Sunday’s knockout match play section will see scores from the first three rounds put to the side and the leaderboard reset but a spot in the top eight at the conclusion of today’s play will earn its player a bye in the first round of matches.

Backing up his course record 8-under 64 with a 2-under 70 on Friday morning, Deyen Lawson starts the third round with the outright lead at 10-under par, two shots clear of New South Welshman Dimi Papadatos with another two-shot gap back to a group of four players tied at 6-under par.

U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy has started the third round eight strokes behind Lawson at 2-under with the primary objective now to ensure he is within the top 24 on Saturday evening having navigated his way past the first cut.

Four-over through his opening nine holes on Thursday, Ogilvy recovered to shoot 72 in his first round and followed it up with a 2-under 70 on Friday to be tied for 27th.

“Clearly the job for the first three days is to make the match play,” said Ogilvy after his round, his WGC-Match Play wins coming in 2006 and 2009.

“And then the further up you can get you get that bye in the first round which would be a big advantage too.

“The match play’s the key. You can’t win the tournament if you don’t make it and if you do make the match play you can win the tournament.

“It’s a strange tournament like that. Normally you’d be eight back and thinking you’ve got a long way to go on the weekend but I’ve just got to make sure I get in the match play tomorrow and then anything can happen over six-hole matches.”

The leading group of Deyen Lawson, Dimi Papadatos and Peter Cooke will tee off from the first tee at 10:45am AEDT.

Follow live scores from Yallourn Golf Club at pga.org.au.