Crowe will start the final round at The National Golf Club’s Gunnamatta Course in a three-way tie for the lead at 15-under-par with Queenslander Quinn Croker (63) and New Zealand’s Denzel Ieremia (66), the trio one clear of Maverick Antcliff (67), Ryan Peake (67), Jason Norris (68) and Anthony Quayle (69).

Twenty players will start the final round of the season within four strokes of the lead and with a variety of Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit rewards at stake.

Peake cannot be unseated as the No.2 behind Elvis Smylie, Croker is all but guaranteed of retaining his card for next season while Quayle can secure a DP World Tour card for the 2026 season with a third win on Tour.

Entering the week 10th on the Order of Merit, Crowe could move as high as seventh with a first professional win to go with the 2022 New South Wales Open that he won as an amateur.

With top 10 finishes at the Australian Open, BMW Australian PGA Championship and Ford NSW Open and a tie for 15th at the New Zealand Open, Crowe’s best performances have come in the season’s biggest events.

The 23-year-old intends to tap into that mindset to finish the season by hoisting a trophy.

“Obviously it’s a good problem to have, saving my best golf for the big events,” said Crowe.

“The challenge for me was to really switch on in some of the smaller events.

“I’ve tried my best to do that this week and it’s a little easier to do that being the last event of the season.

“There’s a certain kind of fire in my belly for those big events.

“I’ll be going out there with guns blazing.”

At 44th and 56th respectively at the start of the week, Croker and Ieremia are all but assured of finishing inside the all-important top 50 to keep their cards for next year.

It has given Croker, in particular, a sense of freedom as he chases a breakthrough win.

Staying with 36-hole leader and great mate Billy Dowling, Croker matched Declan O’Donovan’s course record of 9-under 63 set on Thursday to climb 26 spots and into a share of the lead.

“I don’t know the exact math but once I played solid yesterday and was inside the cut I thought, I’m good now,” Croker said of a potential Order of Merit tightrope.

“It was a little bit like what it felt like last year when I was playing as an amateur.

“You’re a little bit like, well I can just do whatever I want. I can swing a lot freer and you make things happen and then all of a sudden, obviously a good score came out of it.”

Ieremia has also adopted a more relaxed approach that has yielded a strong run of form.

The 29-year-old had seven birdies in his round of 6-under 66 on Saturday and with strong winds expected on Sunday, will tap into the experience of playing in horrendous conditions at the Vic Open last month.

“I played really good on the front nine and I might’ve been close to the lead,” said Ieremia, who is aiming to become the fourth Kiwi winner in the last six tournaments.

“I didn’t know it at the time but I just fell off on the back nine.

“I’d like to have a week where I finish it off.”

Needing to win to leapfrog both Lucas Herbert and Cameron Smith on the Order of Merit, Quayle was denied joining the group at 15-under by a birdie putt that was spat out by a wicked horseshoe at the par-4 17th.

Currently fifth on the Order of Merit, South Australian Jack Buchanan will start Sunday four strokes off the lead and in a tie for 14th, also needing to win to wrap up a DP World Tour card.