Scotland's Ewen Ferguson will take a two-shot lead into the final round of the Soudal Open after defying wet conditions in Antwerp to post an impressive 69.
Ferguson began the day with a three shot advantage and, aside from being briefly caught by John Parry around the turn, was in control for most of the day at a rain-swept Rinkven International GC.
A 13 under total sees Ferguson go into the final round two clear of Parry, who carded a 67, with Dutchman Darius van Driel third on nine under after signing for a 69.
Ferguson birdied the third from 23 feet and extended his run of bogey-free holes this week to 41 before dropping a shot at the sixth after finding a bunker with his approach.
Birdies from 15 feet at the tenth and three feet at the next saw him pull clear of Parry, who had turned in 33 and briefly drew level with a gain at the 11th.
A duffed chip from behind the 13th led to a second bogey of the day for Ferguson, but he was able to restore his two-shot lead with a birdie from 16 feet at the 16th.
"To be honest with you my range session was awful, it was so cold, my hands were freezing and I was hardly finding the middle of the face," said Ferguson.
"I was thinking it was going to be a long day - which it was - but I think when you get out there and feel the kind of vibe off the people around you, and I was playing with Marco [Penge] who's a good friend, and just trying to enjoy it even though the weather was bad.
"I just hung in there really. It wasn't pretty, I was teeing my ball down, squishing drivers trying to find the fairway. Nothing pretty to watch but Saturday, just keep yourself in there.
"Every day I've been working hard on recognising the parts of the round that are going to be sticky, because sometimes I'm a bit guilty of going out there and just thinking it's going to be easy all day.
"There's always little parts of the round... I grinded away so well. I made some nice putts to make it feel like I was scoring better.
"I love grinding making a par, it's a nice feeling. I've done so well today just keeping my head on a day where you could really let it go."
Parry also admitted it had been an attritional day.
"It was tough," he said. "There were a lot more four irons into the greens today - which wasn’t really the case over the first two days - but I felt like I did the hard part well, which was getting from tee to green. That made the rest of the day a bit easier."
