Graeme McDowell wielded his putter like an offensive weapon to take a one-stroke lead over his 2014 Ryder Cup partner Victor Dubuisson into the final round of the Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers.

The 40-year old is one of the world’s best wind players but he’s also a great putter and showed that in impressive fashion on moving day by making a series of long bombs in a four-under 66 that gave him the slimmest of leads over Dubuisson on 12-under par.

“I always tell my kids we live in a nice house because daddy can putt, that's about the heart of it, really,” said a beaming McDowell, who could return to the world’s top 50 and seriously ignite his Ryder Cup qualifying campaign with a win.

"But the putter's been a little ice cold the last sort of two rounds, but I got it heated back up on the back nine today and I'm going to have to putt well to have a chance tomorrow. 

"Conditions were very tough today, so I’m very pleased with that back nine because I really felt like the back nine's played very difficult this week and to sneak a few birdie”

McDowell began the day just two shots behind Victor Perez, who suffered in the windy conditions coming down the stretch and dropped five shots in a six-hole stretch and slipped back to tied fourth after a 73.

It was the opposite for McDowell, who birdied the second, saved a miraculous par after overshooting the third and then recovered from a bogey at the eighth with another crucial par save at the ninth before storming home in four-under 31.

His impressive home run began when he made back-to-back 60 footers from off the green at the 12th and 13th, then stroked home a 15 footer at the next. He then saved par from 12 feet at the 15th before hitting a stunning, 181-yard approach to six feet at the last to set up a closing birdie four after driving into the hazard left.

"The putt at nine was massive," McDowell said. "I had just bogeyed eight, and the putter was cold. Those are kind of putts you look back at in a round and say, that was the one.

"But there were a couple more after that. Those are just massive Brucie Bonuses at that point. You can't expect to make those. But sometimes when the putter is cold, you make a bunch of them in a bundle and those putts on 12 and 13 were massive."

McDowell and Dubuisson formed a formidable partnership as part of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles in 2014, winning both of their foursome matches together.

They will be reunited for the final round on Sunday with both players looking to win on the European Tour for the first time in more than five years.

Dubuisson's last victory came at the 2015 Turkish Airlines Open and McDowell's in 2014, when he retained the Open de France title in Paris.

"We shared a car up to the course this morning, and I was chatting with him," McDowell said of Dubuisson, who has fallen to 478th in the world from a high of 15th five years ago.

"I always look out for him. Great experiences with him in 2014 at Gleneagles. Such a great guy. He hasn't had the best form the past few years and I am really happy to see him at the top of the leaderboard.

"I am looking forward to being with him tomorrow. It is going to be tough to try and play tough against him but we are both competitors and we will go out and do our job."

Dubuisson (29) shot the best round of the afternoon wave— a five-under 65 —after going back to an old set of TaylorMade irons.

"I didn't play really well in Abu Dhabi, I made the cut, but my golf was not very good," the Frenchman said. "Same as last year, I mean last year my golf was not very good, my long game was struggling, it's kind of my short game who gave me the opportunity to keep my card, but otherwise my golf was really bad.

"We had a long chat with my coach after Abu Dhabi because it was the first time he came to the whole tournament so he saw me play the whole four days and he said, It's not possible, your swing is good. Last year your swing was very good, it's not possible that you hit the ball like this.

"So I decided to take my old set of clubs that I was using two years ago from TaylorMade, and I found in my, how do you say, I found my game into the wind again, so I'm quite happy now.

"It will be a great day (playing with Graeme). We haven't played together since the Ryder Cup, so, yeah, I'm very happy to play with him tomorrow."

Malaysia's Gavin Green is three shots back on nine under par following a round of 70 with defending champion Dustin Johnson one of three players on seven under par alongside Italy's Renato Paratore (70) and France's Perez (73).

World No 1 Brooks Koepka and five-time Major champion Phil Mickelson will start six shots back on six under par after rounds of 65 and 68 respectively.

As for Shane Lowry, the Open champion is tied for 16th on four-under, just three shots outside the top five. He birdied the second and fourth but then bogeyed the sixth and eighth and double-bogeyed the par-three 11th before rallying with birdies at the 17th and 18th.

Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisers 

Royal Greens Golf and Country Club (Par 70)

Detailed scores

198 Graeme McDowell (Nir) 64 68 66,

199 V Dubuisson (Fra) 69 65 65,

201 G Green (Mas) 64 67 70,

203 V Perez (Fra) 65 65 73, R Paratore (Ita) 68 65 70, D Johnson (USA) 67 68 68,

204 B Koepka (USA) 70 69 65, T Detry (Bel) 73 66 65, P Mickelson (USA) 66 70 68,

205 R Fisher (Eng) 66 68 71, H Stenson (Swe) 65 70 70, J Smith (Eng) 71 67 67, I Poulter (Eng) 72 68 65, G Forrest (Sco) 73 66 66, A Wu (Chn) 71 66 68,

206 A Ancer (Mex) 69 70 67, T Pieters (Bel) 70 67 69, Shane Lowry (Irl) 69 67 70, A Arnaus (Esp) 65 74 67, M Pavon (Fra) 68 71 67,

207 M Schwab (Aut) 69 72 66, S Garcia (Esp) 69 68 70, B Hebert (Fra) 71 69 67, D Burmester (RSA) 71 68 68, F Laporta (Ita) 67 68 72, J Vegas (Ven) 65 71 71,

208 D Howell (Eng) 68 69 71, M Kieffer (Ger) 70 71 67, A Rai (Eng) 66 71 71, S Crocker (USA) 68 68 72, A Björk (Swe) 68 69 71, R McEvoy (Eng) 69 68 71, J Harding (RSA) 68 73 67, A Otaegui (Esp) 69 71 68, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 68 73 67, A Meronk (Pol) 68 70 70,

209 R Ramsay (Sco) 70 70 69, J Winther (Den) 69 68 72, A Levy (Fra) 69 70 70, C Syme (Sco) 69 71 69, M Wallace (Eng) 70 68 71, N Colsaerts (Bel) 69 69 71, F Zanotti (Par) 68 72 69, A Rozner (Fra) 72 68 69, S Kjeldsen (Den) 67 69 73, A Chesters (Eng) 73 67 69,

210 J Luiten (Ned) 67 72 71, R Fox (Nzl) 66 75 69, S Soderberg (Swe) 65 73 72, S Heisele (Ger) 70 69 71, A Sullivan (Eng) 66 71 73, S Brown (Eng) 71 70 69, J Janewattananond (Tha) 68 66 76, J Morrison (Eng) 69 68 73, M Kaymer (Ger) 73 64 73, L Herbert (Aus) 67 71 72, N Elvira (Esp) 72 66 72,

211 S Gallacher (Sco) 70 71 70, L Gagli (Ita) 73 66 72, J Walters (RSA) 71 65 75, K Samooja (Fin) 72 68 71, S Jamieson (Sco) 73 67 71, E Els (RSA) 72 69 70, J Senior (Eng) 71 69 71, M Antcliff (Aus) 70 69 72, H Li (Chn) 70 71 70, P Larrazábal (Esp) 69 68 74,

212 H Porteous (RSA) 72 67 73, M Kawamura (Jpn) 73 68 71, E Molinari (Ita) 71 69 72, R Cabrera Bello (Esp) 69 70 73, G Bhullar (Ind) 74 67 71,

213 N Bertasio (Ita) 72 69 72, M Kinhult (Swe) 67 68 78,

215 S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 67 70 78,

219 J Guerrier (Fra) 75 65 79.

• ROUND 1 : NO BAD TIMES

• ROUND 2 : Graeme McDowell 6 84 sec – (50); Jack Singh Brar 2 75 sec – (40)

• ROUND 3 : NO BAD TIMES