Jon Rahm remains on course to rewrite a chapter of the history books after firing a flawless, six-under 65 to lead the 2022 acciona Open de España by a shot.
Rahm, who won this event in 2018 and 2019, is trying to match the great Seve Ballesteros by winning his national Open for the third time and heads into the final round on 16 under, with the narrowest of advantages over Min Woo Lee.
Stephen Gallacher, Louis De Jager, Marc Warren, Eddie Pepperell, Matthieu Pavon and Kiradech Aphibarnrat are three off the lead on 13 under at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid while Edoardo Molinari, who matched the low round of the week with his 63, is a shot further back with Zander Lombard.
Rahm was two shots behind overnight leaders Gallacher and Paul Waring at the start of his round and the Spaniard birdied the fourth and picked up another shot at the seventh, despite leaving an awkward up-and-down after missing the green to the left of the par-five.
Lee, playing with Rahm, went one better with an eagle after smashing a seven-iron 241 yards down the hill to a few feet before knocking in the putt - and it was the Australian and Gallacher out in front.
Rahm watched Lee reach 14 under at the 11th when he rolled in a 22-footer with a touch of left-to-right, but he made sure the gap stayed one by following him in from 11 feet for his own birdie.
The locals loved that and they were cheering again when Rahm almost holed his approach to the par-four 12th, the ball spinning back past the cup and leaving a tricky putt for birdie - but he holed it and took a share of pole position.
Rahm left his eagle putt at the par-five 14th just a touch short but walked off with birdie and led on his own at 15 under when Lee could only par after going long with his second.
A mini-run of pars followed for the pair but Rahm had to work hard at 17, holing a tricky save from seven feet after finding sand with his tee shot.
Rahm's eagle putt at 18 didn't have the legs but he tapped in for birdie before Lee held his nerve and holed his own birdie effort from 14 feet to sign for a 66 and set up a mouthwatering Sunday - the fourth round in a row the two will play together.
Rahm said: "I’m feeling good. I wish most of my rounds could be as organised as this one. I don’t feel like I did anything special, maybe the up-and-down on 17, but I just played consistent golf, put the ball in play, and the few times I missed the tee shot I was never really out of it.
"I had a shot to the green and I was able to pull it off every time, so only one stressful part on 17 and besides that, there were a lot of good birdie looks and par putts. Hopefully I can play another round like that tomorrow because I felt like I kept going shot by shot and I was six under."
On playing with Lee again, he said: "It's been great, we have played really good golf. He had that bad start on the front nine on Thursday and has played amazing since then. I had the bad start on my front nine on Friday, and everything else has been great golf.
"It is easy to feed off each other, every time one of us is in the fairway we are going to have a birdie look, so you know birdies are coming. We have both been getting up and down from a lot of spots, he has had two hole outs, I’ve had one, and some really good shots besides those that we holed out.
"Hopefully my best round can be tomorrow. Let’s hope for that and have an enjoyable walk down 18. That would be a perfect day."
