Australians Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis are poised to challenge for Players Championship glory following superb third rounds at the PGA Tour's flagship tournament in Florida.
Lee is outright second, two shots behind world number two Scottie Scheffler, after lighting up TPC Sawgrass on Saturday with a 6-under-par 66 jump-started by a spectacular eagle at the first hole.
The 24-year-old from WA led for much of the day before a three-putt bogey on the last and a birdie for Scheffler (65) earned the American sole possession of the lead at 14-under.
At 10-under and in outright third, Sydneysider Davis is also doing his utmost to keep the trophy in Australian hands in the absence of suspended defending champion Cameron Smith.
After ambling through the front nine in even par, Davis roared to life with an eagle and three birdies coming home.
Sparked by a hole-in-one on the famous island par-three 17th hole, Aaron Rai (65) is in a four-way tie for fourth at 9-under with fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood (65), South Africa's Christiaan Bezuidenhout (69) and American Chad Ramey (68).
Lee had a difficult start to the tournament, shooting a 4-under 68 in round one despite suffering serious leg cramps that had him hopping around on the fairways at times. It has not seemed to hinder him since, however.
Lee ignited his third round with a hole-out eagle two from the fairway at the first and never looked back.
Mixing exquisite iron play with deft touch and sublime putting, he followed up with five birdies and scrambled for a miracle par on the 10th after finding himself in deep trouble.
He will rue his only blemish at the 18th but remains one great round away from bursting from the shadows of his two-time major-winning sister Minjee with the biggest victory of his career.
At the very least, barring a calamitous finish, Lee has all but secured an invite back to next month's Masters.
He entered this week's $US25 million ($38 million) event ranked 50th in the world and needs to be in the top 50 on April 2 to book his ticket to Augusta National.
Jason Day's winning hopes look to have evaporated after a third successive 70 left the former world number one and 2016 Players Championship winner at 6-under, eight shots off the pace.
Still, Day is sitting nicely in equal 14th and well in the mix for a fifth consecutive top-10 finish on the PGA Tour this year — and also a return to the Masters after failing to qualify last year.
AAP/ABC
