Fisher . . . ranked 340th in the world . . . and compatriot Paul Casey were joint ninth at 12 under par, five strokes behind leader Kevin Stadler after the third round.

Fisher had a tremendous start with a birdie on the second followed by an eagle on the 517-yard par-five third.

He went through a slump, recording consecutive bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes, before recovering with four birdies on the back nine to shoot a four-under 68.

"I just faltered a little bit, " he said. "I didn't quite get the pace of the green and dropped a few silly shots, but it was nice to finish with a few birdies on the back nine.

I felt pretty good. It's my first time back since before Christmas so I took a while to get into things on Thursday but I played pretty good the first two days and I got off to a really good start today."

And Fisher declared himself confident of a repeat performance in the final round.