WILSON ONE CLEAR AT PAARL // 17th December 2007

SPARKLING 67 MOVES ENGLISMAN ONE CLEAR AT PAARL

Oliver Wilson will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the South African Open after a 67 on Saturday moved him to four-under.

The Englishman was in sparkling form as he returned a bogey-free third round that contained five birdies at the Pearl Valley Estates.

It edged him one clear of overnight leader James Kingston whose 71 leaves him at three-under, in turn a shot ahead of another South African, Garth Mulroy, who made the biggest move of the day after a magnificent course record 64.

Indeed, the upper echelons of the leaderboard are dominated by home players with Nic Hening and Ulrich Van Den Berg in a tie for fourth on one-under and Andrew McLardy and Louis Oosthuizen two of the four men with a share of sixth at level-par - England's Robert Rock and Kyron Sullivan of Wales the others.

BIG NAMES

Amongst the big names to keep themselves in the frame were Australian veteran Greg Norman who stands at one-over after a level-par 72 and two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen who is two-over following a 70.

Two late bogeys damaged Darren Clarke's continuing push with a 74 dropping him back to three-over, while Ernie Els now looks too far back to have any say following a 77 that leaves him 12 shots off the pace on eight-over.

Wilson is the man they will all have to catch on the final day and the Englishman remained calm despite the first win of his professional career looming large.

"I'm very happy with my round," he stated. "I am actually quite pleased with how the week's going on, it's getting a little better each day and hopefully it carries on like that.

"I was struggling with my swing a little bit but I think the wind's kind of helped. My short game's been really solid this week.

"I managed to get of to a good start, especially on this course if you get one under early, it tends to relax you a little more and there's a few key holes out there and if you can get through those without many mistakes, you can actually make some good scores, which I managed to do.

"I played all the key holes really well and hopefully I can do it again on Sunday."

Of his preparations for the final round, he added: "Sunday, it's just me against me. Hopefully my swing will get a little bit better.

"We're going to get working on it again. It was bad last week as well, I played awful from tee to green, not very good so far this week, but I just managed to get it up and down and have a good attitude.

"I've just got to do the same again and not put too much pressure on myself and just go and play."

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