Jason Day continued to be the standout Australian on moving day at The Open, as Henrik Stenson and Phil Mickelson set up a showdown for the final round at Royal Troon.

Day opened his third round strong, firing four birdies on the front-9 to make the turn at 4-under the card and charge up the leaderboard to T11.

However it would be a run of good form that was short lived, with the back-9 becoming an entirely different story for the Queenslander.

Unable to record a birdie on the back-9 all week, Day carded four bogeys to sign for an even round 71 and will head into the final round on 1-over the card. 

"The back is tough. I could have been 6 or 7-under on the front side. Then turned the back side, and the 10th hole with the bogey kind of stopped my momentum. It’s obviously very hard to get momentum back up when you’re playing that back side," said Day.

"I’m going to try to do my best to finish as good as I can. I’d really like to have a good front nine, like I did today. I think if I can do that and play hopefully even par on the back side would be nice. At least get one birdie; that would be good. That would be a good confidence booster going into the Canadian Open and obviously on to the PGA."

"I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s round to try and improve on the back side and just get a little bit of a better taste going back home.

It was a similar story for the remaining five Australians in the field this weekend.

Matt Jones fired 4-over 75, which included a lone birdie on the par-3 8th hole and five bogeys, three of which were on the back-9. Jones will go into the final round T43.

Marc Leishman was on track early but suffered at the hand of the par-3 8th Postage Stamp with a triple bogey six. A blemish free back-9 saw Leishman sign for 4-over 75 and a share of 50th place with Adam Scott.

Scott opened his round with an unlucky double bogey, but two birdies on the par-4 7th and 9th helped replenish some momentum to make the turn at even par.  But a punishing back-9, which included a bogey and two double bogeys, saw Scott sign for 5-over 76.

Greg Chalmers and Scott Hend both fired 6-over 77 after the pair got off to a strong start before falling victim to Royal Troon’s back-9. The duo head into the final round T65 and T73 respectively.