Former top South African amateurs Zander Lombard and Dylan Frittelli are well positioned to chase down a maiden European Tour victory after grabbing a share of the Australian PGA Championship in Saturday’s third round.

Two-time IGT Tour champion Lombard from Gauteng North and Challenge Tour winnerFrittelli posted a pair of 71s to finish at three-under-par 213 alongside American Harold Varner III, who fired a flawless 66 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort.

The leading trio are two strokes clear of Australian Nathan Holman and three ahead of halfway leader David Lingmerth from Sweden and Australian Matthew Millar.

Lombard erased an early bogey at the short second with a birdie just before the turn and dipped two under with birdies at 13 and 16 before a closing bogey at the par-four 18th.

“I played really well today, kept it in the right spots again and just stuck it out, had a few good up and downs and chipping in on 16 was just the highlight of the day,” Lombard

“There’s definitely some nerves on the first tee but as soon as I get into the game and start to go through my processes, just get back into the zone and play my golf I am ok. Tomorrow is going to be tough but it would be a dream come true to win and I’m going to play my best tomorrow for it.”

Frittelli interrupted a string of pars with a birdie at the par-four seventh to turn one under and reversed bogeys at 11 and 16 with gains at 12 and 17.

“It was a good round and I was happy with the way I finished,” Frittelli said.  “One under par’s always good in tough conditions like this. The front nine was consistent golf, hit a lot of greens; left myself a lot of putts and back nine was slightly different, had a bit of a speed wobble there coming in with a bogey on 16 and then birdie on 17, but I was really happy with the way I played.”

Lingmerth kept command on the front nine, but double bogeys at 10 and 14 was his undoing, while Varner reeled in a hat-trick of birdies on each nine.