Eduardo de la Riva knows he will have to master the blustery conditions at Oceånico Victoria Golf Club on Sunday if he is to reel in Andy Sullivan and win the Portugal Masters.
Englishman Sullivan shot a 67 on Saturday to get to 18 under par and open up a commanding five shot lead over De la Riva who went round in 68 on a wild and blustery day on the Algarve.
But Sullivan's lead had been eight shots before the Spaniard birdied his final three holes and with similar conditions expected in round four, De la Riva is hoping to he can carry that momentum over.
Five shots is a lot and he's playing very, very well. I'll try tomorrow. If the day is like this, it can be possible with a very low round -Eduardo de la Riva
"It was very tough because with so high winds it is very difficult to do good shots.
"And the putting in the first nine holes was very, very difficult to putt. So I am happy with the round."
The round of the day belonged to Chris Wood who fired a 65 to move to 11 under as the third round was played with a shotgun start, beginning at 0800, to try and avoid the bad weather due later in the day.
It was only second time in European Tour history after the 1994 Czech Open that a shotgun start had been used and Wood was full of praise for the organisers with last year's event having been reduced to 36 holes.
"I always seem to do all right in bad weather," he said. "But the course, I have to say, the course was set up really fair today for us. They put some tees up 50 yards where they had to, carries over water.
"So credit to José (María Zamora), the Tournament Director this week.
"It was difficult last year. We all know how tricky it was last year, but the Tour have done a great job today."
He added: "There's a lot of crosswinds out there. We all know how thick the rough is this year here. I'm really driving the ball quite well at the moment, so that's a big key.
"I just played very steady, but nice to eagle to finish on the 12th, which was our last hole today.
"So six under was a really good score."
Jorge Campillo was also at 11 under after a 67 and he echoed Wood's sentiments that the right decision had been made by the tournament organisers.
"I think it was a good decision by The European Tour," he said. "They set up the course good and they made the right decision. So it was fair and I'm happy we got to play.
"It was tough at first. You've got to get used to the wind and how slow the greens are. After the start, kind of the wind died down a little bit and it was playing fair. I think it was a great day."
