Andrew Martin will take a wealth of local knowledge and a truck-load of momentum into the final round of the $420,000 men's Vic Open.
The 39-year-old, who lives in nearby Ocean Grove and is a club member at Thirteenth Beach, carded the equal-low round of the day on Saturday - a bogey-free seven-under 65 - to be at 12-under 204.
It was nine shots better than Martin's second round of 74 in difficult windy conditions on Friday.
He was in outright third spot, one shot adrift of co-leaders Nick Voke from New Zealand (68) and Australian Kade McBride (66).
It shapes as a thrilling final day, with 18 players within five shots of top spot on a packed leaderboard.
But none of them can better Martin's familiarity with the links layout.
"You always want to be up near the top of the leaderboard, and I think I'm a bit more mature and experienced now, so I'm looking forward to the challenge," Martin said.
"At Thirteenth, you never know, you've got to be on your game.
"Being your course, it's always handy to have local knowledge.
"That just makes me more comfortable, because the more you play here the more comfortable you get, especially when the wind gets up like yesterday."
Martin has lost count of the number of rounds he has played on the links layout, but never before had he seen so many cabbage white butterflies on the course.
"I did notice that today," he said.
"There was a lot of them and I've never seen that.
"Normally the March flies are the problem here."
Queenslander McBride stormed to the top of the leaderboard late on Saturday with three birdies in his closing four holes.
His best finish to date on the Australasian Tour was second place at last year's NSW Open.
Australian trio Jordan Zunic, Brett Coletta and Christopher Fan were tied for fourth at 11-under.
Among the group in a tie for eighth at nine-under was 52-year-old Richard Green, the 2015 Vic Open winner, who is coming off a hugely successful first year on the Champions PGA Tour.
Green carded a brilliant 65 on Saturday.
