As blustery winds that switched and cooled during the round kept scoring in check for most players, Hawkes separated himself with a third straight round of 5-under 67 to be 15-under through 54 holes.

Veteran Jason Norris (69) is Hawkes’ nearest challenger at 11-under, one clear of Perth’s Jarryd Felton (71) with Joondalup local Connor McKinney (71), Blake Windred (70) and Kiwi Kerry Mountcastle (71) all at 9-under and six strokes from the lead.

A winner on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia five years ago at the Vic Open, Hawkes now juggles part-time tournament golf with his full-time job on the ground crew at Seven Mile Beach golf course in Hobart.

He says that perspective should hold him in good stead as he seeks to close out a second Tour win on Sunday.

“If I win tomorrow, great, I go back to work. If I don’t win, I go back to work. It’s a bit different now,” said Hawkes.

“I imagine if this was three or four years ago where this was my sole, primary living there’d be a much different attitude.

“It’s interesting, as soon as you take that stress away of trying to make money at this game, if you just play golf to win tournaments, it’s a shitload easier than playing golf for money, I can tell you that.

“If someone shoots 62 tomorrow and jumps over me, then good on ‘em, that’s just golf. My perspective tomorrow is to just have the same attitude and process that I did today.”

For most of Saturday’s third round there was jostling for top spot on the leaderboard before Hawkes separated himself late on the back nine.

Felton joined Hawkes at 10-under with a birdie at the first but dropped back to 9-under with a bogey on two.

Norris also made bogey on two but responded with three birdies in the space of four holes to join Hawkes at 10-under.

After starting his third round with five straight pars, Hawkes made birdies on six and eight to move to 12-under and a two-stroke lead through eight holes.

The 34-year-old missed a golden opportunity to extend his lead to two at 12, leaving a birdie putt from five feet dead centre on the edge of the hole, Felton converting his chance from close range to join Norris at 11-under and one back.

Back-to-back birdies on 13 and 14 saw Hawkes extend his lead to three at 14-under and when he poured in a 15-footer from the back of the 16th green his advantage pushed out to four.

A two-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia, Norris spent four months this year playing the Legends Tour in Europe, the 51-year-old excited at the prospect of trying to chase down Hawkes in the final round on Sunday having been convinced to play by a mate from Adelaide.

“I wasn’t coming to Perth; my mate Shannon ‘Ace’ Aistrope talked me into it,” Norris revealed.

“I thought about going to the seniors events and playing a few of those but I still think I’m good enough to play on the Tour.

“I love being in the mix and I love the pressure of it. You either will or you won’t perform but I love that aspect of it, it’s good fun.

“If Hawkesy plays well again and shoots another 4 or 5-under no one will catch him, but I just want to be in there with a chance with nine holes to go.”

Another player in with a chance is South Australian Jak Carter.

Carter’s 6-under 66 was the best of Round 3 and catapulted him into a tie for seventh with one round to play.

“Through my past two rounds I was not able to hit an iron shot that well at all and just somehow have made it work,” said Carter, who is currently completing the PGA’s Membership Pathway Program.

“Today it was actually nice to find the middle of the clubface.”

McKinney kept alive his hopes of a win on home soil with three birdies in his final five holes, fellow Joondalup member Josh Greer one stroke further back in a share of seventh after finishing his round with three straight birdies.

Saturday also saw the first round of the WA All Abilities Open Championship where Queenslander Lachlan Wood leads by one from Coffs Harbour’s Cameron Pollard.

A triple-bogey at the par-4 ninth was Wood’s greatest miss-step in a round of 3-over 75, Pollard bouncing back from a triple-bogey at the par-5 eighth to shoot 76.

The final round of the Nexus Advisernet/Bowra & O’Dea WA Open will be broadcast live on Foxtel and Kayo on Sunday, with coverage starting at 2.30pm through to 7.30pm AEDT.