Melbourne, Australia – Ian Poulter fired an 8-under 64 on Saturday to move one stroke clear of Adam Scott after three rounds of the Talisker Masters.
Poulter finished 54 holes at 13-under-par 203. He will look for his second win of the year on Sunday. Poulter claimed the WGC-HSBC Champions two weeks ago.
Scott carded a 5-under 67 to move into second place at minus-12.
First-and-second-round leader Matthew Guyatt stumbled to a 3-over 75. He tumbled into third place at 7-under-par 209. Mark Brown is one shot back at minus-6 after shooting 67 on Saturday at Kingston Heath.
Poulter, the 16th ranked player in the world, got off to a quick start with birdies at one and three. After a par on the fourth, he poured in three straight birdie efforts from the fifth.
Around the turn, Poulter birdied the par-4 10th to move to 11-under. He carded back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 before stumbling to a 3-putt bogey at the 16th. Poulter closed his round with a tap-in birdie at the last.
"When you go out on this golf course with a reasonable breeze, and produce a score like that, you have to be happy," Poulter said in a TV interview. "The only mistake I made was kind of a 3-putt from just off the front of 16, which was blemish on the card when I played as well as I did today."
Scott, the world No. 5, kept pace with three birdies in a row from the sixth. On the back nine, he had three more birdies in a 4-hole stretch from the 12th. After bogeys at 16 and 17, Scott also birdied the last to end one back.
"He got off to such a great start, I was just trying to get into his kind of rhythm," Scott said of Poulter in a televised interview. "Its sometimes good when a guy you're playing with is playing good. You can just kind of follow his lead and I was certainly trying to do that."
Graeme McDowell, who made the cut on the number, fired a 5-under 67 to soar into a share of 13th place at 1-under-par 215.
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