Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Crown Australian Open after producing a big finish on Saturday.
The Dane closed his third-round 66 with a hat-trick of birdies, holing some lengthy putts along the way, to reach 14 under par and sit two strokes ahead of a world-class chasing pack consisting of home favourite Cam Smith, South Korea’s Si Woo Kim and Mexican Carlos Ortiz.
Neergaard-Petersen, who is searching for his maiden DP World Tour title, shared the lead at the halfway stage and hit the front on his own when he holed a long-range birdie putt at the second. He picked up another shot on the fourth, only to give it straight back at the par-three fifth.
It was a different story at the next par three, though, as Neergaard-Petersen birdied the seventh to turn in 32.
After starting the back nine with a bogey, the 26-year-old birdied the long 14th before knocking in his 12-foot birdie effort at the 16th to join Smith at the top of the leaderboard.
He followed that up with another birdie from around 15 feet on the 17th before a 32-foot birdie at the last handed Neergaard-Petersen a two-shot advantage at the summit.
Neergaard-Petersen is riding high on confidence after earning dual membership with the PGA TOUR at the end of last season and he could be in for another life-changing day on Sunday as he bids to secure a first win on the DP World Tour.
“I felt like I stayed true to my plan all week, which has been to stay patient,” he said. “Obviously it’s not really what you want there on the fifth, I’ve had a great shot in there and walking away with a four, obviously stung a bit, but I felt like I was able to kind of calm myself down and then from there on in, I felt like I played some really good golf and obviously really happy with the finish.
“I’ve been able to finish well here over the last couple of events, even in rounds, so it’s nice to finish off well today.
“It’s been good just kind of getting used to the conditions, playing firm and fast golf courses and then for me, even that week after, Dubai was a long week, obviously really happy with the outcome there, but it was nice to just have some downtown and play with a good mate (David Micheluzzi) of mine on great golf courses.”
Smith, who made his first OWGR-counting cut at the seventh time of asking in 2025, was delighted to get the most out of a round where his short game and putter kept his hopes of a first win in his National Open alive.
“I feel like I definitely didn’t have my best stuff today,” Smith conceded. “I definitely didn’t hit it like I hit it the first couple of days, but still managed to get a score out of it and working my way around the course nicely. Yeah, so it was good to see a couple of putts go in.
“It’s just nice being in contention. It’s been a while since I’ve had this feeling to be honest. So yeah, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I love that it’s here. I love that it’s at Royal Melbourne. I love that it’s the Australian Open. I couldn’t think of a better place to get back into form.”
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