South Africa's Thriston Lawrence on the cusp at Omega European Masters

With the tournament still playing catch-up following Thursday's lengthy fog delays, the third round did not begin until 3pm local time on day three and Lawrence only managed to complete 12 holes before play was suspended due to darkness at 8.15pm local time.

The South African, who won this event in 2022, started round three with a lengthy birdie at the difficult first hole before bouncing back from a dropped shot on the second with five successive gains from the fifth to surge into the lead.

He safely parred the tenth and 11th before firing a birdie on the 12th to reach 17 under par, and will have a three-foot par putt waiting for him on the 13th green when play resumes at 7.50am on Sunday.

Sami Välimäki was one of Lawrence's nearest challengers on 15 under after a birdie blitz of his own.

The Finn responded from an early bogey with nine birdies in 12 holes from the fourth, including six in a row on the front nine. He has three holes remaining.

Two-time former winner Matt Fitzpatrick was also two shots off the lead after notching two eagles and three birdies in his first 14 holes before the hooter sounded.

Defending champion Matt Wallace was one shot further back with five holes to complete, alongside Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen who has just one hole left.

Lawrence began the third round two shots off the lead but cut the gap with a stunning 30-foot birdie on the first.

The four-time DP World Tour winner bogeyed the second after sending his tee-shot into the trees but steadied the ship with pars at the third and fourth before taking the solo lead with a 40-foot birdie putt on the fifth.

Lawrence increased his lead to two shots with a six-foot birdie on the sixth before making it a hat-trick of gains from close range at the next.

After sending his tee-shot to nine feet at the par-three eighth, Lawrence rolled in the putt for birdie number four and got a fifth courtesy of a stunning third shot into the par-five ninth that set up a tap-in.

He picked up another shot from three feet at the 12th to move to 17 under before opting not to putt at the 13th after the suspension was confirmed.

Lawrence said: "I'm very, very happy. I started with a nice long putt for birdie, which settled the nerves and got me going.

"Unfortunate bogey on the next but five birdies in a row after that - I'm really happy with the way I'm putting, hitting it fairly good.

"There's still a lot of golf left and I've just got to try and do the same.

"The putter's been hot all week. I've made more long putts this week than I have in maybe a year. I've got a new putter in the bag, put it in last week for the first time and putted decent last week."