Paul Waring hopes he has got his “bad golf out of the way” after seeing his lead cut to one at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The 39-year-old from the Wirral carded a course-record 61 on Friday to go into the third round five shots clear but struggled to a one-over 73 at Yas Links.
Waring’s 18-under total left him one clear of Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard, with Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, Thorbjorn Olesen and Sebastian Soderberg tied for third on 15 under.
Race to Dubai leader Rory McIlroy looked set to put himself in contention until he drove into water at the last and ran up a double-bogey seven.
A three-under 69 left the Northern Irishman with a five-shot deficit to make up on Sunday.
“Untimely mistake just like yesterday on 17 and dug myself a little bit of a hole to get out of, but depending on what the leaders do, I can still go into tomorrow feeling like I have half a chance,” McIlroy said.
Waring found a bunker with his opening tee shot and had to scramble par from eight feet at the first, but looked to have settled down before three-putting for bogey from eight feet at the fourth.
He failed to find a birdie after that, with his only deviation from par coming when he bogeyed the 14th after driving into sand off the tee.
Waring joked after his round: “You’ve got to have an average day, haven’t you?
“I’m a little bit disappointed – I felt like I could have put myself out of sight but four rounds of golf, you’re always going to have a bit of an iffy run of holes, an iffy round of golf. If at the beginning of the week you had given me a one-shot lead going into tomorrow, I’d have snapped your hand off.
“I’m trying to remain positive that I’m still in the lead, looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.
“I wasn’t at my best today, felt a little bit jittery in total honesty, I felt the greens were a foot-and-a-half quicker, they were breaking a bit more than what I was reading. I just struggled on them a little bit today.
“I was absolutely fine for the first few holes. Four I’ve hit a lovely tee-shot and three-putted and that just put me on the back foot a little bit. I didn’t recover in total honesty.
“I went into a bit of a defensive mode – you’re playing to win golf tournaments and you have to manage your emotions and what’s going on around you.
“It’s a game of golf tomorrow in the sunshine – I’m looking forward to the challenge of it now. I feel like my bad golf is out of the way now.”
British Masters winner Norgaard signed for a 69, while former Open champion Lowry moved through the field with a 66.
“I’m happy with my score,” the Irishman said. “It doesn’t seem like the leaders are going that far away.
“I think I’ll be within touching distance going into tomorrow, and if I can fire a low one tomorrow, I can be there or thereabouts.”