Martin Laird leads by three as Francesco Molinari holes in one at Scottsdale

Scotland's Martin Laird will take a three-shot lead into the final round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Laird returned a three-under 68 at TPC Scottsdale but it was Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka who made the most ground on 'moving day' in Arizona.

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The Glasgow-born professional led by two from rookie Daniel Berger at the halfway stage, but his third round started in inconsistent fashion as his birdies at the third and fourth were cancelled out by a pair of dropped shots.

But Laird picked up strokes at the ninth, 11th and 13th to storm clear, adding a further birdie at the 17th after dropping another shot at the long 15th, where his drive found the water.

"Today was a little bit of everything," Laird said. "I hit some of my best shots and some of my worst. Obviously, I'm happy to extend my lead. I'm going to have to play better tomorrow."

Matsuyama charging

The pressure on his lead came from much earlier starters, and for a while it seemed like a Scottish one-two was on the cards as Russell Knox came storming through the field.

Knox had four birdies in five holes from the 13th - he started his round on the back nine - and picked up shots at the second and fourth, but he was only able to par in and ended up five shots off the pace despite a fine round of 66.

Even better scores came from Japanese star Matsuyama and Koepka, who are tied for second place with Zach Johnson on 10-under.

Matsuyama had the round of the day, an eight-under par 63, making a huge leap up the leaderboard thanks to five birdies in his last six holes.

Koepka was one shot off Matsuyama's pace but his back-nine was arguably more spectacular as he carded six of his seven birdies in an eight hole stretch from the 10th.

Perfect Molinari

Spanish amateur Jon Rahm, who is studying at Arizona State University, continued his sensational week to sit on nine-under, a round of 68 enough to put him in a tie for fifth with Ryan Palmer and Justin Thomas.

One stroke further back is Italy's Francesco Molinari, but he was definitely the winner of shot of the day as he holed in one, to the delight of tens of thousands of rowdy fans, at the legendary 16th hole. That perfect shot helped him match Koepka's round of 64.

Molinari is, like Knox, five off the pace with 18 holes to go in a group that also includes Berger, who had two birdies and two bogeys in a level-par 71, and the dangerous Bubba Watson and Ryan Moore.

Watch live coverage of the final round of the Phoenix Open on Sky Sports from 6:00pm on Sunday.