Søren Kjeldsen and Thorbjørn Olesen extended Denmark's lead to a commanding five shots as the third round of the ISPS HANDA World Cup of Golf moved towards its conclusion at Kingston Heath Golf Club.
The duo fired a stunning 60 in the fourballs on Friday to open up a three-shot advantage and as the play returned to foursomes, they turned in 33 to reach 14 under and lead the way from the United States.
Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker had four birdies and two bogeys in their first ten holes and were a shot clear of China and England, who had both done well to recover from shaky starts.
France and Spain were then at seven under with high winds and some rain making scoring difficult in Melbourne.
Denmark's overnight lead was quickly extended to four as China's Li Haotong struggled on the first, putting his tee-shot in a bunker, failing to reach the green with a chip and then missing a short putt to surrender a double-bogey.
Olesen, meanwhile, saw good chances stay up on the first and second but China's poor start continued as they failed to get up and down on the second after Ashun Wu found sand off the tee on the par three.
The Danes then dropped their first shot in 25 holes on the third after Kjeldsen found sand with the second shot and the lead was back to three.
That leading group then well and truly rediscovered their rhythm, with both China and Denmark making back-to-back birdies on the fourth and fifth. An excellent approach from Olesen had left Kjeldsen with little to do and the Turkish Airlines Open champion then drained a 12-footer for a five-shot lead.
The United States three-putted the first but bounced back with a birdie on the second and when Jimmy Walker made another good putt on the fifth, they were briefly the nearest challengers on their own.
A bogey was to come on the seventh but Walker was putting beautifully and back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth cut the lead to four.
That would not last for long, though, with Kjeldsen playing a beautiful bunker shot on the eighth to hand Olesen another birdie opportunity.
England had double-bogeyed the third after a wild tee-shot from Andy Sullivan but they took advantage of the par five eighth, Sullivan holed a long putt on the ninth and Chris Wood then tidied up to make it three in a row.
France also had an early double-bogey after getting into bunker trouble on the second but Romain Langasque holed a lengthy eagle putt on the eighth before a bogey and a birdie followed.
Spain had two bogeys and a birdie in their round to sit a shot ahead of New Zealand and Sweden, with Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa and Japan at five under.
