Marc Leishman credits a 10 minute putting lesson for correcting his season as the former Greg Norman Medallist aims to give the Australian PGA leaders something to ponder on the final day.
The Victorian's 67 at Royal Queensland on Saturday followed rounds of 68 and 69 to see him move to nine under in a share for seventh.
It could have been even rosier but Leishman's ball got stuck in the same tree as day one playing partner Jhonattan Vegas, contributing to one of his three bogeys.
"It was a little frustrating but if you don't hit it in there to start with, you don't have to worry about your ball, he said.
"There's no trees in the middle of the fairway."
With no exemptions to enter majors, Leishman's world ranking has dropped outside 400 since his move to the non-aligned LIV Golf.
But he has reminded the punters of his class in three solid days in Brisbane, having strung together two seconds and a seventh in the last seven tournaments of his LIV season.
He said an alignment issue was to blame for his early-season wobbles.
"My coach came over and worked it out in about 10 minutes ... my putter wasn't aiming where I thought it was," he said of his mid-season revelation.
"So from 10 feet my putter was aiming about two inches left of the hole, which is not conducive to making putts when your good putts are not going where you think they should be."
Leishman won two PGA Tour events and landed another four top-10s to push his ranking to No.13 on his way to the Norman Medal in 2017.
The fan favourite hopes to channel that on Sunday morning and spice up a leaderboard headed by Min Woo Lee at 17 under.
"If I can play like I did today and get a hot putter you never know what might happen," he said.
"Hopefully I can use my experience tomorrow, make everything and give the boys something to think about. Post something early on."
The LIV Golf teammate and good friend of Cameron Smith said he hadn't spoken to him since a disastrous 78 saw the defending champion miss the cut on Friday.
"He's a big lad. Obviously, we've all missed cuts before and that is very disappointing when you do it, particularly in an event that you love so much and have had success in the past," Leishman said.
"But I think in the long run it'll be good for him, just to know that it can happen.
"I know he'll knuckle down and he'll be better for it next week (at the Australian Open).
"He's one of the greatest players in the world and I'm sure he'll bounce back and be pretty hard to beat next week."
