Australian Stephanie Kyriacou will not shy away from the nerves of winning a maiden major championship after ending an extended day three on top at The Amundi Evian Championship in France.

Kyriacou got up-and-down for birdie at the par-5 18th for a round of 4-under 67 to take the solo lead through 54 holes, her 14-under total one clear of Japan’s Ayaka Furue (70) and American Lauren Coughlin (65).

The 23-year-old from Sydney completed her second round on Saturday morning, went back for a 30-minute nap and then returned to Evian Resort Golf Club to take her place in the final group.

There was an early stumble out of the blocks with a bogey on one but the two-time Ladies European Tour winner responded immediately with three straight birdies to pull within one of Furue.

A two-shot swing at the par-4 11th saw Kyriacou join Furue in a share of the lead at 13-under, birdies at 15 and 18 ensuring her place at the front of the pack when she begins her final round at 6:36pm AEST.

“Obviously I know I’m in the lead, so that’s nice,” said the laconic Kyriacou, whose best finish in a major to date is a tie for seventh at the 2022 AIG Women’s Open.

“Being in contention on Sunday is not something – I don’t think I’ve been in contention in a major before, so it’s exciting.

“This is a different kind of nerves. Sometimes when you’re near the cut line you really want to make the cut, there is like a few thoughts there. This is completely different. Physical things like your heart rate goes up. You get a little bit numb. At least I do.

“It’s a different kind of nerves. It’s a good thing. It’s a good thing to experience.”

To manage those major nerves Kyriacou will lean on caddie Wei Wang and a mantra not fit for public consumption.

“It has swear words in it,” she revealed.

At its core though is a simple philosophy of staying in the moment and playing golf as she would any other day.

“Basically, if you didn’t give a crap about everything else, how would you play this?” Kyriacou expanded.

“Along those lines. That kind of gets me through it.

“Coming down the stretch here, I know it’s Saturday, but you still get nervous. He kind of just kept my head screwed on and just said like, I’m still playing golf. It’s the same as playing a practice round, the same as yesterday.

“Just trying to keep that perspective.”

Kyriacou was reminded of that mantra after three-putting the first and responded with a three-hole birdie barrage.

She described a five-foot par save on 14 as an “important one” and after trading a birdie on 15 with a bogey on 16 picked up a shot at the last to edge one clear.

A double-bogey on 11 was the only blight on Minjee Lee’s otherwise clean card in Round 3, the two-time major winner playing her way inside the top 20 with a round of 3-under 68.

Round 3 scores 1 Stephanie Kyriacou 66-66-67—199 T19 Minjee Lee 70-69-68—207 T35 Lydia Ko (NZ) 65-73-72—210 T49 Hannah Green 73-69-70—212 T55 Grace Kim 70-70-74—214 T63 Gabriela Ruffels 69-72-76—217 MC Sarah Kemp 75-71—146 MC Hira Naveed 75-73—148