The Victorian, who stormed to the top of the leaderboard with an opening-round 63, looked to be slipping out of contention early in the third round after reaching 3-over through his opening four holes.

Battling both the elements and his own game, Percy refused to let the championship get away from him, recovering brilliantly with a birdie, par and eagle over his closing three holes to salvage a 1-over 71.

That late charge lifted him back to 8-under for the championship, where he will start Sunday's final round alongside American Jerry Kelly, who carded a composed 2-under 68 to earn a share of the lead, with the pair taking a three-shot advantage over England's Peter Baker, who begins the final round at 5-under.

Percy admitted afterwards it had been one of those days where very little seemed to go his way, making his strong finish all the more satisfying.

"Yeah, very happy with the end there," Percy told media after his round. "Just struggled all day. I couldn't hit it, I couldn't chip it, I couldn't putt it, and then with misjudging wind, I pretty much did everything wrong. So to finish birdie-par-eagle was very nice. I'm not out of it anymore, so that's good."

The 52-year-old said it took much of the round to adjust to the strong winds and the amount of spin he was generating on the ball, forcing him to rethink his club selection.

"I normally like to pinch it into the wind and get it to bore through, but I just couldn't do that this week for some reason. The fairways, combined with using a spinny ball this week, meant it was just ballooning. I had to start taking three extra clubs instead of two, and at least I was getting it on the greens, which was nice. It took me a while to work that out, and then I just misjudged the wind on 12 and 13. On 12, I thought I'd hit a good drive, but ended up having to chip out, and then on 13 I had a bad three-putt. But yeah, I'm pretty happy."

Now just 18 holes away from the biggest victory of his career, Percy has the opportunity to add one of senior golf's most prestigious titles to his resume. While he knows the challenge that awaits against an experienced chasing pack, the Australian isn't shying away from the significance of what is on offer.

"Winning a British Open, a normal British Open, I mean, it'd be incredible, but at my age and with these guys I'm playing with, to win a British Open here, it'd still be pretty cool."