The Dane's commanding six-shot halfway advantage was cut to one stroke in the early stages of his third round after he ran up a quintuple-bogey eight at the short 2nd hole, having found the water three times.

The 21-year-old looked shell-shocked when he then sent his tee-shot at the next hole straight into the water and made a bogey there to surrender the lead.

But he recovered with birdies at the 6th, 8th and 11th as well as several important par saves to return to the top of the leaderboard.

And Hojgaard mixed two birdies with two bogeys over the last seven holes to post a 74 and finish the day on 12-under-par.

A two-shot swing on the final hole helped George Coetzee to move within one of Hojgaard as he finished his 68 with a birdie courtesy of a magnificent approach shot.

Home favourite Paul Barjon and Belgian Thomas Pieters were another shot further back in a tie for third on 10-under.

Scott Hend, the only Australian in the field, is two-over-par after a round of 74.

Hojgaard remains in contention for a wire-to-wire victory as he goes in search of a fourth DP World Tour title.

"It's obviously not the Saturday I wanted but at the same time I'm just happy that I stayed in there, managed to make some birdies and I still have the lead. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow,” he said.

"I'll just be patient. I showed out there today that by being patient I managed to make a few birdies and not let it affect me too much.

"Hopefully I'll get off to a better start but I'll stay patient and trust what I'm doing."