Even after an adventure with a bush it was advantage Lee Slattery again after nine holes of the third round at the SAS Masters in Malmo.
One behind Ricardo Gonzalez at halfway, Slattery needed only a level par 36 for the front nine to turn that into a one stroke lead with the Argentinian dropping shots at the fourth and sixth holes.
Chasing his first European Tour victory and only 136th on The Race to Dubai - his last top 20 finish was last August - Slattery did not make the best of starts himself by three putting the second.
But the 30 year old from Southport hit a superb approach to three feet on the 448 yard sixth and after failing to get up and down from sand at the next birdied the short eighth with a five foot putt.
Slattery looked in trouble when his second to the long ninth went into the bushes short right of the green, but after being forced into taking a penalty drop he pitched to two feet and saved par.
He began the inward half nine under par, with Gonzalez eight under and Denmark's Jeppe Huldahl, winner of The Celtic Manor Wales Open at the start of last month, up to third on seven under with seven to play.
Scotland's Richie Ramsay, joint third overnight, failed to get up and down from the rough at the sixth, but birdied the 591 yard ninth from a greenside bunker to return to six under and fourth place with Swede Martin Erlandsson.
Slattery went two in front when Gonzalez bogeyed the tenth as well, but the South American finally had his first birdie following a pitch to three feet on the next.
Slattery, on the other hand, bogeyed it to go back on level terms and it became a three-way tie when Huldahl birdied the 14th.
