Allenby takes charge

Sunday shapes as a memorable final round of the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum, with three-time champion Robert Allenby leading by a stroke after 54 holes from Greg Chalmers and Scott Strange while Geoff Ogilvy, Adam Scott and Michael Sim are just two back.

Fresh from his victory last weekend at the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa, 2000, '01 and '05 PGA winner Allenby cashed in on ideal conditions with little wind and overnight rain that softened the greens by signing for a five-under 66 that leaves him on minus nine overall.

But with the possibility of a thunderstorm on Saturday night that will bring further rain with it, Allenby is unlikely to have it all his own way on the final day with Chalmers (67) and Strange (68) breathing down his neck and Ogilvy (70), Scott (68) and Sim (65) also within striking distance.

Victorian Marc Leishman (66) and 2006 Australian Open champion John Senden (67) also loom large just three shots adrift on six under and Victorians Cameron Percy (67) and Matt Griffin (73) round out the top 10 on minus five.

Having only made the decision to contest the event two weeks ago, Allenby's choice is close to paying huge dividends after he assumed top spot on the leaderboard. But the 38-year-old also later lamented having left a few putts out there.

"I think every day could have been better, even today," Allenby said.

"Today was a good day and a good result at the end of today, making a couple of birdies on the last couple of holes was nice."

"I played solid all day ... (but) the greens were a bit sticky today, bit grainy, it was probably all of the rain that we had early this morning and definitely slowed up the greens."

Runner-up at the Masters last month in Melbourne, Chalmers started superbly and was out in 31 strokes with four birdies but a double-bogey five at the 11th cost him the lead which he later regained with two further birdies, only for Allenby to overtake him late on.

"I think I got momentum going early which was great (but I) probably shot myself in the foot in the 11th hole by running it up over the green and into the water," Chalmers said.

"(I) then pulled it back with two more birdies coming in so I said to myself at the time 'you are going to face an adversity at some point or another if you want to do well this week' and I handled that and moved on so it's good."

2009 Nationwide Tour sensation Sim, who will be looking to transfer his winning form to the US PGA Tour next year, staged an astonishing recovery from plus one overall after six holes with an amazing run of eight birdies in 11 holes en route to his six-under 65.

But Sim, who won three times on the American secondary tour and was crowned its player of the year, had an even hotter run at the season-ending Nationwide Tour Championship when he collected eight birdies in a row during the first round.

"I got off to a slow start ... and it was just looking like one of those days where not much was going to happen," Sim said.

"I hit a good wedge shot on seven and birdied nine and then it just started flying from there."

"Early on the front nine I was kind of beating my head in a little bit, (it) just wasn't going to plan and like I said it came out of nowhere (so it's) great to be on top."

Scott started brilliantly with three birdies in his first five holes but three-putted his way to a double bogey at the 8th before late birdies at 16 and 18 vaulted him back into contention. Ogilvy, though, never really got going after an early bogey, eventually finished with three birdies against two bogeys.

Also within a handful of shots are Nick O'Hern (69) and Stuart Appleby (73), who started and finished with bogeys, while American John Daly did get to three under overall after 12 holes but three subsequent bogeys left him square with the card after a 72.