Phil Mickelson is close to breaking the longest victory drought of his career after surging two shots clear in the US PGA Tour's Pebble Beach tournament.
The 45-year-old American has gone 52 events since his last win, which came at the 2013 British Open at Muirfield.
But the five-time major champion needed only 21 putts on Saturday as he shot a bogey-free six-under-par 66 to claim the lead at 16-under.
Japan's Hiroshi Iwata (69) is lying second with Sweden's Freddie Jacobsen (68) a shot further back, along with South Korea's Sung Kang (70), who struggled to back up his Monterey Peninsula course record second round of 60.
"It's fun to be back in the thick of it," said Mickelson after claiming his first 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour since the 2013 US Open at Merion.
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Australia's world No.3 Jason Day (68) and Australian Open champion Matt Jones (67) are tied for eighth but six shots behind Mickelson.
They face a huge task to catch Mickelson, who has dominated at Pebble Beach previously, winning the event in 1998, 2005, 2007 and 2012.
Playing just the second tournament of his pro career, 17-year-old Australian Ryan Ruffels shot a two-over 73 on the Monterey course to drop back to a tie for 23rd.
Not for the first time this week Ruffels was wildly inconsistent, mixing six bogeys with four birdies in the round and had his third penalty drop in as many rounds, this time on the par-four 17th.
World No.1 Jordan Spieth struggled once again, shooting a two-over 74 on the Pebble Beach course to finish the round at one-under and just make the cut.
Cameron Smith (-7), Aaron Baddeley (-3), Steven Bowditch and Rhein Gibson (-1) were the other Aussies to survive the third round cut.
The six players closest to Mickelson on the leaderboard have combined for four PGA Tour victories. Mickelson is going for his 43rd.
Mickelson, however, wasn't taking anything for granted.
"It's been awhile since I've been in contention and it would mean a lot to me to be able to play a good final round tomorrow," he said.
"And as well as I've been hitting the ball, the score was great, but the ball striking wasn't indicative of how I've been hitting it. So I would like to get that dialed in for tomorrow's round."
