Mark Murless extends lead to two shots

Home-town golfer Mark Murless geared up for the biggest day of his career by claiming a two-stroke lead heading into the final round of the European Tour co-sanctioned Joburg Open at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington on Saturday.

Murless, who has had at least a share of the lead on all three days, shot a two-under-par 69 to climb to 11-under-par 202 after three rounds.

The 31-year-old, who has three Sunshine Tour victories to his name, will have to beat off a raft of challengers including Ryder Cup player Darren Clarke, who is on the comeback trail after crashing from the world top-10 rankings to outside the top 200.

Clarke fired a four-under-par 67 which moved him up to eight-under overall and into a tie for fifth place.

A congested leaderboard, which has three players sharing second place on nine under and another five golfers with Clarke on eight under, means there are many challengers but Murless said his approach in Sunday's final round would be to focus on his own game.

"For the first 14 or 15 holes I'm just going to play the way I know and not even look at the leaderboard. Otherwise you get ahead of yourself and start thinking about too many things.

"I need to block it all out. There are 18 holes and I need to play them one at a time.

"But it all depends on my putter. My driving is pretty good, my irons are solid and mentally I'm feeling great, I'm not intimidated by anything," Murless told reporters.

Germany's Sven Struver, Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal and South African Tyrone Ferreira, making his professional debut, are in the tie for second place.

Struver, who has not won on the European Tour since the 1998 European Masters, said he was desperate to avoid returning to Tour School for the seventh straight year.

"The main thing about winning is to avoid Tour School, which is like torture. I have never felt anything like it, you are in stress and it's a week you definitely don't want to be at.

"But I have played myself into position and I know how to win because I have done it before," Struver said.

Clarke did not start well, driving into the trees on the first hole, but he quickly cancelled out the bogey with birdies at the third, fourth and seventh holes, before a strong finish as he picked up three more birdies on the last six holes.

"I'm right in it, I played pretty well. There's all to play for tomorrow and the game plan is to shoot for under par, which will require playing very good golf," the Briton said.