Leading by two after Round 1, the Royal Fremantle Golf Club Associate’s advantage was trimmed to one in Tuesday morning’s second round as Aaron Dobson (74) and Daniel Hoeve (69) joined Pehlic as the only players under par.

Following a quick turnaround, Dobson and Arno Madel both started the afternoon’s third round strongly to continue to apply leaderboard pressure.

But two birdies and an ace at the par-3 16th would deliver Pehlic a tournament-low 6-under 66 and 8-under total for a four-shot buffer with one round to play.

It was the fifth hole-in-one of Pehlic’s golf life and undoubtedly the most timely.

“I pretty much had the same club I had in my hand in the morning,” Pehlic explained post-round.

“Pretty much just said to Daniel, ‘I’m going to hit a nice little cut with a knockdown 9-iron and pretty much straight at it.

“It landed but I didn’t see anything.

“I was going to mark the ball that was next to the flag and I realised it was Jeff’s. Then I looked to my right and saw it was in the hole.”

Given he opened the door with a 3-over 75 in the morning round, Pehlic was proud to bounce back in such impressive fashion in the afternoon.

“I was just super aggressive today, as I normally am,” he added.

“This morning was a little bit rough. I usually tend to get quite angry at myself, which makes me play good. I just know I can be better than what I shot in the morning.

“To come back with the 66 was really good.

“I’ll stay aggressive. It’s been working so far so I don’t see why I can’t finish the job.”

At 4-under par, Dobson is the only player within eight shots of Pehlic with 18 holes to play.

A swing adjustment between rounds resulted in a five-shot improvement, an improvement that could have been even greater had the putter cooperated a little more.

With ground to make up, Dobson knows that he’ll need make more putts from outside six feet to challenge Pehlic for the title.

“I hit it quite well tee-to-green in the second ground and really could have had anything,” he said.

“To be honest, I just didn’t hole any putts at all. I think my longest putt was a six-footer.

“I’ll attack where I know I can attack on the holes that I know I’m comfortable on and then just use my 3-iron that I’ve been hitting quite well off the tee on the holes with doglegs.

“Try and take some more opportunities on the greens would be nice, too.”

The final round begins at 6:44am AWST with the lead group to tee off at 8:04am.

Round 3 scores