Saturday December 19, 2009, 08:47 PM

Spaniard Pablo Martin stayed on track for back-to-back European Tour victories despite scrambling to a level-par 72 in the third round of the South African Open Saturday.

Winner of the Alfred Dunhill Championship last weekend, Martin leads Italian Edoardo Molinari by one stroke entering the final round at the Jack Nicklaus-designed 6,800-metre Pearl Valley Golf Estate course near Cape Town.

Martin stands on 205 while Molinari fired a second consecutive 69 in the second of four tournaments during December and January co-sanctioned by the South African Sunshine Tour.

Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed (68), Dane Anders Hansen (72) and South African James Kingston (69) are on 207 with the 69 of Indian Shiv Kapur keeping him in contention a further stroke behind the leader.

Defending champion Richard Sterne of South Africa could manage only a two-over 74 and appears out of contention nine strokes off the pace in the second oldest national golf championship after the British Open.

Europeans have won just two of the previous 98 editions and Martin, the only golfer to win European tour events as an amateur and professional, heightened hopes of a third success as he rode his luck.

The Spaniard hit a spectator after overshooting the seventh green where he holed a 20-foot putt to salvage par and snatched a birdie on 12 after his water-bound tee shot struck a rock and rebounded to safety.

Martin, who arrived in South Africa a few weeks ago to visit the Kruger National Park game reserve and play some golf, was punished for a wild drive on 14 with a double bogey only to finish off with a chip-and-putt birdie four.

Molinari, seeking his fifth victory in eight outings, attributed a three-under round to superb putting as he overcame a double bogey on the seventh.

South African Louis Oosthuizen, an England-based professional and one of the pre-tournament favourites, will want to forget the seventh after his putter hit the ground instead of a tap-in bogey putt.

© 2009 AFP/sid