Erik van Rooyen will take a one stroke lead into the final round of the Trophée Hassan II after a scintillating five under par 68 at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
The South African, chasing his first European Tour title, finished with a flourish as he birdied the final three holes on the par-73 Red Course in Rabat to move to eight under par.
A thrilling final day is in prospect in the Moroccan capital, as four of the top seven players will go in search of maiden European Tour victories.
Jorge Campillo, who finished runner-up twice and also third in March this year, continued the run of form which has seen him move inside the top 100 in the world. The Spaniard carded a four under par round of 69 to take sole ownership of second place.
In third, Sean Crocker sits one stroke ahead of fellow 2018 European Challenge Tour graduate Grant Forrest, who shares fourth place on five under par with Wade Ormsby, Lee Slattery and Julian Suri.
Player Quotes
Erik van Rooyen: “I didn’t even realise I made five birdies to be honest. I didn’t switch any gears. I struggled with my rhythm, my tempo, but in the beginning I think I just kind of found my flow on the back nine. I spoke to Alex, my caddie, and said we’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. I think we were at level par through eight holes and things just started to click.
“I think I’ve been in this position a number of times now. The nerves will be there again tomorrow, but I love to be in this position. What we’ve been doing up until now has been great, and we’ll just keep doing that.”
Jorge Campillo: “I played solid today. Better than yesterday. I got a few good up-and-downs and I made a few good putts. It was a good round. Tough day.
“I’ve been there way too many times, but I think you’ve got to be in position to win, so I’m in position and hopefully tomorrow is the day.
“Patience to win and I have to be aggressive to win tomorrow. I’ll be patient; if I don’t win tomorrow, I’ll be patient and try some other weeks, but tomorrow I’ll try to play aggressive like I did today and hopefully I can make the putts and hit it good off the tee.”
Sean Crocker: “It always can go better. I haven’t been in this stage too many times, other than college and amateur golf. It’s still new to me as a pro, so I thought I did all right.
“In Qatar last year, I had a chance to experience the final group, so I learnt a lot of that from that. Just kind of take it one shot at a time and feel my game early in the stages, which it was clicking early, so I thought I was going to be able to take it low. The course is tough.”
Scores after round three:
211 E Van Rooyen (RSA) 74 69 68,
212 J Campillo (Esp) 72 71 69,
213 S Crocker (USA) 67 74 72,
214 W Ormsby (Aus) 74 70 70, J Suri (USA) 71 71 72, L Slattery (Eng) 70 72 72, G Forrest (Sco) 75 70 69,
215 D Lipsky (USA) 71 70 74, M Kawamura (Jpn) 75 69 71, J Smith (Eng) 66 76 73,
216 T Pulkkanen (Fin) 75 74 67, K Samooja (Fin) 72 76 68, R Sterne (RSA) 71 76 69,
217 J McLeod (Aus) 72 78 67, M Schwab (Aut) 70 73 74,
218 T Detry (Bel) 73 76 69, T Jaidee (Tha) 73 72 73, J Winther (Den) 74 72 72, T Lewis (Eng) 72 75 71, A Björk (Swe) 74 71 73,
219 F Zanotti (Par) 74 70 75, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 75 71 73, M Korhonen (Fin) 72 76 71, J Luiten (Ned) 73 75 71, K Kitayama (USA) 73 74 72, A Pavan (Ita) 72 74 73, D Law (Sco) 75 71 73, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 73 76 70, G Moynihan (Irl) 74 74 71, J Morrison (Eng) 72 75 72, A Chesters (Eng) 72 73 74,
220 D Papadatos (Aus) 70 72 78, A Sullivan (Eng) 74 73 73, C Sordet (Fra) 76 70 74, C Paisley (Eng) 75 72 73, G Migliozzi (Ita) 72 71 77,
221 A Cañizares (Esp) 67 76 78, B Hebert (Fra) 73 74 74, K Reitan (Nor) 70 73 78, M Hoey (Nir) 74 73 74, V Dubuisson (Fra) 75 70 76,
222 A Otaegui (Esp) 73 77 72, P Waring (Eng) 73 77 72, E Molinari (Ita) 69 78 75, R Langasque (Fra) 74 75 73, C Shinkwin (Eng) 74 76 72, J Hansen (Den) 75 74 73, R Gouveia (Por) 75 74 73, J Walters (RSA) 74 72 76, P Hanson (Swe) 72 78 72, J Senior (Eng) 70 77 75,
223 M Siem (Ger) 74 73 76, L Jensen (Den) 73 76 74, A Quiros (Esp) 73 77 73, O Wilson (Eng) 74 75 74, K Koivu (Fin) 74 76 73,
224 M Warren (Sco) 72 73 79, D Horsey (Eng) 73 75 76, H Park (Kor) 75 74 75, M Pavon (Fra) 68 78 78, M Kieffer (Ger) 72 78 74,
225 P Larrazábal (Esp) 70 79 76, S Soderberg (Swe) 72 78 75, S Brown (Eng) 76 74 75, J Girrbach (Sui) 74 75 76, P Dunne (Irl) 73 75 77,
226 R Jacquelin (Fra) 72 74 80, T Murray (Eng) 77 69 80,
227 R Ramsay (Sco) 77 72 78, S Gallacher (Sco) 68 82 77,
230 H Tanihara (Jpn) 76 74 80,
151 M Schmitt (Ger) 78 73 0, V Perez (Fra) 73 78 0, N Lemke (Swe) 74 77 0, P Oriol (Esp) 73 78 0, R McEvoy (Eng) 77 74 0, D Borda (Esp) 78 73 0, R Paratore (Ita) 74 77 0, N Bertasio (Ita) 75 76 0, B Evans (Eng) 74 77 0, B Ritthammer (Ger) 76 75 0, N Elvira (Esp) 77 74 0, H Leon (Chi) 73 78 0,
152 M Manassero (Ita) 76 76 0, A Karlsson (Swe) 77 75 0, N Cullen (Aus) 74 78 0, D Burmester (RSA) 73 79 0, Y Miyazato (Jpn) 72 80 0, A Levy (Fra) 75 77 0, K Johannessen (Nor) 75 77 0, R Karlsson (Swe) 76 76 0, A Saddier (Fra) 73 79 0, J Dantorp (Swe) 73 79 0, D Lawson (Aus) 75 77 0, J Kruyswijk (RSA) 75 77 0, O Raouzi (am) (Mar) 77 75 0,
153 S Kim (USA) 73 80 0, R McGowan (Eng) 75 78 0, M Orrin (Eng) 77 76 0, S Gregory (Eng) 79 74 0, S Jamieson (Sco) 74 79 0, J Singh Brar (Eng) 77 76 0, J Choi (Kor) 73 80 0, J Geary (Nzl) 78 75 0, A Wu (Chn) 75 78 0, J Wang (Kor) 77 76 0, M Kinhult (Swe) 73 80 0, J Lagergren (Swe) 75 78 0, R Evans (Eng) 73 80 0, A Lguirati (Mar) 75 78 0,
154 L Gagli (Ita) 74 80 0, R Wattel (Fra) 76 78 0, D Fichardt (RSA) 76 78 0, C Blomstrand (Swe) 75 79 0, S Vincent (Zim) 80 74 0,
155 I Cantero Gutierrez (Esp) 76 79 0, H Long (Ger) 79 76 0, B Dredge (Wal) 77 78 0, J Catlin (USA) 75 80 0, L Johnston (Sco) 77 78 0, R Macintyre (Sco) 78 77 0, A Connelly (Can) 78 77 0, H Porteous (RSA) 77 78 0, J Thomson (Eng) 79 76 0, F Serghini (Mar) 75 80 0, L De Jager (RSA) 75 80 0, J Scrivener (Aus) 74 81 0, L Canter (Eng) 73 82 0, O Fisher (Eng) 78 77 0,
156 A Rai (Eng) 76 80 0, M Southgate (Eng) 77 79 0, P Mejow (Ger) 78 78 0, A Cockerill (Can) 78 78 0, D Drysdale (Sco) 76 80 0, F Bergamaschi (Ita) 81 75 0,
157 D Gavins (Eng) 78 79 0, D Howell (Eng) 77 80 0, E Toledo (Mex) 81 76 0, P Figueiredo (Por) 77 80 0, S Manley (Wal) 76 81 0, E Kofstad (Nor) 75 82 0,
158 M Baldwin (Eng) 81 77 0, J Quesne (Fra) 77 81 0, A Arnaus (Esp) 78 80 0,
159 G Fdez-Castaño (Esp) 79 80 0, E Porter (Aus) 73 86 0,
160 P Langfors (Swe) 84 76 0,
161 S Al Kurdi (am) (Jor) 83 78 0,
163 Z Lombard (RSA) 81 82 0,
165 A Ssouadi (am) (Mar) 83 82 0,
167 A Marjan (Mar) 90 77 0, S Al Sharif (am) (Ksa) 83 84 0,
** M Nixon (Eng) 73 RT 0, A Dodt (Aus) 73 RT 0, S Kjeldsen (Den) 77 WD 0, C Wood (Eng) 76 DQ 0
