Gary Boyd moved to 17 under par and a share of the lead after an impressive opening 14 holes at the BMW Italian Open.
The Englishman followed up three birdies with an albatross two on the par five eighth to put him in the mix for the title.
Under par scores on 10 and 14 put him level with overnight leader Garth Mulroy, who was level par after three and Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño - who registered a birdie on the opening hole before following up with two pars.
Michael Hoey set the clubhouse target with a 65 taking him to 13 under par for the week.
Ryder Cup competitor Francesco Molinari matched Hoey's round as he heads to America in good form, while his captain José María Olazábal was another to sign off with a seven under par round.
Defending champion Robert Rock went two better with a 63 on the day he was given honorary membership of the golf club, and climbed to 10 under par as a result.
"It was a great way to finish," he told europeantour.com. "I was hoping for that sort of score yesterday to get me back in the tournament, but it's always nice to shoot nine under at any time.
"I should've really birdied the last for 10 under - that has a nice ring to it and I don't think I've shot 62 before. But I've made a decent move up the leaderboard and it's turned a poor week into an okay one.
"I played some really good golf today, so I'm very excited about things to come."
