BRISBANE, Nov 17: Defending champion Robert Allenby shot a two-under par 70 in the third round of the Australian PGA Championship on Saturday to retain a one-stroke lead after a late slip by Peter Lonard.

Lonard was co-leader on 12-under par with Allenby after a bogey-free first 17 holes on Saturday but had a double-bogey six on the par-four 18th hole to slip to 10-under 206 after three rounds.

However, the 30-year-old bogeyed the 10th and 12th holes before picking up another birdie on the part-five 13th.

(A$1.00 = US$0.52)

Third round scores (Australian unless stated):

204 Robert Allenby 65 69 70

205 Geoff Ogilvy 71 66 68, Craig Parry 70 65 70

206 Peter Lonard 70 66 70

207 David Gleeson 70 69 68, Matthew Goggin 66 71 70

208 Gareth Paddison (New Zealand) 68 70 70, Nick O’Hern 68 70 70

209 Marcus Cain 68 73 68, David Diaz 71 68 70, Richard Lee (New Zealand) 68 67 74

210 Leigh McKechnie 71 70 69, Anthony Painter 70 68 72

211 Martyn Roberts 68 74 69, Tony Carolan 72 70 69, Grant Dodd 71 70 70, Peter McWhinney 69 72 70, Greg Chalmers 72 69 70, Brett Rumford 70 71 70, David Hill 71 67 73, Brad Kennedy 69 69 73

Other selected scores: 213 Greg Norman 68 73 72—Reuters