Defending champion Peter Hedblom fired a bogey-free round of seven-under 65 yesterday to claim a two-stroke lead going into the final round of the Malaysian Open.
The Swede fired five birdies on the back nine to complete his third successive sub-70 round for an aggregate score of 17-under 199 at Kota Permai.
Argentina's Daniel Vancsik, who eagled the first hole after a long iron to within a foot of the flag, went on to card yesterday's best round of 64 and moved into sole possession of second place at 15-under.
He was a shot ahead of a trio on 14-under -- Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark, Simon Dyson of England and Jyoti Randhawa of India.
Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke was among four players a shot further back, along with second-round joint-leader Nick Dougherty of England.
Clarke raced through the front nine in a mere 29 strokes, but two bogies on the last two holes denied him a share of third.
The other joint second-round leader Danny Chia recorded a triple-bogey seven on the third hole on the way to a round of eight-over 80, putting him out of contention and ensuring there would still be no local winner after 47 years of the event, now co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours.
Hedblom was pleased with the strength of his title defense, albeit at a different course to last year's event.
"Last year was the first time I played good in Malaysia," Hedblom said. "So far it has been good, but I don't know why. I don't normally play well in hot weather, but the last two years have been good. Two shot lead -- you want to get as big a lead as possible as you can shoot a low score round here."
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