.
“We’ve still got one round to go, a lot of golf to be played out there but I’ve certainly put myself in a good position. The most important thing for tomorrow is to go out and enjoy it. I’m good friends with Eddie so hopefully we’ll have a bit of fun out there.”
Crocker fired a 67 to get to 14 under, two shots clear of England’s David Horsey, Italians Lorenzo Gagli and Andrea Pavan, Frenchman Gregory Havret and Swede Marcus Kinhult.
Collated third round scores & totals in the European Tour Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Doha GC, Doha, Qatar (Britain & Irl unless stated, par 72):
200 Eddie Pepperell 65 69 66, Oliver Fisher 66 69 65
202 Sean Crocker (USA) 67 68 67
204 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 68 69 67, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 68 69 67, David Horsey 71 68 65, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 67 70 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 65 69 70
205 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 68 69, Chris Wood 68 69 68, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 68 71 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 68 68 69, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 67 70, James Morrison 72 66 67, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 70 69 66
206 Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 67 68 71, Matthew Nixon 69 68 69, Rak hyun Cho (Kor) 69 70 67, Matthew Baldwin 68 70 68, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 67 66 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 66 71, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 66 70 70
207 Matt Wallace 69 71 67, Callum Shinkwin 68 69 70, Renato Paratore (Ita) 71 66 70, Aaron Rai 65 73 69, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 70 67, Marcel Siem (Ger) 73 66 68, Ryan Evans 69 67 71, Jamie Donaldson 72 65 70, Mark Foster 71 68 68, Thomas Detry (Bel) 67 70 70
208 Steven Brown 69 69 70, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 69 71, Paul Waring 68 70 70, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 70 69 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 66 72, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 70 68 70, Stephen Gallacher 68 66 74, Sebastien Gros (Fra) 69 70 69, Marc Warren 68 70 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 70 69 69
209 Richard Bland 69 69 71, Nico Geyger (Chi) 71 69 69, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 70 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 69 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 70 69, Seung-su Han (USA) 69 71 69, Joshua White 67 73 69, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 66 74 69, Oliver Farr 70 70 69
210 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 68 71 71, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 69 70 71, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 68 66 76, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 70 70 70, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 68 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 66 74 70
211 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 71 68 72, Ashley Chesters 72 68 71, Romain Wattel (Fra) 71 69 71, Chris Hanson 73 67 71, Paul Lawrie 68 72 71, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 68 72 71, Justin Walters (Rsa) 68 71 72, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 71 69 71
212 Andy Sullivan 69 70 73, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 67 72 73, Bradley Dredge 70 68 74
213 Chase Koepka (USA) 71 68 74, David Howell 69 70 74, Soomin Lee (Kor) 72 68 73
214 Daniel Im (USA) 73 67 74, Grant Forrest 70 70 74, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 70 70 74
215 Scott Hend (Aus) 73 67 75, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 68 72 75, Scott Jamieson 69 71 75
219 Pontus Widegren (Swe) 73 67 79
