First groups were the beneficiaries of relatively benign conditions at The National’s Moonah Course on Saturday, the wind finding its teeth as the first group reached the 16th tee.

That made scoring challenging for the lead groups, John and Daniel Gale (68) the only players in the final seven groups to break 70.

The highlight of John’s 5-under 67 was a hole-in-one at the par-3 eighth, taking gap wedge at the 133-metre hole and firing straight at the flag.

That narrowed the gap to Round 3 leader Kyle Michel (75) to just two strokes, a lead that had ballooned to six when John and Nathan Barbieri (74) both made bogey at the opening hole.

When Michel made bogey on nine the deficit had shrunk to just one, the pair locked together at 13-under when Michel dropped another shot on 12.

As John parred his way in across the final seven holes, Michel lost his tee shot on his way to a double-bogey on 14, another bogey on 15 relegating him to three shots behind through 54 holes.

Gale strengthened his claims to a DP World Tour card by ending the day in outright third at 8-under, Matt Griffin making birdies at 15, 16 and 18 in a round of 2-under 70 that kept his hopes of a top-three Order of Merit finish alive.

A hole-in-one, a new leader. @CamGolf99 leads #TheNationalTournament by three with 18 holes to play.

Leaderboard: https://t.co/sRHxrsY4FY pic.twitter.com/nVR4TgmQiI

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) March 16, 2024

A player who has set course records in PGA Tour of Australasia events at Moonah Links and Kalgoorlie, John put his Saturday performance among the best rounds he has played in his career.

“It’s probably up there with my best round,” said John.

“It might sound a bit weird but I kind of care a little less. It’s the last event of the season, I’ve played really well, I don’t want to put too much expectation on it.

“It’s another day of golf and we’ll see what happens. It’d be nice to play well.”

Such was John’s focus on the back nine, he had forgotten by the end of the round about his first ace in a PGA Tour of Australasia event.

History repeating ⁉️@CamGolf99 is now just two back after a hole-in-one @TheNational1988 ⛳️#TheNationalTournament pic.twitter.com/JWhRf0DNM3

— PGA of Australia (@PGAofAustralia) March 16, 2024

“When you have a hole-in-one, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s going on,” he added.

“Quite often you see 1-5 or 1-6. It was more a matter of forgetting about it.

“I said to the boys when we came in, ‘I actually forgot that was today.’ I forgot I had a hole-in-one. I did a good enough job of it.”

Gale shapes as John’s greatest threat.

A two-time winner already this season, Gale had four birdies in his first seven holes in Round 3.

He is targetting a similar start on Sunday to apply pressure to a player still seeking their maiden win on Tour.

“Cam is obviously playing good golf but if I get off to a hot start tomorrow I’ll definitely have a shot at it if I can take advantage of some of those holes on the back nine, which I really haven’t done the past three days,” said Gale, who is projected to move up to No.2 on the Order of Merit.

“I just haven’t taken advantage of the back nine but hopefully can get hot and run him down.”

How Barbieri responds will be crucial as he tries to play his way into the top 50 who retain their cards at the end of play on Sunday, Jack Munro (70) and Josh Younger (71) also needing a strong finish to play their way into the top 50.

Munro and Younger are in a share of sixth through three rounds with Adam Bland (68), Aaron Townsend (68) and Jordan Zunic, whose 6-under 66 was the round of the day.

The final round of The National Tournament will commence at 10:23am AEDT with the last group to tee off at 1:40pm.

The only place to watch the final round is on Fox Sports, through Foxtel and Kayo.

Photo: Rob Prezioso/PGA of Australia