With his own Olympic medal dream sidelined in the opening round, Australia's Min Woo Lee says he's hoping his "role model", Jason Day, can secure a podium position in Paris.
Day has continued to improve with each round at Le Golf National with a four-under par 67 in his third outing on Saturday moving him into a share of 10th.
He is five shots behind 2020 gold medallist American Xander Schauffele, who had a third round score of 68, with Spain's Jon Rahm a joint leader at 14-under after his second successive 66.
The biggest mover of the day was Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard, who climbed 26 places to a tie of fourth at 11 under on the back of his sizzling 62, which included an eagle on the par-5 14th and seven birdies.
He is level with Japan's Hideki Matsuyama while England's Tommy Fleetwood is third, one stroke behind Rahm and Schauffele, who won last month's British Open to claim his second major title this year.
After his horror opening 76, West Australian Lee has settled into his debut Olympic campaign, adding a 68 to his second-round 65.
He was headed for one of the scores of the day after going eagle, birdie, birdie between the ninth and 11th.
His eagle on the par-5 ninth came after he chipped in from the rough. But three bogeys in his final four holes undid his blistering score.
"It was just really a momentum kind of thing," the 26-year-old said. "The front half of it was unreal, actually, didn't really miss a shot and hit some shots that I never really hit so it was really good to see that."
Out of the running in 29th, Lee said he would be cheering on the Australian No.1 through the final round.
"Jason is obviously playing well, and hopefully we can see him on the podium tomorrow," Lee said. "Even if it was a normal tournament and I was around, I would for sure support, especially Jason - he been a good role model."
Day said he would be doing all he could to put pressure on the frontrunners.
"It's a little bit different, closing for a medal is a lot more difficult than just finishing on a Saturday," he said,
"I'm going to be pushing tomorrow. I need to try and win a medal - that's my goal.
"There's other guys that are kind of in the lead and they are going to be thinking a lot, there's a lot more pressure on them and there's a lot of stuff that can go wrong in those finishing holes.
"Fingers crossed I play those good tomorrow."
Australia have yet to win an Olympic medal in golf, which was added to the Olympic program for the Rio Games in 2016.
Minjee Lee and Hannah Green will contest the women's tournament later in the Games.
