Brad King hauled himself into contention for the $95,000 first prize at the $500,000 ANZ Players Championship with a 7-under 66 Saturday, grabbing a share of the final-day lead on 11-under-par 208 with fellow West Australian Lucas Parsons, who shot 72 Saturday.
Australians Greg Chalmers (73) and Jarrod Moseley (71) are two strokes back at 9-under par at the par-73 Royal Queensland.
Parsons produced a superb par save out of the sand on the last hole to deny King the outright lead.
One of the longest hitters on the tour, King launched a similar hot start Friday, going birdie-birdie-eagle to be four under for three holes.
"It was funny, I said to my caddie (Craig Tester) on the putting green `We need to have a start like I played those first three holes yesterday'."
The 34-year-old, who until recently managed a motel, won the 1998 Victorian Open in Australia and the 1990 Audi Open on the European Challenge Tour.
But he still has bitter memories of an unsuccessful U.S. stint in 1994.
He won just $14,000 in 16 starts in America, finishing 238th on the money list.
"I was pretty gutted," he said of having to go back to qualifying school after losing exemptions on four different tours while overseas. "It was very tough -- I nearly gave it away."
Now that he has provided some security for his wife and young family, he wants to go back to the United States and finish what he started five years ago.
"I'm setting myself to go back to the U.S. tour (qualifying) school at the end of next year," he said.
Australian amateur Aaron Baddeley, who won last week's Australian Open, overcame a triple bogey on the second hole to shoot a 74 and is 1-over par after 54 holes, 11 strokes back of the leaders.
208 B King 73 69 66, L Parsons 69 67 72
210 J Moseley 70 69 72, G Chalmers 72 65 73
211 G Ogilvy 73 70 68, B Partridge 73 69 69, W Smith 72 70 69, R Pampling 71
70 70, D McKenzie 72 69 70, G Dodd 67 73 71
212 R Russell (Sco) 70 71 71, B Rumford 68 73 71, C Parry 70 69 73
213 M Cain 71 75 67, C Spence 74 71 68, D Terblanche (Rsa) 71 73 69, R
Backwell 71 72 70, A Percy 74 68 71, D Bransdon 71 70 72, A Bonhomme 72 68 73, S
Laycock 69 70 74
