A carefully complied five-under-par 65 from George Coetzee on Saturday in the third round of the European Tour’s Saudi International saw him inside the top 10 heading into the final round of the tournament.

He had six birdies and a single bogey on his card after a second round of level-par 70 during which he battled to pick up any strokes at all. But on ‘moving day’, he got himself into a share of seventh on nine-under-par, four shots behind the lead which is held by world number one Dustin Johnson.

Coetzee, who opened with a four-under 66, quickly rectified the scoring problems from round two with birdies on three and four, before making his only bogey of the day on the sixth. He immediately rectified that with a bogey on the par-four seventh, and then he picked up three more shots on the 10^th, 16^th and 17^th. He narrowly missed out on closing with three birdies in a row when his birdie putt on the par-five 18^th slid narrowly past the hole.

The upshot was that he climbed 20 places up the leaderboard to share seventh place with Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Viktor Hovland, David Horsey, Calum Hill and Ryan Fox. Like Brandon Stone did last week, Coetzee will play the final round with Garcia.

Up ahead, Johnson underlined his number one status with a four-under-par 66 to move to 13-under for the tournament and a two-stroke lead over France’s Victor Perez. A further shot back were Soren Kjeldsen, Tyrell Hatton, Tony Finau and Andy Sullivan.

Johnson’s round included a double-bogey on the 13^th after finding the water off the tee dropped him back into a share of the lead. But his big finish with birdies on 17 and 18 – the latter a near-eagle after his putt just missed right – put him on course to claim his second title at the tournament after he won the inaugural event in 2019.

Further down in the field, Wilco Nienaber continued his return to form after a good second round saw him make his first cut of the year. He carded his second-successive three-under-par 67 to move to five-under for the tournament and a share of 31^st.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Justin Walters and Justin Harding were on four-under after rounds of 69, 70 and 68 respectively, and Richard Sterne progressed to three-under for the tournament after his 68. Dean Burmester also carded a good 68 in the third round to set himself up for the final round at two-under for the tournament in a share of 57^th.