Matt Wallace Maintains Position Atop Leaderboard at 2017 Italian Open

England's golf stars continued to impress at the 2017 Italian Open on Saturday as Matt Wallace kept his place atop the leaderboard on 17 under par, although compatriot Tyrrell Hatton sits only two strokes off the summit. 

Wallace led after Friday's second round and remains the man to beat heading into Sunday's finale, but birthday boy Hatton closed the gap and sits joint-second with home favourite Francesco Molinari after carding an impressive 65.

Even that score couldn't match the exploits of some other English stars, however, as Tommy Fleetwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick blitzed up the leaderboard with respective third-round scores of eight-under and seven-under.

Further down the field, world No. 15 Alex Noren goes into the fourth round sat joint-13th on 11-under and will require a mighty Sunday performance if he's to challenge for the title. 

The official European Tour Twitter account provided a look at the leaderboard's top contenders after three rounds:

Visit the official European Tour website for the full leaderboard.

Recap

Wallace played his worst round of golf at the 2017 Italian Open thus far on Saturday, but even a four-under-par 67 was sufficient to keep him out of the reach of his peers.

The Independent reported after his second round how the 125-1 outsider had surprised the odds to lead, but a largely safe round of golf comprising five birdies and one bogey ensured the advantage remains his to lose on Sunday.

Wallace bogeyed the par-three seventh hole for the second time in this tournament, as well as saving shots on the first, ninth and 14th, each of which he'd managed to take advantage of on Thursday and Friday also.

With only two shots distancing him from the competition and his scorecards gradually deteriorating, Wallace needed to avoid any late slips and just about managed to keep his lead following a shaky moment on the 18th:

The worrying trend for the 27-year-old is that while his cards are getting bigger by the day, Hatton has come on a lot since carding a 69 on Day 1 and shot six-under on Saturday, ending level with Italy native Molinari.

Hatton entered the Italian Open on the back of retaining the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last Sunday. He ended Day 3 with just the one bogey and birdied six of the opening nine holes, although he struggled to maintain that form on the backstretch, where he scored eight pars and one birdie.

Defending champion Molinari's 66 wasn't quite as eventful, but by sealing a late birdie on the 17th and failing to record a single bogey, he pulled level in second late on to give Italy a great chance of producing a home champion.

But neither of their rounds could compare with that of Fleetwood, the daring Englishman who saved shots on four of his last five holes to accelerate up the leaderboard with a Saturday score of 63:

The 26-year-old also snatched an eagle on the par-five ninth hole, as perfect conditions in Milan yielded another low score for the man from Southport.

Fitzpatrick also few a strong flag for England and moved up 29 places to joint-ninth after firing in five birdies and an eagle over the first 14 holes, keeping him five strokes off the summit with one round remaining.