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Australia's hopes of adding a fifth golfer for next week's Masters appear over with Aaron Baddeley and Matt Jones well off the pace set by Si Woo Kim at the PGA Tour's Texas Open.
South Korean Kim birdied the final hole to card a three-under 69 and got to 15 under, for a one-stroke lead heading into the final round on The Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio.
Baddeley matched Kim's 69 to be best of the Australian contingent at six under and a share of 24th while Jones (74) slid back to five under and a tie for 40th.
Both must win the event to earn an invitation to the first major of the year and join countrymen Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith and Adam Scott at Augusta.
Kim started Saturday's play with a four-stroke advantage but his quest for a wire-to-wire victory was put to the test by Canadian Corey Conners, who carded a six-under-par 66 to move to 14 under par.
Conners started his round brilliantly and picked up five shots in the first seven holes, which included almost producing an ace on the par-three third.
He is one shot ahead of 2016 champion Charley Hoffman, who saved the best until last in his 64 as he eagled the 18th after a 284-yard approach shot.
Scott Brown and Jhonattan Vegas both carded 67s to sit in a tie for fourth alongside Kyoung-Hoon Lee, four shots off the lead.
However, others suffered on day three, with former world No.1 Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler each carding rounds of 73 to tumble from a share of second place to a share of 14th.
Spieth did well to manage that, firing five birdies on the back nine to recover from an awful 42 on his front nine on Saturday.
Similarly, Fowler produced an eagle on the 18th to finish the day at seven under.
Kim almost aced the 16th hole for the second day in a row when his seven-iron from 190 yards landed a couple of yards in front of the cup and nearly went in on the second bounce before settling four feet away.
"I saw that first bounce and then right at it. I thought going in for sure this time," Kim told Golf Channel.
"Just missed it."
He missed the birdie putt.
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