Paul Dunne leads the Open de Espana by a single stroke heading into the final round after carding a four under par 68 on Saturday in Madrid.
Dunne led the tournament by three strokes at the cut mark after hitting a superb 65 in Friday's second round.
That lead has been cut to one after an otherwise smooth round was marred by a messy finish.
Dunne hit four birdies and eight pars in the opening 12 holes but dropped his only stroke of the round on the par-3 17th hole.
He was inches away from responding with an eagle on the par-5 18th, but his long putt stopped dead agonisingly short of the cup.
He tapped in for a solid round of 68 to leave himself at the head of the field on -17.
He will tee off in the final pairing with Spaniard Nacho Elvira who carded a 66 to reduce the gap to a single stroke heading into the fourth round.
Dunne will have to fend off the challenges as a couple of home favourites as local superstar Jon Rahm is currently on -15 and only two shots behind the leader.
In a congested field at the top of the leaderboard, Swede Henric Sturehed joins Jon Rahm in third spot on -15.
Aussie Brett Rumford is a shot further back on -14 while England's Andy Sullivan bounced back from a dismal opening round of 75 to hit rounds of 63 and 65, leaving him four strokes behind Dunne on -13.
