Brandon stone sets pace with route 66, 66, 66
South African Stone fired a third consecutive round of 66 to get to 15 under and lead the way from countryman Dean Burmester and Fisher, with Brown a shot further back on the Algarve.
Despite registering just one top-ten all season, Stone’s win at last year’s Scottish Open means he is guaranteed a European Tour card for next season, but the same cannot be said of Fisher and Brown.
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Hide AdOnly the top 115 on the Race to Dubai are guaranteed to keep their playing privileges at the end of play tomorrow and barring a disaster Fisher – who started the week in danger at 112th – will be safe after provisionally moving up to 76th.
Brown, however, will need a good final round to force his way into the reckoning, sitting in a provisional 124th after starting the week 150th.
Overnight leader Fisher made a hat-trick of bogeys from the fifth to slide down the leaderboard but hit back with four birdies in a row from the 12th in a 70. “When you have days where you feel like you’re not getting anything out of it, you need to get a spark going, 11 and 12 helped me out,” he told europeantour.com.
“I’m looking forward to tomorrow, it should be a good final round.”
Brown was bogey-free in carding a 65 but he is under no illusions about the task ahead of him.
“I need to have such a good week to keep my card,” he said. “It’s a good job I’ve got another day.”
Defending champion Tom Lewis, world No 29 Matt Wallace and a third Englishman in Eddie Pepperell were all five shots off the lead.